For people who know me well, you already realize just how special my wife Christine is in my life. She was born three months prematurely, nearly lost all of her eyesight (totally blind in her left eye since birth except for light and dark) when the doctors used too much oxygen trying to keep her alive, her parents treated her as a normal kid when she had obvious visual challenges growing up, and our over 16 years of wedded bliss together especially through all the struggles I have had with my weight over the years. It’s been a beautiful match made in heaven that could have only been ordained by God for us to be together and so perfect for each other. I love that woman more than anything else in this world and would climb tall mountains if that’s what it took to make her happy and healthy for the rest of her life.
I’ve blogged about Christine’s health many times over the years: from this May 2007 post showing her carrying a few extra pounds, this March 2008 post where we discovered her triglycerides had risen to a very unhealthy 293 despite improvements in HDL and LDL cholesterol, what her dietitian recommended for her to reduce her triglycerides, and how she dropped her triglycerides by 55% in just six weeks by eating a high-fat, low-carb diet.
People have been wondering what’s been happening with Christine and her health in the years that have happened since my last update. As you know, we both decided to tighten up our low-carb diet to more of a Paleo-styled approach after the Ancestral Health Symposium in Los Angeles in August which has enabled me to get quite creative in the kitchen making mouthwatering meals that fit within the context of a good “Paleo template” as Chris Kresser describes it. We’re not completely convinced of the “safe starches” concept yet although we are eating some sweet potatoes in the mix (and I’ll be testing this theory under the direction of Paul Jaminet from “The Perfect Health Diet” in the near future). This is how we have been eating for the past two months and we feel great doing it!
As I shared with Erin Chamerlik on her “Get Better Wellness” podcast today, I haven’t seen a lot of measurable changes in my health happen for me and Christine since we’ve already been eating pretty well on our low-carb lifestyle. But I’m so glad we made this much-needed shift in our nutritional perspective because it feels fantastic eating a diet consisting of real, whole foods that nourish the body. After our failed embryo adoption a couple of months back, many of my readers wrote to me very concerned about the health of Christine and wondering what’s been happening with her. When we thought she was pregnant during the summer, she had already reigned in her diet to eat very clean, super low-carb, and the highest quality foods possible. So she’s actually been eating a clean, low-carb diet for the past five months with a focus on a low-carb Paleo approach for the past two months.
How has all of this impacted her health in 2011? She’s shed about 30 pounds off of her body, her A1c number came in at 4.9, her heart calcium score measuring arterial plaque buildup was a big fat ZERO, and (shockingly!) her eyesight which has been horrible ever since she was given too much oxygen at birth actually IMPROVED for the first time in her life! Is all of this attributable to healthy high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb living? I can’t say for sure, but it’s hard to argue with these results considering that’s the only major change she has made in her lifestyle this year. Most impressive to me were the changes in her lipid panel as evidenced by her most recent NMR Lipoprofile test (every low-carber who is concerned or curious about their heart health eating low-carb needs to have this test conducted):
I’m currently working on an e-book project that will help laypeople interpret the results of their NMR Lipoprofile test and I hope to have that completed in the next month or so. But looking at Christine’s results, she is doing a FANTASTIC job with her lipid panel. Her HDL is a robust 61 (should be above 50), her triglycerides which were pushing 300 three years ago are now a puny 46 (EXCELLENT!), and her Small LDL-P comprise less than one-third of her total LDL particles which are mostly the large, fluffy Pattern A kind that you WANT to have and will get when you consume a high-fat, moderate protein, low-carb diet. For all intents and purposes, this is probably the healthiest Christine has been as an adult and we’ve even thrown in some strength training with kettle bells into the mix as well. She is loving livin’ la vida low-carb and showing why it’s the way of eating she prefers over all others.
My personal health update is coming soon as I’ve been doing various tests to assess my current state of well-being. As I’m approaching my 40th birthday in December, I want to make sure that everything I am doing with my healthy low-carb lifestyle is going to continue to be beneficial and optimal for my health after I become “over the hill.” It’s exciting to be in this place in my life when I am consciously eating well with my wife and reaping the benefits of that on a daily basis. No, our bodies are perfect but we are happy and healthy–and that’s all that really matters.
