My Personal Challenge (a Sharing About Determination And Willpower)

This is not a sharing about medical, nutritional or exercise advice. Rather, It is a sharing about determination and willpower, traits which I believe all of us do need when doing our animal caregiving work and taking care of ourselves.

It is also a sharing about my own health. And disclaimer alert first: Every body (literally, “body”) is different and would have different needs, so always consult your healthcare professional for proper and suitable advice for your body.

On 10th June 2024, I booked an appointment for myself to check my bone density. Being female, menopaused and small-sized, I know I’m a candidate for osteporosis, so I had better get myself checked. It was done at a reputable hospital and since I was already there, I thought I’d just check my blood lipids, C-reactive protein and homocysteine levels as well. I know for a fact that I have always had high LDL due to family history and there had been nothing I could do about it, but I try to keep my HDL high (by doing walks) to offset it.

Well, my bone density wasn’t too bad, I’m at osteopenia, which is expected for my age and luckily, not osteoporosis yet. I’ll just have to get more sunshine for Vit D.

But what was shocking and unexpected was my lipid profile (totally horrible results) and while my C-reactive protein was normal, my homocysteine level was high. With the horrible lipid profile and the homocysteine level, the doctor placed me at “high risk of heart attack” and advised me to go on drugs to lower the horrible readings. My HDL also had tanked, though not dangerously but it wasn’t good enough for me. The worst was my triglycerides, never in my life had it ever been so high before and this, I know, was mostly due to food.

I was in shock.

But I already knew instantly what the culprit was and it’s all my own doing. I had been scrimping on my morning walks and I had been eating leftovers of unfinished food by others at home (because I don’t like to see food wastage, something ingrained since young). So, that’s unhealthy eating (too much carbohydrates and possibly, also sugar, since carbs reduce to glucose eventually). And consuming too much high-fructose fruits like apples and grapes, from (again) unfinished fruit and smoothies. “You are what you eat” rings true here. When we are young, we can still metabolise the carbs, but once age catches up and especially after menopause, everything slows down. We really, really have to watch what we eat now.

The first thing I did upon coming home was to update my will, get the witnesses to sign it, and take care of AnimalCare matters (hence, back to the no-succession plan). Next, I vowed to get back to daily exercising and go on a very strict low-carb, low-sugar diet.

I then consulted my nutritionist and pharmacist for more advice. From my experience, doctors will always prescribe medication (yes, I was told to go on statins immediately, which I refused) because they are trained to use medication. But my nutritionist will advise on food/diet while my pharmacist will advise on supplements (not drugs). But this time, two doctors, my nutritionist and my pharmacist all said I should consider going on statins because my blood test results were too horrible. But I still didn’t want to go on drugs.

Based on my horrible lipid profile, my nutritionist then advised me to get a liver ultrasound done to check for fatty liver. I did that and true enough, I have moderate fatty liver, which the doctor said was “normal” but my nutritionist said it wasn’t. Hence, he suggested that I do a liver flush, which I did.

The liver flush was amazing. I excreted triglyceride and cholesterol stones over two days. Right after that, I decided to get another blood test done at my regular GP to get a baseline so that I could monitor my blood profile regularly now, every 3 months. My intention was just to get a baseline to start on my low-carb, low sugar diet and exercise regimen.

So, the blood test was done at 18th June (1 day after the completion of the liver flush), and just 8 days after the first blood test. I did not expect to see any changes. Surely nothing can change in just 8 days. I had already started on krill oil (not medication) but it had only been 8 days. Any intervention usually requires 3 months before any change can be seen, right?

I was wrong. Something did change!!

My triglycerides came down from the horrible 2.74 to 0.9! My LDL which had always been high also came down significantly for the first time in my life!! I could not believe my eyes – is this really my blood test results??

Well, it was!

My doctor and pharmacist both asked what I did to get such results and I told them about the liver flush. Both were very interested to learn about it!

This “quantum leap” is all due to the liver flush, I know. Because exercise, supplements and diet will only show results (if any) after 3 months. I still have a long way to go in reducing my LDL further (if that can be done, since I have family history), raising my HDL and further reducing my HbA1c (predictor of diabetes, my father had Type 2 diabetes, hence, could be genetic). It’s challenging so that is when willpower and determination are much needed.

So now, I’m going to continue with my new strict diet (low-carb, low sugar), intermittent fasting 18:6 (not 16:8), my daily exercise regimen and a few more liver flushes! I can already see some results as I’ve lost weight! And I can actually get by with one meal per day for brunch, plus a much smaller healthy snack for lunner. After that, it’s all just drinking water.

And let’s hope I can live on for a few more years to see my cats through, my grandsons grow up and continue to run AnimalCare!

I wish everyone good health!!

Here are photos of some of my meals:

This is a ceramic GreenPan cookware.

I use the same principle as I do for my cats’ meals – in every 48 hours, I try and make sure it’s as balanced as it can be.

The portions above is for two humans, and the unfertilised eggs are from Kampung Harvest where the chickens are happily free-roaming and most importantly, not slaughtered even after they stop producing eggs. They get to live on until the end of their natural lives.

The post My personal challenge (a sharing about determination and willpower) appeared first on AnimalCare.

Source: https://animalcare.my/2024/06/29/my-personal-challenge-a-sha..

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