If you need some really hard hitters to get a quick head start on getting a high cholesterol level down, here are ten important steps. (More details follow the list.)

For the next two to four weeks:
1. Exercise 30 minutes a day, at least six days a week.
3. Don’t buy prepackaged foods, skip the fast food altogether, and cook all of your meals at home.
2. Cut out ALL hydrogenated oils, trans fat, and saturated fat (except for what naturally occurs in lean meats), and limit red meat to once a week, or not at all. Don’t eat any organ meats (liver, heart, kidney, or gizzard).
3. Eat hot oatmeal for breakfast at least four times a week, and have high-fiber cereal on the other days, as well as an oatmeal cookie (no saturated fat please) for a snack if that cereal didn’t include oats.
4. Eat two or three prunes and an apple every day.
5. Eat salmon at least once a week, and other high omega-3 fish (such as tuna, mackerel, or sardines) two or three times per week.
6. If you must have cheese, no more than one ounce per day, and switch to egg substitutes and low-fat or skim milk.
7. Take an Omega-3 supplement every day.
8. Eat 1.5 ounces of walnuts (no added oil or salt) every day.
9. Use olive oil and garlic to add flavor to foods, and an ounce or two of avocado to make sandwiches moist or add omega-3s to a salad.
10. Switch to whole grain bread and pasta, brown rice, and get two or three servings of beans every week (green beans don’t count). Include kidney beans at least once a week.

After you see some improvement in your numbers, you can start to reintroduce some foods back into your diet, such as an occasional visit to a fast-food restaurant, one or two whole eggs per week, and perhaps vary breakfast a bit more.

Read on for details on the above steps, as well as healthy lifestyle habits that you may want to develop for the rest of your life, no matter what your cholesterol numbers are!

Although the focus of this article is on foods, there are some very important lifestyle changes that will directly impact the speed and effectiveness of lowering cholesterol levels and must be included here:

Exercise 30 to 60 minutes a day. 30 minutes of walking minimum, and don’t be afraid to take one day off a week. Park farther away from the store; take the stairs when you can. Wear a pedometer and get it over 10,000 steps every day, no matter what. A short walk in the evening is a good idea to fill in the extra steps. Take the whole family – it is good for them, too!

Lose weight, stop smoking, and don’t drink alcohol. These are the obvious big hitters when it comes to your overall health, as well as each being linked to cholesterol levels. No room for discussion but definitely worth mentioning.

Now on to my favorite subject: FOOD!

Foods you need to completely cut out of your diet:

Anything hydrogenated! (These are usually healthy oils that have been turned into bad fats.) You’ll need to start reading labels, and the first ones to check out are those in your pantry and fridge. Be sure to check the peanut butter, margarine, mayonnaise, and salad dressings. Replace these with heart healthy oils such as olive, canola, and flaxseed. You may want to learn how to make your own mayonnaise. Stay away from stick margarine, and look for a spread that uses good oils that aren’t hydrogenated. For an extra boost, look for one that has plant stearols added.

High Fructose Corn Syrup! This may have many people wondering what sugar (a non-fat food) has to do with cholesterol. Many studies have proven that the less sugar you eat, the less you crave fats – and vice-versa. Beware of low-fat foods marketed at the restaurant or grocery store; most of them are loaded up with sugar and salt to “make up” for any lost flavor from the missing fat. Cutting out HFCS has other huge health benefits, as well. Did you know that your body has its own “calorie counter”? As you eat, it keeps track and tells you when you are full. (Obesity, smoking, and HFCS intake can short-circuit this internal monitor a bit, so it may take some time to get it functioning properly again once you are on a healthy eating and lifestyle plan.) In addition, High Fructose Corn Syrup has the unique ability to completely bypass this system, so no matter how much of it you eat (or drink), it will never satisfy you. Talk about new meaning to the words “empty calories”! At the very least, cut down soft drinks to no more than 12 ounces a week, and always get 100% juice products. Even better, drink water, eat the whole fruit, and ditch the juice entirely. It is time to check those labels again! Pay close attention to your salad dressings and peanut butter (again), ketchup and other condiments, anything marked as low-fat or fat-free, and even your canned soups, fruit, and vegetables. Warning: This does NOT give you free license to consume artificial sweeteners! These chemicals have dangers all their own, and aren’t very conducive to weight loss, either. (But that is an entirely new discussion.) What I’m saying is, if you have something sweet, be sure it uses real sugar or fruit juice. Agave, stevia, and honey are also excellent natural sugar sources.

