u/Shell-lac-y-daze

I am an infrequent traveler with points from the free program due to registering for internet access during stays. I will be traveling with family in South Korea in December (not sure which lodging yet) for about a week.

IHG just sent a reminder my points will expire in October. Are 8K points so few I shouldn’t worry about the expiration, or should I try to recoup some value by transferring them or something?

Thanks very much in advance.

So, a couple of months ago I (F, 71) posted that I was able to bring my LDL down from 165 to 116 in 3 months without medication.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Cholesterol/comments/1u37wit/ldl_165_116_in_3_mos_wdiet_exercise_70_f/

Now I learned my A1C is back in the normal range for the 1st time in 10 years, where it had been in the 5.7 - 5.9 (prediabetes) range with a lot of care about avoiding simple carbs and combining fruit intake with nuts or other food groups to slow digestion and keep blood glucose more level.

My weight is trending downward too, to about 112 lbs. from 120. (BMI is now the low end of normal.)

I had stopped viewing walks as entertainment to do as a hike somewhere pretty or a visit with friends and bit the bullet and just walked for 10 minutes after meals a couple of times a day.

My doctor agreed to let me speak with a nutritionist and I have added back in some low-fat yogurt or kefir (small quantities) or other minimal low-fat diary (or eggs) in my diet. And I have slanted my vegetable intake to emphasize soluble fiber sources after some fairly intense indigestion due to medication making my gut have trouble with a high volume of roughage.

Hopefully when the weather turns bad I can continue to incorporate something like the post-meal walk.

it was exciting to see these small but consistent changes really move the needle. I was grateful for learning here about nuances that help make a difference - beyond just generally having a pretty decent diet and being pretty active overall.

Hi everybody,

F 70, LDL 165 -> 116 in 3 mos. w/diet / exercise … Any more-granular tests to take (up to and including the Boston Heart cholesterol balance test)? For instance, unsure if I need to still avoid egg yolks …

I went from a weight averaging ~125 lbs. in the 3 years post-retirement to 120 lbs. these past 3 monhs, which is more normal for me (sometimes down to 116 lbs. in my adult years). I’ve been controlling prediabetes through diet the last 11 years. My hobbies include yardwork / gardening, folk dancing, walks / hikes, pottery, and playing bocce ball throughout the week. I’ve been on Fosomax for osteoporosis for about 4 years, trying to get calcium through diet – no density loss / gain after 3.5 years, so added almost-daily supplement of 600 mg calcium carbonate (includes 20 mcg vitamin D). Also I had to start topical estrogen a year ago due to atrophied ligaments causing referred bladder pain.

I had an incidental finding of infectious / inflammatory lung nodules (w/o symptoms) one year ago and after more tests, in January began an 18-mo. course of 3x per week antibiotic treatment for nontuberculosis mycobacterium (500 mg azithromycin, 600 mg rifampin, 1200 mg ethambutol). Those meds can cause some loose stools.

My last 2 CT scans a few months apart in the past year to track that lung infection treatment flagged aortic calcifications / atherosclerosis but no more on that was followed up on so far.

In terms of family history, my parents had some blood vessel issues – both died in their 80s. My mom had a thoracic aneurysm, father had multi-infarct dementia in his elder years and his dad had also had strokes in roughly his 60s (before my folks wed).

In September 2025 I’d been doing PT for a left shoulder strain but had some left-side chest pain for about 10 – 15 minutes so went to have that checked at the ER. The EKG showed a normal sinus rhythm with a sinus arrhythmia nonspecific ST abnormality, and my troponin I was a normal-range 2 ng/L.

https://preview.redd.it/0mxmg9gr9p6h1.png?width=435&format=png&auto=webp&s=849a332c9812025fd90ea1a3313af12b70c49194

https://preview.redd.it/42yklbgr9p6h1.png?width=922&format=png&auto=webp&s=d6a030bd3ed39b71e94052a179654070cef2b32b

