Cholesterol update 2019

Pierini Fitness was recently asked if he still gets his blood tested and, if so, if practicing intermittent fasting (IF) has had any noticeable change to these tests over the years.

This question couldn’t have been timelier because it’s been on his agenda to write a post about it. Heads-up, this is a very long post so if you have acute attention-deficit disorder, you might want to move on and read something else of interest.

Pierini Fitness likes to have blood work done several times a year to see how his health markers of interest are behaving.  Not letting his health insurance stand in the way of deciding when to have it done, he pays on his own and uses an online service to order blood work.  It’s less costly and more efficient.

Today, he’ll share the results of recent lab work starting with when he began his current fitness, health and wellness journey last August 31, 2018.  If you’ve read previous posts, you know that was the day that he embarked upon his mission of reclaiming being the lean and mean middle-aged man fighting machine he desires to be, who he has been most of the past 25 years of middle-age manhood except for the last couple years when he fell off the wagon.

Below are his lab results for cholesterol beginning on August 31, 2018 until the most recent one.  He assumes you understand the cholesterol-related terms because you should.

August 31, 2018 – morning BW of 210.8 lbs.

LDL 131 mg/dL high - 31 mg/dL low – triglycerides 121 mg/dL - total 185 mg/dL

October 31, 2018 – morning BW of 197.0 lbs.

LDL 122 mg/dL high - 36 mg/dL low – triglycerides 77 mg/dL - total 175 mg/dL

November 30, 2018 – morning BW of 190.3 lbs.

LDL 109 mg/dL high - 32 mg/dL low – triglycerides 95 mg/dL - total 160 mg/dL

February 19, 2019 – morning BW of 177.8 lbs.

LDL 109 mg/dL high - 38 mg/dL low – triglycerides 89 mg/dL - total 165 mg/dL

April 18, 2019 – morning BW of 170.2 lbs.

LDL 121 mg/dL high - 43 mg/dL – triglycerides 70 mg/dL - total 178 mg/dL

Some additional information is worth sharing.

As previously mentioned, August 31, 2018 is when he began his current fitness, health and wellness journey and reported to Pierini Fitness boot camp.  It’s also when he resumed keeping detailed journals of his morning bodyweight, eating and workouts.  Every single day since then, he’s kept these journals and every single day since then, he has improved his fitness, health and wellness.  The lesson learned, again, is to keep doing what he’s doing.

He has never experienced weight gain or fitness erosion while keeping detailed journals but has experienced both when slacking off and not journaling.  So, he’ll continue journaling because, for him, it works.

He began IF on September 15, 2018 after being frustrated with the first two weeks of his journey.  Every single day since then, he has I’ve practiced IF with different fasting and feeding durations. 

The October 31, 2018 blood work indicates movement in the right direction with a notable decrease in triglycerides even though LDL and HDL results fall outside the lab reference range of 100 mg/dL or less for LDL and 40 mg/dL or higher for HDL.  Pierini Fitness has a history of low HDL and so does his Mom so, perhaps, there’s a genetic explanation.

His LDL dropped to its lowest during this period on November 30, 2018 and then again on February 19, 2019 as his weight continued to drop.  But it was still above the reference range of 100 mg/dL.  He has accepted that’s the way it’ll be and sees no reason to introduce additional dietary changes or start taking prescription medicine. 

He remembers more than a dozen years ago having his last physical and lab results with an LDL reading of slightly over 100 mg/dL.  The physician commented how he needed to monitor this and perhaps start taking a statin prescription medicine.  This was the last time he saw that physician. 

While some might consider it unwise, Pierini Fitness hasn’t had a primary care physician in over ten years.  That’s not to say he hasn’t visited one.  He has a couple clients who are physicians that he can go to for answers to questions.  He also spends a lot of time reading and learning about middle-aged man fitness, health and wellness to plug the gap. He may have a fool for a patient but thus far his approach has worked for him.  Your mileage may vary.

Pierini Fitness began practicing OMAD (one meal a day) on March 6, 2019, the beginning of Lent 2019, and continued for 45 consecutive days until April 18, 2019, the last time he had blood work.  During these 45 days, he fasted 22 hours a day and had a two-hour feeding window beginning once the sun set.  Also, he didn’t eat meat during this time period.

Naturally, he was curious what his cholesterol reading would be from this and that’s why he again had blood work on this day.  To his surprise, his total cholesterol and LDL were higher, but his triglycerides were lower.  He’s still scratching his head on this one.

Over the years, Pierini Fitness has kept a log of cholesterol blood work results with his first entry going back to June 1, 2001 when he was 46 years young dripping wet.  His cholesterol lab results on that day were LDL 117 mg/dL high - 40 mg/dL – triglycerides 67 mg/dL - total 170 mg/dL.  He knows from memory that he was in tip-top fitness conditioning at that time and probably weighed between 175 to 180 lbs.  Yet, there’s not a significant difference in that lab result compared to his most recent 18 years later. 

