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On May 31^st, just back from my trip to Boston for an academic conference, I went to my doctor for a routine check-up. Usually this is a fairly painless process, but on this day, she had something she wanted to tell me.

“We got your blood work back…it looks like your cholesterol is getting high.”

Excuse me…what?

“It’s not at the point where you need to be scared or alarmed, but it’s made a pretty big jump…”

Ruh roh.

Now in terms of my eating and exercising habits, I am afraid to say that at that point, I was not the healthiest person. I typically ate whatever I wanted without giving the ingredients any second thought, and I used to go to the gym regularly – until graduate school life came in and brought that routine to a screeching halt.

But now? It looks like my cholesterol numbers are telling me that I need to do otherwise.

So what did I do?

I made an appointment with the UMD nutritionist, who gave me some great tips on how to lower my cholesterol:

1. Increase Fiber Intake. Which means, eat more fruits and veggies, and whole grains. My nutritionist says I should aim for two fruits and three veggies a day.
2. Decrease Saturated Fat Intake. No red meat, high fat dairy products, butter/margarine, fried foods and commercial snack foods.
3. Increase Consumption of Fish. Things like salmon, tuna, haddock, mackerel, sea trout and herring. Best grilled, not fried.
4. Choose Monosaturated Oils. Such as canola and olive oil. No peanut oil for me, as I’m allergic. But this includes vinaigrette dressings as well – creamy ones are a no no!
5. Exercise as Often as Possible. Suggested for 30 minutes of elevated heart rate, 4-5 times per week.
6. Drink 8-8 oz Glasses of Water Per Day.

So how am I faring so far? Well I took the nutritionist’s advice into consideration and bought The Healthy College Cookbook, for those students who are short on time and cash (which I am!). I’ve been cooking more and eating out less, which is a huge feat for me in itself (and also better for my wallet).

I’ve downloaded the Lose It! app on my iPhone, which helps me keep track of my calorie intake, weight loss, and exercising. And speaking of exercising, I did my first ever race on June 11^th  – Warrior Dash, which was an awesome 3.5 mi. run filled with crazy obstacles (such as jumping over fire and crawling under barbed wire in the mud!). I’ve also signed up for summer session at the UMD gym, where I can take fitness classes or just work out on my own time.

So at week three, I must say that in spite of the occasional slip up (though I’ve only eaten at McDonalds once so far!) I’ve been doing fairly well. My hope is that I can get into some sort of good routine so that by the time my life gets crazy with school in the Fall I can maintain my good eating and exercising habits. We’ll see how it goes.

But what about you? Have you taken any steps toward being healthy this summer? In other words, what are you doing to stay fit?

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