Well, hell. I thought I was in pretty good health but I just got my blood test results and my cholesterol is wicked high. My doctor will want to put me on statins, I'm sure of it. But I don't wanna! Don't wanna be on medication for the rest of my life.

I'm going to try to cut a deal with him: give me two months to get it down through diet. Which means no cheese, no cookies, no beef, no bacon. Basically a vegan diet, sigh. Good thing I got the Runner's World cookbook for Christmas, which has lots of tasty-looking low-fat recipes in it.

Well, maybe it'll help my running.

Consuela, my doc recommmended I try red yeast rice supplements because she doesn't like putting someone my age (I think we're close in age?) on statins. You could look into that if diet doesn't help.

Do you eat oatmeal? (Do you like oatmeal?)

I've worked here 9 months and 5 of my 25 coworkers have lost a parent in that time - one of them, both parents. Does that seem like a lot? Maybe it's just I have a lot more coworkers in their 50s than I have at previous workplaces.

It's 46 degrees and I've been so reset by polar vortices that I washed my car. Even had to take off my fleece. And it doesn't feel 'cold' outside to me.

It'll get all salted up within days, but it was making me nuts.

I have my fancy new sander! But now I'm dreading the dust.

I'm more concerned with the unregulated collection and aggregation of data done by the corporate world than I am the gov't's attempts to do the same. I know how (in)efficient and disorganized the gov't is.The corporate world has a much bigger, soulless incentive.

The corporate world has a much bigger, soulless incentive.

So true. And applies to pretty much everything they do, not just data collection.

Personally, as a relatively young and basically healthy woman, I wouldn't take a statin. I refused them when a doctor wanted to put me on them a decade ago (I was 40). They are hell on the liver. But IANAD.

Maybe it's just I have a lot more coworkers in their 50s than I have at previous workplaces.

Probably that, but still sad.

Also, stores track you by your cell phone. That was the other thing that was creepy.

I put on lotion today so I need to re-shower before I go get my mammogram.

Oy. Unconnected friends are debating in the comments section of a Facebook post. One of them flounced and blocked, and the other is all, "Would you just tell her that . . ." And, no. It isn't junior high. I won't be the go between so you can win the debate that you shouldn't have started in my post in the first place. We're all in our 40s, for goodness sake!

Yeah, a quick look at the NIH website about statins & red yeast rice is not reassuring: [link]

Effective RYR contains a statin and should be prescription only and could damage your liver. Or so I gather. I'm not enthusiastic.

I'm hoping that if I cut out dairy/red meat and eat even more steel-cut oatmeal (which I like, and I eat frequently) I can bring it down. Still, it's a drag. I suspect it's genetic, unlike my blood sugar levels which are high because I have an incurable sweet tooth.