Rednesday & the Fight for Good Cholesterol

What a beautiful REDnesday. I planted annuals over the weekend, so I have a few red splashes in my garden today.

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There's a beautiful New Guinea Impatiens in the hanging box on my front deck. It does have a coating of pollen (which cannot be helped these days!) And in the front driveway bed, here are some red Verbena.

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The other red thing I want to share today is my favorite cooking pot. I bought it last year when I had my first International student; she had a boiled egg every morning. I've found that it's the perfect size for my shrinking family. It's boiled many eggs and single or double servings of veg since then. And lately, it's found a new occupation. It's my morning oatmeal pot.

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As I mentioned on Friday, my doctor told me that my cholesterol was high. Then he mentioned medications!

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I hate the thought of adding a bottle of cholesterol meds to my nightstand next to my throid medication. Next thing you know, my dentures will be in the tupperware container with my hearing aid on top and empty prune juice glass beside it! And following that will be loud snoring while I sleep and drool dripping onto my pillow and waking with crusty stuff in the corners of my eyes!

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"Nooooo!" I cry unbelieveingly!

I'm young! I'm much too young!"

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Enter Doris the Great! Defender of this sacred temple of the Most High God! And now her resume can list another superpower -- Unrecognized Cholesterol Scholar!

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High cholesterol is known as the silent killer: you don't have any warning signs but must have blood work done to know that it's there. If it goes undetected and untreated, it can lead to heart disease and stroke.

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High cholesterol is easily controlled with diet, and the negative effects can even be reversed. It's your basic healthy diet.

• Lots of veg and fruit (which contain no cholesterol!)
  
• Hold the red meat and bring on the chicken & fatty fish (full of omega-3)


• Eliminate bad fat -- trans and sats -- at least until those levels are down! (And no more living like I have been for the past 2 months ... full-fat ice cream, trifle, all that butter on my popcorn. Naughty Sandy!)


• Exercise (At last! One thing that I'm already doing right!)


• Supplements such as Omega 3 fish oil capsules, B complex, chromium (Phew! I re-started taking those about 3 weeks ago!)


• And finally, the nemsis of high cholesterol - OATMEAL! The Quaker Oats people describe it as this: "Think of rolled oats as tiny sponges that soak up cholesterol and carry it from your body".
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(Now, if only they could find some little sponges to carry all those nasty fat cells from our body. And if only those sponges tasted like chocolate. Get back to work food scientists! )

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Doris the Great is proactive, people! She looks high cholesterol in the face and laughs heartily! "Ha ha!!!" Armed with her trusty sidekick "Google", she is a superwoman in the know! Donning her full-figured underwire bra" and her support hose (and a cover-up because she doesn't want to scare the children), she hefts her cereal bowl and soup spoon aloft and says.

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"Yes!

This crappy aging stuff sure is educational!

And mighty tasty too!"