Reality Check

*This picture has nothing to do with this post, just wanted to add a typical dinner shot.  Taco night!

I've been doing this for 7 months now and last week I thought it was time to check in with myself and see how I'm progressing

When I started back in April, as I've posted before, I was taking medication for high cholesterol, high blood pressure and acid reflux.  I weighed about 205 pounds, which isn't a lot since I'm 6'2".

2 months ago I had my blood work done and my cholesterol overall was 187, well within very good range.  I was still taking my cholesterol medication at the time and was weening myself, with my doctor's approval, off of the blood pressure medicine and was going to do the same for the cholesterol now that I had my blood work done.  At that time I was about 180 pounds.

Last week I went in and had my blood work done again and it was 181.  That doesn't sound like a huge shift, but considering that this is AFTER I stopped taking Cholesterol medicine, it's big.  I was between 260 and 280 when I went on cholesterol medicine, so it's actually a drop of between 80 and 100 points.  I was, to say the least, thrilled.  Oh, and I now weigh what I did in college 170, which is about 5 lbs. less than where I would like to be.  I did stop drinking any alcohol for 2 months, so maybe I can attribute the last 5 pounds to that.

All in all, I feel great.  I'm not craving foods I used to eat....I don't even really think about them.  I just go about my life the way everyone else does, just with a plant based bent to my eating.  Lots of energy and good health are the payoff for me.  I did drink wine for the first time the other night as I was out with people celebrating our fall birthdays in the family.  Since I am one of the fall birthdays, I decided to have some wine. The next day I had the worst allergy attack I've had in years.  My nose just would not stop running.  I think my body might have been telling me something.  What I heard was listen to your body!