Of the 19 entries of cholesterol blood work in his log, only once has he had an LDL reading below 100 mg/dL.  Also, his HDL readings have been below 40 mg/dL for 13 of the 19 recorded entries.  The highest HDL was 69 on February 6, 2013 where he notated that he had been taking a niacin supplement.

Debates about cholesterol can be more intense than people arguing about politics, so Pierini Fitness chooses to not engage in that verbal warfare but to instead be a student of his own health and wellness and have some basis for knowing what it is such as from regular bloodwork. 

He’s previously shared how late last year he had a series of preventative health screenings to detect his risks for heart disease and other conditions.  One screening was to see if there was any plaque build-up or restrictions of blood flow in his carotid arteries.  Another was to assess for peripheral arterial disease and his results were normal meaning that the blood pressure in his ankles are as high or higher than the blood pressure in his arms.

If you’re interested, here’s where he shares about these screenings:

It's his wallet paying the tab

The health markers he follows with regular blood lab work are not limited to cholesterol.  Perhaps, on a different day, he’ll share more.

But, until then, there you have it Pierini Fitness sports fans, a rather long rambling about his current fitness, health and wellness journey and his cholesterol update 2019.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Summer 2019 at the beach

 

Pierini Fitness has been AWOL for a while due to the rigors of his profession but today is a new day and those demands have come to an end. What a breath of fresh air!  I’ll now have a more relaxed remainder of the year, time to train hard, have fun and add more content here of middle-aged man reflections about living and dying, gracefully aging and trying to live a good and honest life.  I’m excited and looking forward to it.

My Lent 2019 OMAD journey will soon come to an end and I’ll give an “executive briefing” sharing my experience.  It’s been an amazing journey to say the least.

I’ve been practicing intermittent fasting (IF) for over seven consecutive months and, more recently, one meal a day (OMAD) for Lent 2019 as previously noted.

The demands of my profession required me to work 16 hours non-stop on April 15^th, from 3:30 am until 7:40 pm. The discipline gained from my Lent 2019 abstinence from meat and fasting from food 22 hours a day made it possible.

While IF or OMAD are no longer “needed” for weight loss because I have “arrived”, I’ve arrived before only to let it slip away. Moving forward, I can maintain my current lean and mean “fighting weight” with a more traditional eating approach, but I’ve grown fond of both mainstream IF and its outlier ugly stepsister named OMAD. There’s a certain renegade rebel being an OMAD’er that's attractive and I toy with the idea of coming back often for a visit.

I started this journey of reclaiming my lean and mean “fighting weight” last August 31, 2018 weighing in that morning at an embarrassing 210.8 lbs.  My goal was to weigh 180 lbs. by my 64^th birthday on February 19, 2019.  Along the way, I reset my goal for 177 lbs. and achieved it the day after my birthday.  

Then I learned from others how it’s good to have my ideal weight expressed as a range rather than a single point.  Therefore, I set my ideal weight range for 172 to 177 lbs. and have consistently been at this weight or less the past six weeks.  Yesterday morning, I had a pleasant morning weigh-in at 171.4 lbs.  

Pierini Fitness “has arrived” and is now the lean and mean fighting machine he deserves to be from disciplined hard work he’s done the past 231 consecutive days.

This year, it’s going to be a great Summer 2019 at the beach.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

An update of my Lent 2019 OMAD journey

Today is the 27th day of my Lent 2019 OMAD journey.  By the way, in case you don’t know, OMAD stands for one meal a day.

If you missed it, Pierini Fitness chose to practice a demanding form a fasting during Lent 2019 that began on March 6^th.  He’s fasting 22 hours each day and eating during a very small feeding window of two hours, but not until the sun sets.  Additionally, he’s chosen to abstain from meat during Lent.  He’s never done anything this demanding before so thought it would be a good idea to give Pierini Fitness sports fans another update on how it’s going.  The last update was on March 15^th.  If you missed it, you’re welcome to find and read it. 

So, how is it going?

As previously reported in my March 15^th update, not bad.  I don’t recall ever going this long fasting this way or abstaining from meat.  I’m sure as an infant, there was a longer period when I didn’t eat meat, those early days when being breastfed or guzzling baby formula.  I’d have to ask my Mom for details and know she wouldn’t remember how long it was as an infant before I had my first meat dinner. 

Sun sets a minute later each day and today, according to my sources, it sets at 7:28 pm so that’s when I’ll begin eating.  It’s a little later than what I’d like but my Lent 2019 promise was made and so it’ll be. 

The hardest time with this fasting schedule is the last two hours.  This is because I’m generally home and not as occupied with work. I’ve done various things to keep my mind occupied, ranging from a light resistance bands workout, doing minor chores and even laying in bed just relaxing after a hard day of work.

Another hard time is Sunday because that’s the day I run for 60 minutes, generally around noon.  After my run, I have a long wait before feeding time.  It’s a challenge but a great opportunity to test my mental toughness.    

