I Improved my Cholesterol in 6 Months...Lessons Learned Along The Way

Last September I went in for my routine wellness check with my Primary Care Physician. Though I had just lost a substantial amount of weight (you can click here to read more about those lessons learned), I was shocked to see my bloodwork results showed high cholesterol - specifically LDL- and moderately increased triglycerides.

Needless to say, I wasn’t thrilled with those results and the conversation with my PCP ended with “you have 6 months to work on it your way before we work on it my way”.

Honestly, I need that level of honesty from my Doc and respect the hell of our her for throwing down the gauntlet.

Here’s the initial results from September 2023. Though these numbers aren’t ‘the worst’ my PCP has seen, for someone my age, and health goals, there was some big room for improvement.

So, 6 months later the final check in has been done. Check out the results below.

Almost a 20 point total Cholesterol improvement and a serious drop in my LDL. Huge!

I’ve got to say, I’m proud of the results. A lot of work went in to achieving the results. By ‘a lot of work’ I mean “I found a lot of strategies that work for me”. Though I am aware that strategies can largely be unique to the person they work for, I have found it helpful to share the general strategy in articles like this so that you, the lovely reader, can extrapolate the concept in to your own health goals.

1) Work with a true blue expert. Though I work in ‘health’ as a Personal Trainer, nutrition is not my expertise. Yes, I know enough, yes I can help others with general strategies…I opted to work with a Registered Dietitian who specializes in this area. It was a phenomenal choice on my end and Amy with No Diet Dietitian has been amazing in ‘coaching’ my habits alongside my lifestyle and overall goals. I was never given a meal plan (didn’t want one), and she worked with me as an individual. I can’t recommend this enough, especially since most insurance fully covers this service!

2) Create accountability in any way you can. I did this in two different ways, with the first one being specifically outlined in this point. Before I left my PCPs office, I booked a follow up bloodwork test for 90 days. By giving myself a deadline that I had to show up to, with the results being immediately sent to RD Amy, I knew I would ‘try’. Having a goal is great, having accountability for that goal is magic.

3) Focus on one goal at a time. When improving elements of your health, there are countless ‘low hanging fruit’ to start with. You can improve nutrition, nightly sleep, limit alcohol consumption, exercise more, increase step count, I think you catch my drift here. What I urge most everyone to do is slow roll your goals. Start with one and focus on it for a month. For me, my first goal was to improve my nutritional choices, I was working with my RD and I spent the first 30 days just dialing in the food alongside my lifestyle.

4) Outsource anything that required a decision - in this case, exercise. In the second month -November 2023- I hired a Personal Trainer, to work with online, to remove all decision fatigue centered around exercise. I have been working with my guy John Moljo of Team Moljo Strength and Conditioning ever since and it has been the most consistent with exercise I have ever been. Outside of a few ‘sick days’, I don’t think. I have missed a workout since Thanksgiving week.

5) Make your goals known to everyone in your house. The biggest barrier for most Parents is navigating a household alongside your goals. I made it known to my wife, and even my oldest, that I was going to be trying really hard to ‘help my body’. I outlined some of my strategies with my wife and we talked about how she could help me along the way, and we also outlined a few strategies that worked well for us - specifically ordering groceries for pick-up twice a week. Shout out to my wife for picking up groceries after work! It’s very cool when something that is important to you is known to your family and they want to help you in anyway they can.

As mentioned, there are so many ways to help your health. I hope that the points shared above help churn the wheels in your head on how you can help yourself reach the goals you have for yourself!