How I cut my Triglycerides by over 30% in 30 days.

Let me begin with this: I think high cholesterol is bullshit. No. I’m not a doctor, but I have played one as a youth. Cholesterol levels were not a problem, in my opinion, until a test was developed to check their levels in the blood. Then drugs were made to lower them. Drugs cost money. They have side effects. Drug companies make a lot of money from the sale of drugs, and keeping you on the drugs. The drug companies have a fiduciary duty to their stockholders. That means that they have to make a profit, the more the better. I personally don’t feel that the majority of the drug companies have your interests at heart, they are after your money, or your insurance company’s money. Yeah, I can go on and on with my conspiracy theories, if you’re interested, buy me some whiskey and I’ll tell you.  

For now, let’s get on with how I cut my Triglycerides by over 30% in 30 days.

  Please note, this article is not meant as medical advice as I am not qualified to give it, I’m not a doctor. However, I do have some knowledge about nutrition, and I have a lot of common sense. To me, common sense dictates that if I can positively affect my health without drugs, then I should do everything I can before resorting to drugs. So…….. My primary care doctor, who I love, has been telling me to take statins for a while now. Over the past few years my cholesterol levels have been inching upwards but were in the normal range. Why take statins if they are normal? In his defense, he did make a few suggestions that were very valid, such as to increase my cardiovascular training. When I was still doing Strongman, which has tons of cardio, I was also boxing and doing Muay Thai a few times a week as well as Modern Arnis, so the cardio was there. My cholesterol levels were also 100% fine. As I got more beat up, I stopped virtually all forms of cardio training, mainly because it sucked, but also because I just couldn’t do the things I liked any more due to injuries. There really weren’t too many forms of cardio I could do without pain over the last few years so I didn’t do any. (Seems off topic, but it’s not, you’ll see.) Anyway, at my last physical, my blood test showed that my total cholesterol was a little high, my good cholesterol was low, and my bad cholesterol was high. This did not concern me at all, but it did concern him. What concerned me was that for the first time, my Triglycerides were high. I’ll debate cholesterol and it’s bullshit all day, but not the Triglycerides. High Triglycerides are not good. Without going into all the why’s and hows, you can read that on your own. Do a quick search on the Google machine. You’ll see. Anyway, we had a discussion and he strongly advised that I go on statins. I strongly disagreed. I am pretty friendly with my doctor so it wasn’t a typical doc/patient conversation. There may or may not have been some swearing from me. I told him that we will retest in 30 days and see if I could do this on my own. He said let’s test in about 8-12 weeks. As I was going on vacation at the 30 day mark, he agreed to re test sooner for me to see if what I was doing was working. I didn’t want to go on vacation and not eat something bad for me, or have some booze. Let’s back up for a minute and I’ll tell you why I didn’t want to take statins. There’s a few reasons. Once you start statins, you need to stay on them. Yes, there is some cases where you can stop, but for the most part, you are on them. I don’t know about you, but at 48, I don’t want to be taking a drug for the rest of my life it I don’t NEED it. Statins have a lot of side effects. Yes, I know that all drugs have side effects, but the ones from statins, I’m just not willing to gamble on. Here is a short list:

• Muscle Pain and Weakness
• Cancer
• Pancreatitis
• Depression
• Neuropathy
• Heart Failure
• Dizziness
• Cognitive Impairment

Now, the most common side effect is muscle pain and weakness, and if you’ve been reading anything I write, I am tired of my body hurting all the time. Why on Earth would I take a drug with a primary side effect of making this worse? It defies common sense. And another thing: Most of what I have read says that Statins lower triglycerides by 10-20%. That is not enough for me. I was pretty sure I could lower them without drugs by more than that long term. How was I so sure? Well, being totally forthcoming, I have not been the pillar of excellent nutrition over the last few months and that is a huge cause of this condition. So, without more pomp and fanfare, here is how I cut my Triglycerides by over 30% in 30 days. First, cleaned up my diet. Drastically. Since simple carbs are good post workout, I had no problem eating a few donuts or cookies post workout. Yes we can justify anything. I transformed my diet 100%. I completely cut out all forms of processed carbs and packaged foods. I cut out all refined sugar. I eliminated all bread, most grains (except sticky rice), sugar, pizza, candy, pastry, you get it. Zero processed carbs or refined sugar. These two things alone will lower your cholesterol and your triglycerides. But since I was looking for a huge impact, I also cut out all alcohol. Yup.