What about my abstinence from eating meat?

Surprisingly, I haven’t missed, too bad, being a carnivore.  A couple times, meat thoughts entered my mind.  One was a passing thought about eating one of my favorite lunchtime meals when on the go, a chicken teriyaki rice bowl.  The other was thinking about the giant plate of barbeque baby back ribs I ate on Fat Tuesday, the day before Lent 2019 began. 

Since I didn’t want to lose any more weight during my OMAD journey, I’ve had to eat more than what I had prior.  And, I’ve had to taper my workouts.  Although, being busy with work has contributed more to tapering my workouts that OMAD.  Despite these adjustments, I’ve lost a few lbs. but nothing to be concerned about.

What I’ve shared might be a yawner for some and if this is your case, oh well.  I just wanted to make it a matter of my Pierini Fitness archives, so this is an update of my Lent 2019 OMAD journey.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

That you fill with food

During the last six months in my journey to chisel off excessive middle-aged man bodyweight, I did what I’ve done in the past when having a similar task but was open to what others had to say.  Obviously, there’s only one way to lose weight and this is by having a constant calorie deficit; eating less calories than calories burned.  By the way, I have “arrived” at my target bodyweight and it feels great to be back at my “fighting weight.” 

Nonetheless, there are some who advocate that there’s more to it than having a calorie deficit.  Some will suggest that meal frequency and timing is important.  For example, eating small meals several times a day as opposed to eating three square meals like we did growing up. 

A meal timing approach I currently use is intermittent fasting where I only eat during a narrow feeding window in a 24-hour day and refrain from eating the rest of the day.  I do this because it’s convenient and efficient.  Currently, I’m practicing a more challenging version of intermittent fasting called One Meal A Day or OMAD for short.  I’ll have more to share about my OMAD experiences in future Pierini Fitness blogflections.

So, what do I think having followed various meal timing protocols in the past?  Does meal timing matter?  If it does, what is the “perfect meal timing protocol to follow?

My opinion only is that meal timing doesn’t matter.  But this may not be the answer you hoped for so let me give you a good meal timing rule to follow in your middle-aged man fitness, health and wellness journey.

Eat only when you’re hungry and know the difference between real hunger rather than an excessive desire to eat out of boredom, habit or an emptiness in your life that you will with food.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum

Not a typical day as an IF practitioner

I’m an intermittent fasting (IF) practitioner again and have been since the middle of August 2018 when beginning my current fitness, health and wellness journey.  

This isn’t the first time I’ve been riding the IF pony.  The first time was almost 10 years ago, and I shared my experience here at Pierini Fitness:  My intermittent fasting journey

There are several versions of IF and you can read up about them if you’re interested because I won’t explain them in today’s blogflection.  Some prefer to use the term “time restricted eating” and explain the subtle difference between it and IF.  Again, I’ll not take valuable content space here lecturing you about it.

I don’t know exactly but would guess that my average fasting period is about 19 hours, so this means my feeding window is about 5 hours.  Sometimes I fast longer and other times shorter.  Therefore, I’m guessing my feeding windows have ranged from two to eight hours in a 24-hour period.  Some would refer to a short feeding window of two hour as OMAD, an acronym for one meal a day.

I thought it would be interesting to share with you a day in my life as an IF practitioner, so I chose to share my feeding window last Saturday.

It began at 10:25 a.m. after a fasting period that started 7:40 p.m. Friday evening.  This means my fasting period was 14 hours and 45 minutes.  This is a little shorter than normal because, again, my shortest fasting period is typically 16 hours.  Friday was an atypical day and, as a result, my last meal ended much later than normal.  Typically, I like to be done eating by 6:00 p.m.

So, when beginning my feeding window, I ate three pieces of fruit – a banana, an apple, and an orange – during a one-hour period.  That was it until later in the day when I had my main meal.

It consisted of treating myself to one of my favorite meals at a restaurant I frequent about once every two months.  I treated myself to a full rack of barbeque baby back ribs and a “naked” baked potato, naked meaning I ate it plain without the typical gobs of butter and sour cream that many prefer when eating one.

What’s the bottom line of this big meal I feasted on?

BEFORE – 1,672 calories

AFTER – 0 calories

That was it?

My total caloric intake was 1,965 calories and my feeding window this day, which ended at 5:00 p.m., was 6 hours and 35 minutes.

I normally don’t pay much attention to macros except as an afterthought.  In case you’re interested, here’s how the day went in the macro department:

Now, I know what some of you are thinking.  Where’s the vegetables or, not enough fiber.

Every day is different.  Some days I’ll have a starch-centric high carbohydrate, low protein and low-fat day.  On other days, it’ll be very high fat, monosaturated fats preferred, along with balanced protein and fat day.

All in all, most days are much different but, for me, last Saturday was not a typical day as an IF practitioner.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum