Go to a gym. Do frequent weight and cardio training.

 

I was tested about 3 months ago (right in the middle of my eating-like-crap phase). Everything was perfectly normal except cholesterol was like 1 point into the "high" category, so essentially the very top of the normal category. Which is obviously not good for a 27 yr old. I told myself I would worry about it when I finally got settled into my house, since I had too much going on and I wasn't about to radically change my diet during the transition. And I did. Thanks for the reminder though, I'll probably go have my cholesterol checked again in the next 2 months probably to see if it's back in check.

 

I bought a treadmill, being delivered on Tuesday. I'm very excited about it, because I really enjoy running. I'm tempted to buy a spin or recumbent bike as well, since it would be less stress on my joints. But I used to run 2 5k's a week pretty regularly (I stopped about 10 months ago I would say. I have no plans for weight lifting, I think I'm going to just stick with the cardio and core-related exercises. I may even jump on the yoga bandwagon for some good skeletal muscle control. I used to lift weights a lot and was in fantastic shape in college, but I actually don't want to get back to that level. My muscles were always tight and my flexibility was reduced. So this time I'm going to try and approach is with flexibility in mind first, then adding strength as along as I can keep that flexibility.

 

Lot here to cover. When you change diets like you did, depending on the actual diet you went to, it can cause those symptoms. Your body is changing over to a different metabolism. Varying the proteins, carbs, complex carbs, starches will affect you.
I am a runner and have been since 6th grade. Track, cross country, half marathons and now I find myself 59. Ever felt hitting a point (about 22-25 minutes for me) into the run where you suddenly feel tired and lack energy? Then at 30 min you are back in the game. Its your body using up energy stores of glycogen and starting to burn fat for energy. Its not all or nothing but I can feel the change in metabolism.
My wife got me to try with her that South Beach Diet a few years back (all protein) and I noticed the change over a few weeks also.
Cardiovascular disease runs in my family. Big time. I am 8 years past the age when my old man began his MI history. The only artificial thing I do is take some Lipitor. My ratios are extremely good so my risk is very low. I monitor my C reactive protein to check for inflammation (see link) although it is a general indicator of inflammation that could be from several sources.

I have been tracking myself every year since I joined the military when I was 23. Constantly read up on the subject. I have been reading Science News for decades. Many drugs and treatments focus on certain aspects and may miss the larger picture. Remember the old advice to avoid butter and eat margarine? Now its the reverse of that; margarine is terrible for you. Eggs were the same way. All fat was treated the same.

Much of animal science applies to humans. If you look at animal husbandry from the early part of the last century, you will find ulcers in animals are caused by H Pylori bacterium. Hey, guess what? Took another 80 years to figure out the same thing affects humans.

What the point? Tigers don't get cardiovascular disease and all they eat is red meat (rare) with all the fat (high saturated fat). Why? Their bodies compensate. Particularly vitamin C and some other items. Guinea pigs are like people and get heart disease. Their bodies, like humans do not make vitamin C and lysine. Scurvy kills by vitamin C deficiency so severe your blood vessels leak. The collagen that helps make them strong is too weak. Most Americans don't have scurvy but are deficient enough that vessel walls are weak. Lipoprotein subgroup A is like a delivery truck of cholesterol (lipids) that are deposited (or removed) from weak or inflamed parts of your blood vessels. Deposits create atherosclerosis. If you improve the health condition of your vessels and that inflammation is gone, those same lipoproteins remove plaque. Your body is compensating for weak pipes and build up a layer inside in an attempt to shore things up. Of course that can lead to MIs. (Myocardial infarctions or heart attacks)

This is why healthy people can have sky high cholesterol and have no MIs. You can take steps to help your body help yourself without a smorgasbord of drugs that often treat symptoms but not the cause. Here is a link to get you started.

http://www.google.com/url?q=http://w...8n2wf_i83yo9uQ

Big take aways:

No processed food. Make it from scratch. Easy to do. You have knocked off sodas, thats really good but also wipe out fake sugar. Its surprising how food tastes naturally when you get used to it. I used to put brown sugar on my oatmeal as a kid. Now I can't stand it.
Quality vitamins and supplement with food. You want expensive urine.
Wine or beer 3-4 servings/week.
Nuts. Daily.
Fruit. Daily.
Keep up the exercise. I like running because its so easy. Just put on the shorts and shoes and head out the door. I can do it pretty much anywhere in the world; its a great way to get to know a city. When you can't, hotels have nice gyms. Even in the rain. Run Forest RUN!!!

