I’ve been a bit absent ~ I apologize! The past 2 weeks have been busy.  One week I was spending lots of time with the kids during their last week of summer break, and this past week was their first week back!  I imagined that I would have loads of “free” time…and with the girls at school I did, but I ended up doing a bunch of things both in and out of the home that left me with not a lot of blogging time [or too tired at the end of the day to write something coherent!].

My girls and I after a long day of rides and nature hiking!

So what did we do?  On the last week of vacation we visited the local pool 4 different days!  At the start of the week we took a trip to a local little amusement park where the girls rode lots of fun rides and we enjoyed a nice day of sunshine.  That afternoon we also hit a local wildlife sanctuary next door to the park.  It was a fun filled day [and we were all exhausted!].  The only thing that would have made it better was if Dave could have joined us.  But alas, the week before school starts for a guy who administers the whole university’s ID card system is a busy time! :)

Back to school! [a bittersweet day for me]

And last week I …

• Did great working out each morning! [30 Day shred levels 2 or 3 & running + ab work]
• Canned 27 jars of green beans
• Held our first mom’s group meeting
• And finally… scheduled and went in for my follow up cholesterol test!

A refresher on this last one… In May I went into the dr. for a cough that wouldn’t die and my Dr. was a new-to-me Dr., so he and I chatted a bunch about my medical history, health, etc.  Because I have a history of high cholesterol [hereditary] and it had been awhile, he ordered a lab test just to see where I was at.  So I went and it came back at 230.  I received a call from his nurse a week later saying that the Dr had reviewed my test and due to my age wanted me to … start on meds. :(   I think she could tell that this option did NOT thrill me!  She said that if I wanted, I could take 3 months to work on my diet, etc and see if I could make some changes and retest in 3 months.

Since I was already planning to start the Jillian Michaels Body Revolution the next week, I told her that I would do that.  The Body Revolution was 3 months which meant that a cholesterol retest would fall right after I finished with it!  As you may have seen from my last post, I worked hard all summer and lost 13 lbs and lots of inches.

So Fri I went in and here are the results!

(#’s in () are recommended levels. Oh and my
triglycerides are just fine, that has never been an issue.)

I was quite pleased to see the difference!  While my total is still over the “bad” limit, I was so excited to see the difference.  I was pretty sure that based on the inches I lost around my abdomen [where high cholesterol people tend to carry it] that I would see a positive difference.  And because I still have more “padding” ;-) that I could lose to slim down and lower my body fat %, I’m hoping that after some more healthy eating and working out that I will see even more improvement.

Though I have not heard back from my Dr. yet!  I just had the test done on Fri and I can see my results online, but it will likely be at least a week before I hear anything from their office.  I’m hoping that he is pleased with this progress in 3 short months and will allow me to keep working on this and possibly test again in a year to see how its going.

But I tell you – if that isn’t motivation to keep exercising and eat healthy, what is?  Avoiding meds is a huge plus for me.  I would much rather exercise than rely on a drug for my health.  I realize that at some point in my life as I get older that even being really fit and a good weight may not be enough to out-fight my genetics, but until that point comes I’ll keep fighting and doing my best to be the best, healthiest person I can be!

On to September! :)