on cholesterol, walking and teen mystery novels

When I was in middle school, our school offered free cholesterol screenings, as well as BMI and blood pressure tests to the students. Having a mom for a nurse, my parents consented and my sister and I were tested. The BMI test consisted of those fat-pinchy things that always hurt and were pretty shameful. I hated those things. The cholesterol was just a simple finger prick. My cholesterol was perfect (on the lower end, if I remember correctly) and my sister ended up with high cholesterol. An 8th grader with high cholesterol! Imagine! My parents took her to the doctor and she was promptly placed on a low-cholesterol diet. On this diet she subsisted on the following: low fat ham lunch meat, fat free Kraft singles, Mr. Phipps Pretzel Chips (which are not longer manufactured), and fat free Strawberry and Raspberry Newtons. Now the thing about this diet, other than it was totally strange and clearly has very little nutritional value (where were the fruits and veggies?!), was that these foodstuffs were Off Limits With No Exceptions to me and my brother. UGH! She got to eat cool things like Mr. Phipps Pretzel Chips and Newtons!!! Needless to say, Brandon and I would sneak these foods as often as we could, and I remember a very tearful confrontation when we were found out (Katie was crying because we took the only food she could eat, we were crying because we wanted the dang Newtons!).

Flashforward to two weeks ago. I went in for a physical with my doctor, and she did some basic blood work. My tests came back, and I was free and clear on all the regulars (sugar, thyroid, liver, kidneys, blah blah), but my cholesterol is a little high. Really, this isn't so much of a shock to me, since I've been eating a lot of fast food in the past year. She wants me to take in no more than 200 milligrams of cholesterol a day, eat more fiber, try to eat fish 3 times a week (which is impossible, since the onset of my fish allergy) and exercise at least 30 minutes a day, and then she'll check me again in 4 months.

So of course my immediate thought was, I need to get some Mr. Phipps Pretzel Chips! Since they don't make them anymore, I've just decided to stick to cholesterol free stuff. Which is fairly easy ... except all protein has cholesterol. Bummer!

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I've been trying to do better with exercising, but let's be honest here, friends, I'm laaaazzzyy. During nap-time, Katie and I have started doing yoga, but it's hard for me to want to do cardio (I don't like sweating, most forms of cardio are boring, blah blah). So 3 days a week I'm trying to swim (more on that later), and at least every day I'm trying to walk 30 minutes. I guess walking is easy. Everyone can do it. All you need is a pair of shoes and time. I've done it with my iPod, but recently saw a woman in my neighborhood walk while reading! So I tried it tonight.

Some criteria for the book I took were:

It had to be a paperback (or at least something that could be held one-handed)

It had to be fairly easy to read (no difficult syntax, vocabulary, etc.)

It had to have an easy plot line (I couldn't imagine following along with a complex plot while trying to read with one eye)

The Verdict? It was delightful! I kept an even pace, flew through the book, didn't even realize I was exercising, and I didn't fall! Success, I would say.

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What book did I pick for this walking adventure? I cheesey teen mystery novel that I picked up at a discount store for 99 cents (marked down from $1.98). It's the 4th in a series, of which I have access to none of them, and from what I can tell, it's about 2 sisters who move to Venice, Indiana and fake their identities. But maybe it has a little bit of cred, since it referenced I Captured the Castle, a book that was highly recommended to me.

I might not continue reading this novel; it was more of a test-run for the walking/reading experiment. Maybe I can move on to bigger and better novels while walking.

And I'll add more titles to my goal of 50 books in 2010!