 

^ Thanks for the info, it definitely sounds like you know what you're talking about and have done extensive research on the subject. I'm an engineer so I appreciate the details with just about everything

For my lifestyle though, I'm trying not to get swept up with what I would call a drastic change with a crap-ton of details to focus on. I could easily get bogged down in the details but I'm much more likely to get burned out a lot faster. My wife does it ALL the time. She goes from eating like crap and being a lazy couch potato to like 1200 cal/day, no fat no starch, water only, exercise 7 times a week for 2 hours at a time, and then 2 weeks later... surprise surprise.... she gives up on everything. It's maddening.

What I did was just adjust my diet with foods I "knew I liked" and were "generally good for me." I counted calories for 2 days of just eating when I was hungry, at the end of the day, to see where I ended up and it was always right at about 2k calories. All I looked at was calories, no carb/starch/fat nonsense. The foods I picked I knew were generally healthy. So I stopped counting. A lot less to think about. Then I just cut out soda and alcohol because there was no real need for me to be drinking them. I switched to a ~5% orange juice in water solution for some good refreshing water flavor. I love it, actually. I used to make 20% OJ, 80% water with a shot of vodka as my dilute skrewdriver I had 1-2 a night and just diluted it down more and took out the vodka lol.

When I get my treadmill, I'll just start with running when I feel like it (which will be at least once a week, I'm constantly wanting to run but we have nowhere safe to run around here) and will exercise muscle groups that will make me feel better, especially abs (lol).

After a couple months, if I can keep it up, I'll go to the doc and see where my numbers are. Then I can focus on a good exercise program with concrete goals and such but for now I'm just going to try and "be healthy" without all the details.

 

Jkelly is 27, however I feel the same but I'm only 23 5'7 and 135lbs. I manage an IT company so my job is also mentally exhausting, and sometimes physically exhausting. I work around 50-55 hours a week. So by the time I get home I too feel like I'm not going to make it past 10 or 10:30. Almost his whole situation/lifestyle sounds like mine aside from, and I will admit I don't get enough exercise, and I'm in the process of getting a home. I also don't have any debt, so no overbearing anxiety from that either.
My fiance is kind enough to always have a healthy meal made for dinner. As far as breakfast goes, I eat pretty light, like a banana and a cereal bar (Nutrigrain ect.) sometimes egg whites. Lunch consists of fruit and salads/sandwiches (depends on my mood). I don't eat out often at all, usually a couple times a month. I don't drink sodas, only a single cup of coffee 3-4 times a week and about 3-4 16oz bottles of water a day (I know I need more)

I don't get it. I'll get the normal 7-8 hours of sleep but I feel tired and run down pretty often.

I just had a physical and blood work done last Thursday for the first time since I was 16 and I'm perfect everywhere aside from high cholesterol. They mentioned that its high though due to my good cholesterol (HDL)

I'm starting to wonder if like the second poster said, that it could be sleep related. Like I'm just getting poor sleep.

Not sure what else to try

 

Exercise (run) in the morning. Yes, this means you may have to get up earlier than normal, perhaps even when it is dark. I see 'time' as make-believe anyway as I span time zones all the time. When you do this 3-4 times a week, or daily as you are young-just be careful to listen to your body.

I think you will find you go to bed earlier and will feel much better.

 

I think I might actually try this. I'm having to get up extra early this week for work since we have plant shutdown (frantic week of inspections and fixing as much as possible before we start back up Friday) and this morning I felt pretty good despite going to sleep at the same time or later and waking up an hour earlier. I get my treadmill tomorrow, so I'm going to start there first. After that I'll probably start taking the dog out for a run in the mornings instead, she'd like that.

I'm still going pretty strong on my new diet and I think my energy level is finally starting to pick up. I haven't been working out or running yet, I've just been really active by doing house repairs, yard work push mower and ending, weed killing, trimming, etc then I start wiring the house with cat5 for my NVR system which took a lot of energy but at the end of each day I was able to stay up past ~10:30 without too much problem so I think I'm improving.

I've dropped about 5 lbs so far. I'm sure I'll drop a few more this week because I'm having to climb in and out of reactors for welding inspections and I'm absolutely DRENCHED in sweat when I emerge from each one lol. Unfortunately it would be mostly water weight, of course.

Btw it's amazing how much better food tastes now. I had pizza on Friday or Saturday to give myself a little break and it tasted so much better than it normally does and surprisingly I didn't eat a ton of it, I just stopped after a couple slices naturally

 

I've noticed that sometime I get through a stressful situation with no noticeable physical signs. But then a short period of time after the stressful situation is over, then something physical appears (fatigue, some illness or other, etc). Sometimes there is a cumulative effect, for example if 3 or 4 minor stressful situations occur at the same time or one after the other, it takes a physical toll. Exercising and eating well can help but reducing stress is important.

 

5 pounds makes a big difference. I dunno if it's mostly psychological --- since you look better & fit in clothes better. Or getting that 5 pounds "off your back" helps stamina. Prolly combination of both. Being at and around ideal weight for your height, helps a lot when it comes to combating fatigue.


Good luck!