A1C
Since 2015, averages 5.8 – 5.7

https://preview.redd.it/dfljobgr9p6h1.png?width=466&format=png&auto=webp&s=c8702c539dc8b0830808be3f8b4d30a8d973ae81

What I did

Back when my total cholesterol first looked high in mid-2015 - ish I think I just started taking my filtered coffee black (w/o powdered creamer I’d used for convenience, or low-fat milk). I presumed the relatively high HDL was balancing out the also-high LDL …

In March 2026 due to this subreddit, I switched to becoming essentially more vegan plus salmon, tuna and sardines each week, roughly (which I’d already been doing for convenience or dietary calcium). I cut out butter on my yams (which I had often for lunch) or when sauteing some eggs or mushrooms etc. I stopped eating occasional Gorgonzola cheese with my romaine, or string cheese, or feta, or quesadillas, cottage cheese, yogurt, occasional kefir, and lowfat milk (which had been advised to have with meals for prediabetes and also, I wanted the calcium). I discovered I like unsweetened soy milk, and it also has calcium and protein with low sugars. I switched from regular to old-fashioned peanut butter (made only from peanuts) and kept servings to 2 T. I made a point of eating more beans / pulses and continuing w/ edamame, tofu … I slightly increased eating small apples or half an orange or grapefruit for soluble fiber. And I tried to eat something with soluble fiber first slightly before the rest of a meal, such as a little hummus or a fermented pickled okra, a couple of canned artichoke hearts or half an avocado. I read nutrition labels or looked up those details and made choices to keep saturated fat intake low – but didn’t keep a food diary yet. In terms of cholesterol sources, I used to eat occasional ground beef patties due to low-normal hemoglobin (which hovers around 12). I am eating hardly any eggs, and often just the whites if I do.

Meanwhile I had coincidentally gotten a Fitbit as part of a small-group study to increase physical activity. I recently averaged 12,000 steps/day and about 620 “active minutes” – the more-aerobic aspect in particular is more than my usual activity level had been. I do do a little minimal stretching / strengthening PT and light lifting of free weights for resistance. And I have tried to factor in allowing time to walk for 10 minutes after meals a couple of times a day (mainly for managing blood glucose levels). With added exercise, I was often hungrier and getting enough calories was a little challenging with my antibiotics being rough on my GI tract. (I didn’t add psyllium supplements so far because of already tolerating intestinal discomfort.) For aiding my digestion, I recently added occasional probiotic lowfat yogurt or kefir in addition to a little fermented sauerkraut, etc.

My take-home lesson is that it can apparently make a difference to not just eat a generally healthy selection of food, but to also fine-tune the timing (such as eating in what sequence, or at once versus “grazing”) and to also focus on when to exercise and how briskly. I had found it unappealing to routinely walk in my neighborhood because I prefer company on the way, or the uninspiring scenery seems monotonous, or I am rushing off right after a meal to some scheduled activity or class. I had to get past those reasons to avoid fitting it in. (Ironically I found when I was eager to walk briskly right away, I would run into neighbors who wanted to chat a few minutes – which is nice, and welcoming on one level <g>).

Finally – I was thrilled during a blood draw yesterday that’s required to monitor liver function for my antibiotic treatment that, when I mentioned to the Kaiser phlebotomist that I was waiting to see if my primary care doctor would let me check lipids, the phlebotomist said she could order the lipids screen herself (and could add an A1C screen if I wanted to ... ). (While I could seek testing outside the HMO system, I like having all the records together where I get my care.)

In the mid-term, I still need to elaborate exploring more recipes for pulses … a new interesting heart-healthy hobby …

Hi everybody,

I’m hoping people who are increasing healthy sources of fiber may have an answer. Someone was giving away “lentils“ but instead it was a variety of other types of grains for dal. Does anyone have tips for preparing them without saturated fats? I like regular lentils just boiled until soft. But I imagine these grains would be better in a savory recipe (like dal). But dal involves warming spices in shortening (such as ghee from butter), as far as I recall. Shall I just look for vegan dal recipes as a start? Thank you!