//Some Background Information//
In my Freshman year of college, I was in the best shape of my life. Prior to that, I had never worked out regularly, so I was surprised to find out that I had (borderline) high cholesterol during my yearly checkup.
My cholesterol level was 71, which was one point higher than it should’ve been for a 19-year-old. My doctor didn’t seem worried. She just told me to come back in three months to test my blood again.
High cholesterol runs in my family. My dad is a vegetarian and one of the healthiest people you will ever meet and he’s still on the borderline. Genetics is a hard force to combat, but I still did a lot of research because I was way too young for my cholesterol to already be high (even if it was just a one-time thing like the doctor thought).
At the end of those three months, I got my blood tested again and the results came back 58. That’s really good! (My doctor told me). Looking back, I can pinpoint three healthy lifestyle changes that made the biggest difference in lowering my cholesterol. I’m going to share them with you now.
1.//I Stopped Eating Waffles For Breakfast
This was the number one game changer for me. You don’t even necessarily have to do the other two tips below. I am 100% sure that changing my breakfast had the biggest impact on my cholesterol.
Here’s the story. We bought a very fancy waffle iron from Fry’s and my mom didn’t want it to be a waste of money, so we ate homemade waffles for breakfast every day for a better part of a year. In the mornings before class, I would just pour the homemade mix my mom had made that morning before dropping my brothers off at school and wait for breakfast to cook.
Waffles are honestly the unhealthiest breakfast you can have. They’re delicious but very bad for you.
I knew that my breakfast had to be quick and portable because I had a tendency to eat breakfast in the car (I ate the waffles without syrup and butter), so I got those bottles of Naked smoothies to drink every day and would eat a banana with it. The smoothies are all natural and have lots of fruits and veggies in them. They’re also easy to grab and go.
If I want to have something heavier, I’ll eat toast with almond butter, but my breakfast has been just a banana and a smoothie for almost a year now.
2.//I Chose Healthier Options When Eating Out
I definitely think eating out is what bumped my cholesterol up that extra few points. When I started college, I would eat out at least twice a week. I’m sure I would’ve eaten out a lot more if I had lived on campus, but I had never eaten out that much previously.
Even though I was working out more than I had in my entire life, I was eating out more frequently. I hadn’t gained a significant amount of weight (In fact, people had been telling me that I looked thinner), but I was eating restaurant food, which is cooked with way more oil.
I never ordered salads at restaurants. I can’t eat salad as a meal and don’t think I ever will. What I did do was stop eating beef and shrimp. Instead, I would choose the grilled chicken option or fish. I ate a lot of Subway and sushi in those few months. I knew that eating salad and other bland foods wouldn’t be a sustainable lifestyle for me. I still ate food that tasted good. I just made sure that they were a slightly healthier option.
I still enjoy beef and shrimp. I just don’t eat them as often as I used to. I’ve also cut back on fried food in the last year. It tastes delicious, but my body always feels like crap after I eat it.
3.//I Started Lifting Weights
In my Freshman year of college, I got really into working out and was working out 3-5 times per week consistently. It was amazing and I felt so much more energized. That’s going to a whole other post, but the point is that I already had a solid workout routine. It was pretty well-balanced between strength training and cardio, but during the time I was trying to lower my cholesterol, the scale tipped more towards strength training.
The reason for this is that weightlifting builds more muscle. Cardio exercises burn more calories than strength training, but I wasn’t looking to lose weight. I was trying to burn fat and while intensive cardio does eventually start burning fat after burning off calories, weight lifting exclusively burns fat.
I just switched out step classes for Bootcamp and lifted weights four days a week instead of two. The only cardio class I kept was cycling because that class is intense and I needed at least one weekly workout that made me sweat.
So…yeah. That’s what I did. I ate smoothies for breakfast, chose chicken over beef, and traded dance for weightlifting. Those three lifestyle changes turned my cholesterol to borderline high to really great. I am not a doctor or dietician. I just wanted to share my story and what worked for me.
I know this post isn’t similar to what I usually write, but I hope it helps you in some way, shape, or form.
What healthy lifestyle changes have you made in college?