Control month is over

The control month in my dietary experiment has ended, and with that my consumption of all forms of dairy products, eggs, honey, and any other product from an animal source.  I have been good on some fronts but not as good on others.

As planned, weight, total cholesterol, blood glucose, and blood pressure were monitored, and data collected. So here's what my average "baseline" measurements look like:

First, blood pressure.  My average for the month was around 131/74.  I measured it every night just before bedtime, sitting at the edge of my bed. My lowest systolic was 108, which happened once, while my highest systolic was 152 which also registered just once. It mostly hovered in the mid-120s to low- to mid-130s, with a couple of readings in the 140s (142 and 146). My diastolic, however, was much more consistent. It ranged from 67 to 81, but mainly hovered in the 70s.

According to the CDC, normal ranges should be below 120 and below 80 for systolic and diastolic, respectively.  Pre-hypertension would be the state where the systolic is between 120 - 139, and diastolic between 80 - 89.  My systolic alone puts me in a "pre-hypertension" category. My diastolic stayed pretty consistently below 80. I see these numbers not so much as a sign of an all out problem, but as a red flag. With my family history for hypertension being as strong as it is, this shouldn't go unnoticed.

Now on to total cholesterol.  I measured this once a week, in the morning before eating anything. My average for the month was 294.8. I had a low of 248 and a high of 324.

The CDC defines high total cholesterol as anything above 240 mg/dL. A level below 200 is considered desirable. My average for the month was 294.8, so by CDC guidelines I have high total cholesterol. Even my lowest measurement was already above the CDC cutoff for high total cholesterol. Coupled with my strong family history for heart disease and the red flag seen in my systolic blood pressure level, this adds another tier of concern.

Blood glucose was a very nice surprise.  My average for the month was 84, and ranged from a low of 69 to a high of 99, with measurements being 4 times/week in the morning before breakfast. The American Diabetes Association recommends a desirable blood glucose level of  70 - 130 mg/dL before a meal.  I was very pleased to see that I fell within the normal range. I was particularly tickled about my average considering that it was an A1C of 6 after a yearly checkup and my doctor calling that "pre-diabetes" that led me to seek a healthier lifestyle, since I know the strong genetic predisposition for diabetes that I have. My doctor's message was that if I did not lose weight I would end up having to go on medication in the near future. That was all I needed to hear.

However, I still need to work on the exercise. While I started with a goal of 5 times a week, it came out to more like 2 - 3 times a week, so I did not meet my goal there. My form of exercise was my recumbent bike, on which I did 45 min translating to 10 miles and a calorie burn of around 350 calories (according to the bike's computer, anyway).  I chuck it to a late schedule at work, coming home around 8 - 9pm exhausted with barely any energy to cook anything, much less exercise.

It also didn't help that December was a holiday month. I figured going in that this might be an issue, so I wasn't going to focus so much on the weight, since it would probably be affected to some extent. Indeed, my weight went up by 8 lbs! With being hypothyroid (although on medication), if I don't exercise the scale does not budge, and if I add to that indulging in too many holiday treats, the scale will budge in the wrong direction.

However, if I don't keep exercise the same between this experimental month and the control month and saw weight loss now in my vegan month, the question would then be how much of that loss was due to a vegan diet and how much to the fact that I exercised more this month. If I keep exercise frequency the same as my control month, that variable will not be introduced. Then, if there's any weight loss during this month it can be more safely attributed to the vegan diet itself since everything else would have stayed the same. Of course, a part of me wants to correct that weight gain right away, but I really want to see what changes a vegan diet alone will cause.

So my baseline numbers have been set, and now the experiment really begins!