Food, Inglorious Food - Part III

Note: This is the third post in this series. For background, read Part I first.

Back to my three simple reasons for trying to eat a healthy diet:

1. Maintain my weight. See Part II of this series.
   
   
2. Manage my cholesterol. This is a tough one because here I'm fighting not only my own food preferences (ice cream is my all-time favorite) but also a pretty daunting genetic bequest.
   
   My dad and many of my paternal cousins have high cholesterol or high triglycerides (basically a form of fat in the blood) or both, and an excess of either is not a happy thing. Problems with cholesterol and triglycerides are associated with heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, none of which I aspire to have.
   
   One of the drugs I take, Arimidex, can increase cholesterol, so between that and my genetic makeup, I'm already at a deficit before I sit down to breakfast, let alone dessert. And while there are blockbuster anti-cholesterol drugs out there, my personal pharmacy is already larger than I'd like, and I have no intention of adding to it without a fight.
   
   That means tackling the problem on my own.
   
   Although exercise also plays a role, the main way to combat high cholesterol and triglycerides is through diet: more fiber, less fat, fewer carbs (including sugar and alcohol). Since I was due for a physical and cholesterol check anyway, and because this is, after all, Breast Cancer Self-awareness Month, I tried a little experiment.
   
   For the entire month, I adopted an austerity diet: nothing fried, no sugar, no junk or processed foods.
   
   There's still one day to go, but I can already claim success. For one thing, I haven't slipped up at all despite the fact that this month has presented multiple challenges to my willpower: jury duty, a late night in the emergency room with my dad, a dinner party featuring Zach's homemade ginger cake with caramel-brandy sauce, walking past a brand-new ice-cream shop on an unaccountably warm October night, a backyard film screening complete with movie-candy classics (Milk Duds! Junior Mints!), and Halloween candy at every turn, not to mention the lesser temptations that come with being stressed and overworked in a city where unhealthy food beckons from every newsstand, bodega, and take-out place in sight.
   
   But even better than the satisfaction of making it through the month with my dietary chastity intact is the fact that the bloodwork from my mid-month physical was completely normal, down to and including my cholesterol and triglycerides.
   
   My diet still leaves a great deal to be desired: too few meals eaten at home, some recent backsliding on all the progress I'd made toward replacing simple carbs with whole-grain alternatives, not as many veggies as I'd like. And I have to figure out the exercise piece of the puzzle.
   
   But for the moment, my willpower and I have reason to celebrate.
   
   Care to join us in a sugar-free, non-alcoholic toast?