the results are in...

...and they're pretty good! I saw my gyn today (LOVE her!), and found out how my lipids are. My total cholesterol is 162, which is great and is down from last year's 190. My LDL ("bad" cholesterol), VLDL ("very bad" cholesterol) and triglycerides (another undesirable) were all down significantly, which is great! The only disappointing thing is that my HDL ("good" cholesterol) hadn't risen nearly as much as I'd hoped, and is still much lower than desired. She explained to me, though, that while diet and exercise can really help lower the bad stuff, it's much harder for it to raise the HDL. That's more determined by genetics and is harder to improve with lifestyle changes. She's really pleased with the results, and thinks that even though they're not optimal, they're just fine. And she was obviously very pleased with my weight loss. When she was palpating my abdomen to feel my internal organs, she kept commenting on how "skinny" I am ! That made me feel pretty darn good. She told me to keep up the good work, and I plan to do just that.