Cut down on saturated fat by choosing leaner cuts of meat, and limit red meat to two or three times per week. Limit the amounts of butter, cheese, and whole eggs; switch to lowfat milk and use egg substitutes whenever possible. Don’t eat the skin of poultry items, and limit your fried foods to no more than once a month. (Even less is better.)

Fast Food Warning! Don’t eat out more than once or twice a week – even less often is better for you and your pocketbook. Restaurants know what our bodies like, and that is fat, salt, and sugar. They trigger addictive responses that keep us coming back for more. Decide what your absolute favorite fast food items are, and make them a treat, not a regular feature. Your body can recover from an occasional high-fat or unhealthy meal as long as it isn’t very often. You also may find as you cut out a lot of unhealthy foods from your diet, that your previous fast food favorites may not be as tasty to you as before. They may even make you feel a bit yucky, which really tells you something about how what you eat affects your body, especially when it gets used to eating healthy.

Enough of the bad stuff. Let’s get onto the good stuff! What SHOULD you be eating?

An apple a day keeps the doctor away. At the very least it will make him (and likely your dentist) happier. Apples are chock full of fiber and antioxidants. The skin has most of the fiber, as well as pectin. All of these are good for your body, and very beneficial in helping lower your cholesterol.

Eat salmon at least once a week. Salmon has other great stuff in it, too, besides it’s cholesterol-fighting properties. You should aim for 2 to 3 total servings of fish per week; other body-beneficial fish are mackerel, herring, albacore tuna, and sardines. Fatty fish, high in omega 3 fatty acids, will help raise your HDL (the good or Healthy cholesterol), which is what helps prevent the LDL (the bad or Lousy cholesterol) from sticking to places it shouldn’t. (In many cases the total cholesterol number isn’t as important as the ratio of HDL to LDL. You should get all of these numbers when your doctor checks.)

Walnuts are great, just not too many! Make sure you get good quality nuts that aren’t prepared with oil or salt. Walnuts are the best bet for fighting your cholesterol, but other good ideas are almonds, hazelnuts, pecans, and pistachios. Nuts are high in calories, too; so a small handful per day (about 1 1/2 ounces worth) is plenty to pack a big Omega-3 punch, and provide a good protein and energy source. These are a great snack to have before a workout, or even half-an-hour before a meal; having a small amount of healthy fat will help you eat less, and not crave the fatty foods so much.

Avocados. An excellent source of nutrition and healthy fats. (Have you heard enough about Omega 3 yet?) Like nuts, this is still a high-calorie food, so limit yourself to a couple of ounces per serving. Try using avocado (either sliced or mashed) to moisten up a sandwich instead of mayonnaise!

Olive oil. Replace other oils and butter with olive oil. This is another great source of those Omega 3s!

Oatmeal. Eat oatmeal for breakfast at least four times a week, and have high-fiber cereal on the other days. A low-fat oatmeal cookie once in awhile is a good snack, too. (A great oatmeal cookie recipe coming soon!)

Whole grains. Replace as many white flour foods as you can with whole grains. Switch to whole grain bread, pasta, and brown rice whenever possible. Introduce whole grains gradually; mixing half regular pasta with half whole grain pasta, for example. Your body needs to get used to the additional fiber content!

Prunes. I’m a big fan of these nutritional powerhouses. High in fiber, vitamin A, vitamin B6, potassium, iron, and antioxidants, they are ideal for a healthy lifestyle and are recognized as having a number of health benefits. Two or three as an everyday snack is perfect; don’t overdo it, as they are high in sugar content and are a natural laxative.

These outline healthy habits that you should be incorporating into your everyday lifestyle in order to keep your cholesterol in check and greatly reduce the risks of heart disease.

What are your favorite foods for helping to lower your cholesterol?

