The Heart Issue

When I was first diagnosed, my biggest fear was the chance of losing my feet. After 10 years of living with diabetes my biggest fear is now having heart complications down the road. My most recent lab work was a huge eye opener. Everything was normal for the most part, but my LDL (bad cholesterol) was a little higher than where it should be. The normal range is usually less than 150, and mine is sitting at 151. This seems so small and easy to dismiss, however, because I am a woman living with Type 1 diabetes it was a cause of concern for my endocrinologist.

I am very proactive when it comes to my health. The first thought in my mind was how can we fix this? What do I need to do to make sure this so it's no longer a problem now or in the future? Thankfully she assured me, that I wasn't in the danger zone just yet, but that because I have diabetes she wanted to watch it. She helped me to understand that LDL is often caused by animal fat and that adding more fiber and increasing my omega 3's would definitely help my levels begin to lower.

Since my appointment I have increased my veggie intake, cut down on the fast food and started running again. I feel like I could do definitely cut back a little more when it comes to eating out, but because sometimes that' s what life has for us, I have learned to just make wiser choices when eating out, like sticking to the kids menu and choosing chicken over beef depending on where the chicken is from of course.

When at home I have tried to add more heart healthy foods to my diet, like salmon. I was never a huge fan of salmon mostly because I hate the way it makes my house smell, but at this point anything to prevent an early heart attack. I have even gotten pretty creative on vegetable melodies, as well as, new ways to prepare certain vegetables.

I have been doing a boot camp with one of my friends for the last couple of months and when I mentioned wanting to increase my running, she volunteered to run with me on the days that we don't have boot camp. The hubs and I have also started going on walks after dinner in the evenings to help prevent us from coming home and being couch potatoes for the rest of the evening. Which I thoroughly enjoy because it's not only helping my health, but his health as well.

I just keep thinking about how unfair it would be to not be proactive with my heart health. It would be unfair to my husband, my family, and my friends if they lost me at a young age because of something I could have taken care of on my own. Heart health is definitely on my mind and I want to do everything in my power to stay healthy.