various updates

[erastes]

1. Sherlock episode 3

Loved it. Was almost back to the form of episode one. Trouble is episode one was so staggeringly good it’s going to be impossible to top.  I need to watch all three episodes again now to get them to mesh together, as with the eyes, I haven’t been paying as much attention as I should be.

There’s not one bad thing I can say about, to be honest. I admit that I don’t get the level of dislike some people have—citing racism and gender issues. Perhaps I haven’t noticed them because I’m English?  Or perhaps it’s because it’s an A.U. Fantasy, and I don’t expect realism from something with dragon ladies and Sherlock Holmes in the 21st century. I am not the type of person who tuts tuts over potatoes in Lord of the Rings for example. (Believe me, I had a huge row with someone about this once.)

2. Blood Tests: The doctor rang with results today (they came back yesterday, which is pretty speedy! 24 hrs!) and I must be hugely annoying to him as I’m not in imminent danger of death despite my weight. He must be well miffed. My cholesterol is 6,5 mmol/L = slightly elevated, my blood sugar is slightly higher than it was in hospital (now 7.6) so he wants to take a glucose tolerance test now – which means taking a blood test, eating a couple of Mars Bars (this will not be a problem) and then having another test in 2 hours. This will help to indicate whether I’m diabetic, but if I am, he says I’m at the onset of it at the moment, and it’s something treatable, which is Good.

Does anyone have a link(s) for a good cholesterol diet or tips? I don’t actually cook much. I grill, or nuke in general. So recipes aren’t going to be much good. Swapping Olive Oil for butter is easy, I can do that, and I can eat more fruit and porridge, but any other places anyone knows? Everything I’ve found costs money on line if i want more than just tips.

3. Received a huge bag of Sainsbury’s teabags from Charlie Cochrane – THANK YOU DEAR. and a box of nesting ninjas from Chris Smith. By the way, she’s getting married TOMORROW so pop over to her LJ or blog and wish her condolences good luck. You’ve got to love someone who sends you something like this – just to cheer you up!

Comments

[dorian-pink.livejournal.com]

http://www.heartuk.org.uk/
It's a cholesterol charity, so they have lots of tips and recipes. I've got mine down from a frankly terrifying 8 to a much less scary 5.9 using just diet, so it can be done!

[ali-wilde.livejournal.com]

The ninjas are all kinds of awesome. I've never seen anything like them. An excellent way to cheer someone up, I agree.

[tiggothy.livejournal.com]

They've all got different weapon sets!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

yes! and the little one is asleep!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

LOL - Love your icon!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

very useful - thank you - and well done, you!

[beckyblack]

My cholesterol came down (last measured at 4.2) thanks to eating bacon, butter, lard, meat with the fat NOT cut off, mayo, cheese... :D I'm on Atkins. It's fantastic for cholesterol as well as weight loss and blood pressure and blood sugar. And it beats eating rice cakes.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Unless, like me, you're a vegetarian. In which case it sucks! (I know Erastes isn't - I'm just still bitter about it :) )

[beckyblack]

Vegetarians can do Atkins, though vegans would have a harder time! There are other low carb plans that are more popular with vegetarians, like South Beach. I'm an Atkins evangelist, don't get me started.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Those ninjas are amazing :) How can they be so cute?!

I haven't noticed people disliking Sherlock, but I'll have to go and find out now!

This looks useful:
http://www.gicare.com/diets/low-cholesterol-diet.aspx

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

I thought it was pretty much eggs, cheese, or nothing. But I won't get you started - I'll look up the South Beach diet instead :)

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

Cholesterol: Top 5 foods to lower your numbers

Replacing my old breakfast of bacon, fried eggs, and toast with a bowl of oatmeal and fruit has lowered my cholesterol considerably. Fiber is important in terms of lowering your numbers.

If you're microwaving meals much of the time, read the labels and try to pick healthier options. In general, processed foods/meals are going to have a lot of sodium, fat, and cholesterol in them, but there are companies that sell healthier options now.

I roast loads of veggies at the beginning of the week because then I can heat them up at will, eat them raw in things like couscous salad, or turn them into soup. I also find it incredibly convenient to make a big vat of lentils with veggies or veggie soup for later reheating because that's easier than having to prepare a new lunch every day. I generally freeze half of every vat of soup I make in individual containers; that way, I can put one on the counter or in the fridge to defrost in time for the next day's lunch or dinner.

Snacking: Don't reach for the Mars bar every time. Embrace fruit and vegetables! (I say this cheerfully now; in the beginning, I would have much preferred a Milky Way bar. One can get used to anything.) ETA: Nuts and seeds are great for snacks.

Portion-controlled servings of lean meat, fish (not fried), fresh produce, and whole grains—if you can figure out how to incorporate more of these into your diet, you'll be on your way.

[ali-wilde.livejournal.com]

Thank you.
Pengys rule!!

[beckyblack]

People eat way more veggies on Atkins than most people think. They're one of the staples of the diet.

[liebesdammerung.livejournal.com]

People care about the fact that there were potatoes in LotR? Wow. How can they be sure, anyway? loll.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

A friend of mine with heart trouble and no insurance was given this book by her doctor: Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, by Caldwell b. Esselstyn, Jr, MD, published by Penguin. Esselstyn's a doc at the Cleveland Clinic, one of the top cardiac research hospitals.. and he eats this way himself. Dr. Dean Ornish has some similar books--he was the first doc to prove you could reverse heart disease with diet and behavior changes. When my dad was first diagnosed in the 60's, there was no hope at all. I have a copy of one of the Ornish books around and will send it next week.

A lot of this diet is just common sense--fiber, vegetables--but it's extreme in that you use NO oils at all. But there are still recipes for things like blueberry muffins and ginger cookies... it's not cardboard-and-rocks. And the medical rationale for the changes he recommends is top-notch. I haven't tried the whole thing yet because it is an extreme change, and difficult to implement, but I've been incorporating some changes, a little at a time.

btw, my friend's been on the diet for about 6 months. She says the first month is terrible, but she got used to cooking for herself and her cholesterol and blood pressure went down considerably... and she notices a change in wellbeing when she's in a situation where she has to eat commercial food.

Some recipes here:
http://www.heartattackproof.com/recipes.htm

The sweet potato/shiitake soup sounds like I need to try it..

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

I suspect that the questionable rep Atkins has (I've read of people getting into troubl on it), the problem occurs when people who don't want to eat the veggies just latch onto the "eat lots of meat and forget the carbs" idea. And that is trouble.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

ps -- it strikes me that you did say 'no recipes.' But the thing about improving one's health through diet... it means you have to start caring for yourself and taking time to give your body good food... doing as well for yourself as you would for your dad, for instance.

DO take care of yourself, hon. You are important to a lot of people in this weird world.

[beckyblack]

It's constantly misrepresented - after all, it's a threat to some very big vested interests!

Most people on the normal diet in the US or UK would end up eating more vegetables if they switched to Atkins!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

They are very cute indeed.

There's a few people on my flist who have issues with it--which strikes me as rather daft for reasons cited above. I suppose I've never ever once taken the gender or colour of protags and characters into consideration. I always knew I preferred male characters, but I assumed that's because I was raised on a diet of David Copperfield, Oliver Twist and Jim Hawkins. It would be hard to put women into SH other than "love interest" or "villain" after all. I suppose they COULD have made Lestrade a woman, but I was too delighted to see who was playing him to care.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky in as much that I don't have a sweet tooth and the biscuit/sweet aisle is one I never go down, savouries are my downfall. However, looking at the "recommended foods" on the heart health site it looks like I'm going to be OK (and probably the reason why my cholesterol level isn't already through the roof) because I love grains and bread and pasta and fish and eat a lot of them. I just need to cut the butter and cheese out! Thank you so much!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Well I know they were mentioned - Sam complains at the lack of them on the march to Mordor, when they have fish and he says he'd love to make chips. But then I don't believe that it's England. The Geography is wrong for a start!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Thank you dear, very kind! Another consideration is cost - sweet potatoes/shitake would be entirely out of my price range. But I can make a few good changes without going broke I think.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

My problem is that I don't much like vegetables and I particularly hate cooking. So calorie counting is easy for me, but anything that involves preparing raw vegetables is not. It involves a significant increase of effort at an activity I hate - cooking - with the result that I will end up eating food I don't like.

[beckyblack]

It definitely involves more cooking from scratch than before. I'm used to it now, but I do prepare stuff ahead on the weekend to save time during the week.