Pyrrh’s beginning measurements / ending measurements:

Weight: 170 lbs / 165.5 lbs
Stomach: 33.75″ / 33″
Hips: 41.5″ / 40″

This was with half-an-hour of aerobics and weight training every day but Sunday.   Looks like it all came off of my hips!

Mom lost a pound, with no increase in her activity.

Overall impression and review:

The way that the menus are published makes it hard to view conveniently; a printout results in strange columns with awkward page breaks, and each day’s soup recipe is on a completely different page.

The diet premise is sound. Whenever we did Weight Watchers we always made up a big batch of our favorite vegetable soup. We just added two more vegetables to our recipe to better match the Good Housekeeping version, and we like the improvement. Most of the soup variations would be better judged on individual tastes. We’ve got favorites, and will try new ideas.  After seven days of soup, it does leave us craving a steak or some spaghetti and meatballs!

I love strawberries, but there were so many of them; more fruit variety would have been great.

I personally prefer to have three snacks as well as three meals, and didn’t like when the menu didn’t allow for that. Admittedly, that wasn’t often; there was enough variety that I was able to save something from nearly every meal to eat a bit later on. The meals never left us hungry, either.

We liked the ideas well enough that we will try another week of it, with Good Housekeeping’s “Web Exclusives” variations. (After taking a couple days’ break for aforementioned steak and spaghetti!)

Pyrrh’s favorite meals:
Breakfast Day 4 – Honey-Cinnamon English Muffin
Breakfast Day 6 – Mexican Scramble
Lunch Day 5 – Waldorf Chicken Salad
Lunch Day 4 – California Turkey Pita
Dinner Day 1 – Minestrone Soup
Dinner Day 5 – Thai Shrimp Soup

Breakfast – Nutty Oatmeal
Both Mom and I had our peanut butter on the side. I just couldn’t bring myself to stir it into oatmeal.

Lunch – Ham Sandwich Supreme

I had to go on an extended errand today, and was able to take this sandwich with me. I ate with my husband, who said my lunch looked better than his! (I was drooling over his rib sandwich, though.) Mom substituted some avocado for the cheese, and I will definitely do the same if I am at home.

Dinner – Red Beans & Rice Stew

Who doesn’t like polish sausage? I admit I am not a red beans and rice fan, and except for the sausage, I didn’t like this soup very much. My mom and husband both liked it, though.

Breakfast – Mexican Scramble

Excellent breakfast; next time I will use a tortilla instead of a pita.

Lunch – Salmon & White Bean Salad

Mom thought this was great. I found it a little bland; I will add some vinegar or some fat-free Italian dressing next time.

Dinner – Goulash

This was very good and tasted like sausage soup.

Breakfast – Strawberry-Orange Smoothie

The smoothie was good. Instead of an English Muffin with butter, we had a mini bagel with 2 tbsp of fat-free cream cheese.

Lunch – Waldorf Chicken Salad

This salad was delicious. I had mine without the lettuce and it was plenty of food.

Dinner – Thai Shrimp Soup
I’ve never had coconut milk in soup before. This was a big hit with the entire family. I strained a cup of vegetables from the Basic Soup, heated them in the microwave, added some heated snow peas, used a cup of broth to boil the shrimp and soaked noodles for a few minutes, added it all to the vegetables, then put in the coconut milk, cayenne pepper, and lime juice. The hint of sweetness from the shrimp, peas, and coconut was fantastic.

Today I ate everything and was full for every meal, but ended up having to use my second 100-calorie snack tonight; I had some oatmeal.

Breakfast – Honey-Cinnamon English Muffin
We can’t seem to find English muffins without soy in them, and I’ve been too busy to make any, so we had mini bagels, instead. This was actually quite tasty.

Lunch – California Turkey Pita

I’ve yet to be able to open a whole pita bread without tearing it up, so I cut them in half, and stuffed each half. It was easiest to slice the avocado instead of trying to spread it inside (and risk further destruction of the pita), and I squeezed lime juice inside the finished sandwich. This was delicious and we hardly missed the mayonnaise. The baby loved her deconstructed version, and my husband has asked for this recipe again (with Miracle Whip on his).

