Quinoa Vs LDL--The Smackdown

I went to the gym today to walk and afterward I weighed myself. Blah. I've gained back all the weight I lost in the spring when I changed my diet in an effort to lower my cholesterol. Blah. It was a summer of vacations, and traveling and eating, eating, eating--my favorite pastime.

So, I just came home from the market with cantelope, watermelon, pears, apples, Brussels sprouts, spinach, portobello mushrooms, yams, jicama, humus and quinoa. My diet this week will be wholesome. No chili dogs.

This summer I was riding the train back to D.C. from New York when I heard a lady talking in the seat behind mine and she mentioned that she had lowered her cholesterol to 40. Yes, f-o-r-t-y. I knelt on my seat, peered over the top, and begged her pardon for the interruption, but I couldn't help being astounded at her feat. She was much older than me, but she, too, really didn't want to go on meds. So she did it by not eating any animal products for a month. She decided to try it for a just a month. I said that I didn't think I could face life with no bacon ever again, and she laughed and said she didn't say she was a vegetarian, she just was not eating animal products for a little while. So far, it had been quite a few months (I forget the exact amount). She's lost weight and her cholesterol has plummeted.

I don't think I could eat without using milk, however. But, I can cut way back on several things. One of the foods she eats in order to get enough protein is quinoa. It is a grain from the Andes. I've seen it for years in the bulk bins in the markets where they have bulk bins. I only learned how to pronounce it a little while ago. But read about here. It looks easy enough to cook, and if it is anything like short grain brown rice, barley, or oatmeal, I'm going to love it. I love all those other grains.

So, grains and fruit and walking everyday at the gym on the treadmill. It's still rather hot here, and--I've discovered another reason why I'll walk at the gym and not around my neighborhood. When I walk around the neighborhood, I tend to hurt myself because the sidewalks are not even. Every house has a cut out where the driveway is, or tree roots have lifted the sidewalk, so I find myself walking with my head down to watch out for uneven surfaces, or I turn my foot on the bumps. I'm such a spaz...So, I just take the newspaper and read it on the treadmill and then I hardly notice that the 30 minutes have passed.

Well, this is the plan. Only time will tell if I can execute it. I'm just so sick of the big glob of fat around my midsection. I also want to be able to go to my doctor in a couple of months for another blood test and be triumphant that I've knocked the points off the stupid cholesterol test--without the pill. If I can't, then I'll have to take the meds because everything I've read about it tells me I shouldn't mess around--I'll have a stroke. I'd rather have a steamed yam and a nice salad of steamed Brussels sprouts with tomatoes in vinaigrette.