Annual Physical follow up.

First let me just state that I am currently on medication for 2 things.  High cholesterol and high blood pressure.  To me, they are both the results of poor food choices and insufficient healthy activity.  Here I'll cover what my stats were back in April and what they are now.

                                         April                 January
Weight                              197lbs                177lbs (their scale)

Blood Pressure                 140/96                126/80

Total Cholesterol                 164                     197

HDL (Good Cholesterol)      43                       56

LDL (Bad Cholester            111                     120

My goal is and has been to get off this medication and just be healthy with food and only food.  My Dr appeared to be pleased with what they have me down as a 20lb weight loss (actually my scale has me at 23lbs).  He was happy with the normal range blood pressure.  Also happy with my good cholesterol going up (25% might I add).  Not so happy that my bad cholesterol went up or my total cholesterol went up.  Why might you ask?  I wish I knew.  Probably because I have other people in my gene pool that have some unhealthy habits and have high cholesterol.  Due to that I believe he thinks its a "genes" thing.  I don't.

How do I stack up in the real world?  Lets see shall we?  This is one of MANY cholesterol calculators out there, but they have all pretty much told me the same thing.

http://www.hughcalc.org/chol.php

From what I can see, I'm healthy.  However, my Dr doesn't want me to stop taking medication.  He instead said I could lower my dosage from 80mg to 40mg for the cholesterol meds.  My BP meds are 10mg (very small dosage).  I'm going to cut my cholesterol pills in half and take them like that.  I'll try and do the same with the BP meds, but if I can't then I simply won't take them and I'll periodically check my BP to make sure it remains normal.  Take it when my kids aren't around for the best possible hope for success.  lol  

Next appt is in July.  I've got 6 months to lose what I think will be at least another 10lbs (my wife won't agree) and get off the drugs forever.  I'm here to prove Drs wrong and show that good health starts with me and my choices.  Thanks Doc for more motivation.