Dinner – Southwest Chili
We used extra lean ground beef instead of the turkey, and I used taco seasoning for the spices. A small flour tortilla was used in place of the tortilla chips.
Again, this was a lot of food. I saved the cheese and tortilla for a quesadilla snack later in the evening.

We substituted All-Bran for shredded wheat. This was a lot of food, and I could not finish it. I think it would be great with half the yogurt, and some milk on the cereal.

Lunch – Black Bean Taco Salad

We had a small flour tortilla instead of the baked chips. I added a splash of lime juice to my salad, and melted the cheese onto the tortilla. Again, this was very filling. Next time I may just add the salsa and beans to my tortilla. I don’t need two salads a day, and there will be one for dinner.

Dinner – Greek Fish Stew

I boiled both the potato and fish at the same time in some broth, for about five minutes, then added it to the veggies from the basic soup (I just scooped out as little broth from the soup as possible). I put the cheese on my salad instead of the soup. The salad was fantastic, although I miss having some fruit to end the day with. I was so full I couldn’t finish all of my soup.

My husband declined the soup and ate some leftovers; the baby thought the Feta Cheese (pasteurized) was awesome.

I HATE Cheerios. But I ate them. I saved the walnuts and banana for after my workout. Mom mixed them into the cereal.

Lunch – Caprese Salad – 7 WW points

I used a small tortilla instead of pita bread, which we hadn’t found soy-free yet. Both dishes were very tasty. especially with the homemade hummus. Traditional Caprese (pronounced Capreasy) is made with fresh basil and a drizzle of olive oil, no vinegar, and isn’t marinated ahead of time. This was an interesting variation, however. We used a little more than a sprinkle of balsamic, and had to use dried basil; it is definitely better with fresh. I made this after breakfast and let it marinate in the vinegar a couple of hours.
By the way, 8 (3/4-in.) chunks part-skim mozzarella actually means 2 ounces. Have you ever tried to measure while cutting cubes of mozzarella? I just cut small cubes and weigh them.

Dinner – Mexican Chicken Soup – 8 WW points

I made a few adjustments to dinner, using canned corn, and chili powder instead of cumin. A fresh flour tortilla replaced the chips. The salad was a combination that we wouldn’t eat normally, but it turned out okay, even with just a vinegar dressing. I used canned mandarin orange segments, because peeling and segmenting an orange for a salad takes a lot of patience.

Again, my baby and husband both liked it, too.

Breakfast: Fruity Cottage Cheese – 6 WW points

(That white bowl is the cottage cheese.) Now I am the type of person that usually doesn’t even like her food to touch each other on the plate. But I did experiment and take a bite of everything at the same time, and it was surprisingly good. I ate the rest of it separately, though. And it was more food than I am used to eating for breakfast. I saved most of the strawberries for an after-workout snack.

Lunch: Tangy Roast Beef Sandwich – 8 WW points

I put mine on a small tortilla instead of bread. It was very tasty, but I will add a little bit of dill and mustard powder to the sour cream and horseradish next time.

Mom and I both had half a cup of the soup for an afternoon snack.

Dinner: Minestrone Soup – 6 WW points

I’m not a fan of minestrone (or any soup really, can you believe I’m on a soup diet?) but this was delicious. And it was very filling. I was happy to save the yogurt and raspberries for an evening snack. Mom wasn’t into the plain yogurt but said it got better when she mashed the raspberries into it. My 1-year-old enjoyed it all with some cranberry juice. My husband loved it, too, with some homemade bread to go with it.

My mother will be trying the diet, too. I’ll also be feeding a 1-year-old, as well as my husband. The whole staff is involved!

Preparation

Today I spent some time preparing the shopping list for The Amazing Soup Diet. Some things have me going, eeww, but I plan on sticking to the diet as closely as possible. Nothing repeats, so I can handle a meal that may not be my favorite, and keep in the spirit of the test. It will only be a week, after all. I can already see some problems with the bread, since we have to make it all homemade due to soy allergies. Well, not really a problem, just a lot of prep work. That just keeps us busy so there is less time to snack, right?

