Vitals
Weight: 194.1 pounds
Chol: 199 mg/dL
Trig: 210 mg/dL
HDLC: 37 mg/dL
Chol/HDLC Ratio: 5.4 H
LDL: 120 mg/dL
Non-HDLC: 162 mg/dL

Goals
Changing my way of eating last October I have already experienced the benefit of a whole-plant diet. The biggest change to date has been the 23 pounds I have dropped. That by just changing my diet, I had not been including exercise in the program. My blood results confirm a 64 point drop in cholesterol, a percentage my physician said I would never see. From this point on I want to drop my weight to 175 pounds, while increasing my daily exercise and seeing a further drop in my cholesterol to a total of 150 mg/dL.

Health
I feel like I cheated by giving myself a 2-month period in which to get acclimated to this way of eating. I am glad I did give myself this time frame as I now have a better understand of this lifestyle change. As I official begin ‘Day 1’ I have that nasally feeling I am getting a head cold, hopefully that isn’t the case. In general I am in good health, previous problems I had with ongoing migraine headaches have subsided and the weight loss has helped with my foot problem.

I am currently on no prescribed medication, as I took myself off my Lovastatin back in August, 2011, one month after my physical because I did not like the side effects and didn’t want to depend on medication for the rest of my life. While I haven’t consulted my physician yet I am planning on doing that as soon as I can get in, which will probably be during this first week on the program.

Exercise
Walking 20 minutes at work
Rowing 30 minutes on a Bowflex Revolution

Breakfast
Slice of whole wheat oat bread
1 1/2 cup oatmeal with honey
Decaffeinated green tea

Lunch
The “OLT” or onion, lettuce, tomato sandwich with black bean spread on whole wheat pita bread.
Cup of potato leek soup (leftover from a few nights ago)

Snack
Bowl of couscous salad (containing red onion, tomato, cucumber and apple cider vinegar)

Dinner
Bean & Vegetable Chili
Slice of whole wheat oat bread

Daily Synopsis
Not much of a change for me from my daily routine seeing that I have been eating this way since October. I did have to break my 30 minute workout into three 10 minute sessions. Hopefully as I move forward during the remaining days I will be able to break it into two 15 minute session or even going the full 30 minutes. I will also need to add a snack during the morning.