[cerisaye.livejournal.com]

There’s not one bad thing I can say about, to be honest. I admit that I don’t get the level of dislike some people have—citing racism and gender issues. Perhaps I haven’t noticed them because I’m English? Or perhaps it’s because it’s an A.U. Fantasy, and I don’t expect realism from something with dragon ladies and Sherlock Holmes in the 21st century..)

OMG I am SO glad you think the same as I do about this! To be honest I feel sorry for people who take everything so seriously (and personally) they can't simply enjoy a well-made, pitch-perfectly performed, cleverly contemporary yet reverential adaptation without feeling obligated to tear into its makers for perceived failings in terms of gender, race, sexuality, and so on...and on. Sigh. Such joylessness. Is it because UK TV now attracts a sizeable overseas fandom audience due to downloads/torrents that we now get this level of scrutiny?

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Hm. Sweet potatoes are common around here, and we always buy shiitake dried (aka, cheap) at the Asian foodstore--$4 for a 5-ounce bag, which lasts for months.

I hadn't thought about how complicated this may be with you being out in the boonies... no shortage of oatmeal, I presume! I could mail dried shrooms--it's a sealed bag--but I suspect Customs would draw the line at Spuds on a Plane.

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Maybe you could encourage your offspring to do dinners a la Chez Cochrane? It can be a good career, and if you get to eat the homework...

I used to hate cooking until I got together with my wife. She's just appreciates it so much that I got over my aversion to "women's work."

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I don't know - it baffles me. It's like i imagine these people to be using a calculator when a new show comes on: "ok - the national gay average is x percent so we need a gay character, and an asian one, and two women for every man...." and so on. Why must everything be so PC? If we are going to start with finger pointing, let's start with Eastenders shall we??

gah! they should just enjoy the script and the chasing and the PRETTY Sherlock!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Oh we have all this stuff, it's not hugely dear - it's just beyond my finances. I can cook, if i can be arsed, i've just got out of the habit. Need to get organised and make a big tub of nice soup (yay - i can has nice bread!) for the week and that sort of thing.

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Those ninjas are awesome.

No advice on diet, though. I just live on whatever my organic delivery people bring me.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Wow - that's impressive!

[ejab62.livejournal.com]

About the cholesterol. A friend of mine had diabetes and decided to eat according to http://www.carbohydrateaddicts.com/cabooks.html (The Heller couple) and she's diabetes free!

Been looking into it myself (cause I'm a severe carbohydrate addict) but the only thing that's holding me back (read their book, did the test and it really *is* a very sane and healthy approach) is that it requires selfdiscipline (suck at that) and being umeployed, it's too expensive.

Check it out and see for yourself what you think.

[countrygirlxxoo.livejournal.com]

Diet advice: cut out the processed meats such as bologna, hot dogs, etc. and go for lean cuts like ham, roast beef, and turkey. When you make chicken and/or turkey, strip the skin and all the fat pieces off and bake them in the oven. Certain cuts of pork (just look for the ones that don't have much fat or marbling) are also lower in fat/cholesterol than chicken, turkey, and beef. They (both the chicken and the pork) are surprisingly good with barbeque sauce or spicy brown mustard as a coating and baked in the oven with some garlic powder, pepper, and a smidge of salt and you only have to spray the pan with a little Pam/spray oil. If you have to use regular oil, use olive oil or canola oil. They are the best ones for your heart. You don't have to get extra virgin olive oil (the more expensive one) either unless you want to make a vinaigrette...just get the cheapest olive oil. Also, get a can of the spray oil like Pam (I get the cheap store brand) to use. The spray helps cut down on the fat a lot as opposed to using regular oil. Also, watch your condiments. Go for ketchup or mustard. There's no fat/cholesterol in those. Mayo and creamy salad dressings have a lot of fat. If you eat Mayo, look into getting something like Miracle Whip lite or lite mayo. Miracle Whip (or similar salad dressing type spreads) have a lot less fat/cholesterol right off the bat than mayo does, and if you get the lite version that's even less. If you're desperate, you can try the fat free mayo, but personally I would rather do without than eat that stuff. Some fat free salad dressings are not too bad. I like the fat free Italian myself. Just watch the sugar content in some. It's really high in French, Thousand Island, etc. Also, if you eat potato chips, cheetos, and stuff like that, switch to popcorn. You can get the microwave stuff close to fat free (like 94 or 90-something percent fat free). And if you make it yourself from bags of kernels, you can get a hot air popper, microwave it in paper grocery bags with no oil, or just make it on the stove with the least amount of oil as possible. I can make about 8 cups of popcorn with about 1-2 tablespoons of oil (depending on the pot you use). The regular microwave bags have about twice that amount. Also, the oil they use in the microwave bags is usually some kind that is not as heart healthy as olive or canola oil. You can also control the amount of salt you use as well if you make it yourself. Just make it in a big pot, but use a piece of aluminum foil with a bunch of holes poked in it instead of a regular pot lid. This lets the steam escape and makes for a light, fluffy, and crunchy popcorn and not tough chewy kernels (which you get if you use a regular pot lid). Also, when you eat out at Chinese/Thai/Japanese places, get tofu instead of regular meat. It's a good source of protein with no cholesterol in and of itself and it takes on the flavors of whatever it's cooked with so it's actually pretty good. Chocolate has a lot of fat in it as well. Not all fat is bad though. Vegetable fats are better than meat/dairy fats except for the ones that say partially hydrogenated (this turns them into trans fats). Those are bad. What you have to look out for is the trans and saturated fats. Keep those as low as possible. Most fish fats are good for you. Stay away from tropical oils such as palm and coconut oils. That's all I can think of right now.