I’m cleaning out our main fridge and freezer so I can have everything for the week in the kitchen ready to go. The “working pantry” will need a bit of work, too – some things need to go into the basement with the rest of the food storage items. I’m happy to see that many items on the list are things we already have in our freezer, which means they were bought on sale. Most of what is left to buy is the fresh fruit and veggies, which happens every week, regardless.

I did throw together a Cajun Seasoning Mix, and will make some homemade hummus tomorrow.

Shopping List

These are variations on the original The Amazing Soup Diet shopping list, providing some adjustments for allergies. You’ll have to click on the link above to view the full list, since it is copyrighted, after all. I have noted my changes below, according to their categories.

Staples:

•Cajun seasoning (I made my own mix since I am allergic to black pepper)
•Ground cumin (I personally do not like cumin and use oregano to substitute)
•Ground red pepper (this is cayenne pepper)
•Hot sauce (this is for eggs, so I am going to use taco sauce rather than Tobasco)

Fruits and Veggies
•Green beans, 3/4 lb. (2 cans of green beans are much easier, or a quart of home-canned)
•Lemon, 1 (If you have lemon juice in the fridge, you won’t need to get a lemon)
•Snow peas, 1/4 lb. (I’ll be using frozen, which I keep on hand, fresh are almost as much trouble as green beans)
•Tangerines, 3 (Substitute one of these for a can of mandarin oranges, unless you like peeling and sectioning an orange. For the second, just buy your favorite type of orange, we like navels. I can’t find where the third orange is used.)

Fresh Herbs
•Garlic, 1 lg. head (I keep fresh minced garlic on hand in the refrigerator, which is much easier)

Grains
•Bread, whole-grain (we have to make our own because of soy ingredients)
•Brown rice (I didn’t know you could buy pre-cooked, we will cook our own)
•English muffins, whole-grain (Another bread product we can’t eat due to soy ingredients, will substitute bagels)
•Pitas, whole wheat (Again, making our own, seeing a trend here)
•Tortilla chips, baked (hard to find without soy, we will substitute flour tortillas)

Dairy
•Eggs, 1/2 dozen (we use egg substitute, due to egg yolk allergy)
•Yogurt, plain, nonfat (we got Greek style, it is very yummy)

Meat and Fish
•Bacon, 1 pkg. (we use a beef bacon due to pork allergy and turkey bacon is just nasty)
•Turkey, smoked, deli-sliced (got chicken due to turkey allergy)
•Turkey breast, ground (using 93% lean ground beef)
•Turkey kielbasa (Mom gets the turkey version, I will use a beef/pork version, yes allergies again)

Grocery Items
•Chicken broth (we got two big cartons for the soup, I like it better than just water)
•Egg noodles (No Yolks version, due to egg yolk allergy)
•Hummus (made our own to avoid soy and nuts)
•Tomatoes, whole, in juice, 2 28-oz cans (we use diced tomatoes, no smashing needed, and seeds can add a bitter taste)
•Walnuts, 3 oz.

Frozen Items
•Corn kernels (we’re using canned)

The Soup

The Good Housekeeping Recipe can be found here. I actually doubled my own vegetable soup recipe and added the zucchini and spinach. Here are the differences: I used 2 onions (about 3c chopped) and 2 large leeks. I also used 12c chicken stock and no water. Due to a black pepper allergy, I left that out, but added a teaspoon of thyme. The nutritional content remains the same as the original.
Here is the Better Homemaking Network’s version of the Basic Soup for The Amazing Soup Diet, complete with precise instructions and pictures.

Before

Okay, I’m not posting pictures, but at least my weights and measurements will be here. I don’t expect a huge change, since we will only be testing this diet for a week, but you never know. When you first start a diet and exercise program, weight loss could go fast or slow, depending on how much water weight you lose, how much you increase your exercise, and how much muscle you gain. (See Weigh Your Way to Losing Weight.) We should definitely see an improvement in body measurements, no matter what.

Pyrrh’s beginning measurements:

Weight: 170 lbs
Arm: 13.5″
Stomach: 33.75″
Waist: 33.5″
Hips: 41.5″
Thigh: 23.5″
Calf: 15.5″

This was right after a workout, but I can’t blame my hips on that! Ugh!

So, here we are, your Guinea Pigs for a week. We will start the diet on Monday!