No whiskey. Did you notice that I said I cut out grains? That’s the opposite of what the medical field tells you to do. Grains can be inflammatory. Inflammation and cholesterol have a symbiotic effect, well maybe not symbiotic, but they go hand in hand in a bad way. Adding in foods that are inflammatory doesn’t make common sense to me. I also ate a lot of fat. The medical fields tells you to eat a low fat diet, but I didn’t. I ate the following foods pretty much all the time:

• Beef
• Chicken
• Tuna
• Sweet Potatoes
• Sticky Rice
• Tons of veggies
• Lots of Kerry Gold butter
• Eggs
• Bacon
• Fruit
• Some Protein powders

An average Training Day looked like this: Breakfast(7:30 am): 4 eggs, 1 tomato, 6 slices bacon, 99 cups of coffee (black) Pre-Training (11:30 am): 2 tablespoons peanut butter, 2 pieces of fruit Post Training(about 2:30 pm): Either 10 ounces steak tips and rice, or a MetRx RTD 51 and 2 pieces of fruit Snack (about 6:00 pm) 2 pieces of fruit, Metrx RTD 51 Dinner (about 9:00 pm) As much steak or chicken as I wanted, sweet potato or two or a big bowl of rice, lots of veggies and lots of Kerry Gold. Non-Training Days: Same breakfast Lunch (About 2:00 pm) 10 ounces steak tips, lots of veggies and butter Snack (maybe-6:00 pm): Metrx RTD 51 Dinner (about 9:00 pm) Same I also added in Boxing.



I did this slowly. I did start this before I went for my physical, and not because I was going for my physical, but because I was really out of shape and didn’t want to have a stroke carrying in the groceries. Wait, who am I kidding? I make my son do that. Anyway.   I started with three, one minute rounds the first week, as that gassed me. I built up the rounds until I was doing ten, one minute rounds over two weeks. This built up to ten, two minute rounds and will go to three minute rounds on a schedule over the next few weeks. My boxing consisted of:

• Shadow Boxing
• Heavy Bag
• Jump Rope

  And I have added some stick boxing in, getting back to the Modern Arnis. A nice side benefit of stick work is literally almost bullet proofing your shoulders. It restores mobility and does wonders for the shoulder joint.



Google sinawali and you’ll see what I mean. This was done after my strength training. I hope to find the time over the next few weeks to add this in two more days per week.  

There was another component to how I cut my Triglycerides by over 30% in 30 days.

  Supplements. I added in the following supplements daily: Twice Daily:

• Multi Vitamin
• 250 mg. Niacin
• 2000 iu D3
• Acidophilus
• Fish Oil 1200mg/360 Omega 3
• C 1000 mg.
• Saw Palmetto 450 mg.

Added this once daily:

• CoQ10 300 mg.
• B Complex

Some were specific to the cholesterol, some not. Of all of them, I feel the Niacin and the CoQ10 were the most important for my objective. So, how did it work out? Well, 30 days later, I felt incredibly better overall. I lost about 12 pounds. I didn’t do a body fat test, but I did lose mostly fat. The waist is smaller and less jiggly. My blood test came back as follows:

• Total Cholesterol: down almost 10%
• HDL 15% positive change
• LDL: 12% positive change
• Non-HDL: 10% positive change
• Triglycerides: 33% positive change.

Yes. I lowered my Triglycerides 33% in exactly 30 days. Statins do not work this fast or to this effect. AND, if I want, I can stop taking any of these supplements at any time with no ill effects, unless my diet goes to shit and I stop exercising. You can’t just stop taking statins, if ever. I fully expect my next test to be even better. My Triglyceride levels are well into the normal range. That is my biggest concern. So, if you are in the same boat, I have to tell you to listen to your doctor and do what they say. If you are a stubborn bastard like me, and you talk it over with your doctor and they agree, try to do it without drugs. It worked for me. Maybe it can work for you.

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