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

Organic boxes (and now Graze boxes at work) have really made me think about what I eat and how I prepare it. This week I'm mostly concentrating on things that go with coleslaw (glut of carrots and cabbage), although I did just finish off the haloumi bought in from elsewhere for my visiting ex-gf who doesn't do cow's milk products, and I bought an extra lettuce and some nectarines from the summer fair down the road.

[ruth-sims.livejournal.com]

My doctor says the cholesterol you eat has very little effect on your blood cholesterol. The problem is when your body makes too much of it, and it's usually a hereditary thing. That's why statins work so well. They help regulate what your body does. He's a young doctor so either (a) he's up the latest (b) he's inexperienced and doesn't know what he's talking about.

The one ingredient you really need to watch is "trans-fat" and "partially hydrogenated" oil. Or maybe they're called something else there.

Glad you seem to be feeling better. I haven't gotten back through all your recent posts yest. I'm assuming that in one of them you say what caused your eye problems in the first place. I always read backwards.

[ruth-sims.livejournal.com]

I mean... up ON the latest... but the other might be true to. He's really cute.

[bunnytrouble.livejournal.com]

If it all goes pear-shaped for me in the future, you could adopt me? I cook A LOT. So yeah, I will make lots of vegetarian food and maybe a nice cake on yer birthdee if yer good : )

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Sounds good to me - I'll pack up the cats and be on my way!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

No clue on whatis causing the eye problems yet, they are monitoring and i'm going back tomorrow for another check up to see what--if anything has changed. It's horrible looking in the mirror, because i can make my eyeslookin two different directions! Yuk. However, I can focus on one thing now, but it's an act of will, not reflex.

No-one's mentioned statins to me, I assume they are in things like these cholestorol lowering spreads? The doctor has offered no advice at all (which is no surprise, he's an arse) just said "we'll do more blood tests in a month."

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Excellent, thank you! I went out for lunch today and had vegetable soup with brown bread, and then a bagette (white, i'm afraid, next time I'll ask) with butter (again, lesson learned, I'll ask for no butter) with lovely lean turkey. But it came with home made crisps and a huge pile of coleslaw. Both of which I had to leave. :( But it's good to be aware!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

i will - thank you! discipline is not my friend, either!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

There aren't even veg boxes around here, which is STUPID considering I'm surrounded by farms. I'd love to go organic, it's cost that stops me, sadly.

[bunnytrouble.livejournal.com]

I will have to come and live with you. But I promise I will not bring any traffic cones or cause any trouble, Guv.

[aunty_marion]

Sweet potatoes aren't all that expensive. I get them at the Co-op when I fancy them, and a bag of three or four is not breaking-the-bank pricey (don't remember the actual price, though!). But I tend to eat them roasted like jacket spuds rather than using them as an ingredient in other things.

[aunty_marion]

I've heard that about the cholesterol, too. My best friend's husband's father had high cholesterol, and his mother insisted that he should be tested too, as he's a 'meat and two meat' kind of person, barely eats any veg, loves his fry-ups ... and his turned out to be low.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Too expensive for me, I'm afraid. Seriously. if Tescos don't do a "value" version, I can't buy it.