When I was first diagnosed with high cholesterol I believed that there was nothing in this world I could do to change that. I believed that I had to be on medication for the rest of my life because I had the generic kind. A dad and a brother on cholesterol lowering medication, a granddad who suffered a heart attack and an uncle who died. I knew this was no laughing matter, soI faithfully took my statins and didn’t ask questions.
No Questions
This year I celebrate 4 years of normal cholesterol and no medication.
I did it with lifestyle changes!
Changed my diet and started exercising. You can read exactly how I did it here and a great story about the power of lifestyle changes here
A healthy lifestyle is the worlds best medicine
Lifestyle changes the best medicine
An example of what I eat for lunch instead of a sandwich filled with meat and cheese.
Crispy Yams and Spicy Harissa
Lunch
Crispy Yams and Spicy Harissa
3 red pepper
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
juice from one lemon
1 clove of garlic
1/2 -1 red chilli
Bake the peppers till they are tender and the skin almost black. Allow them to cool, tear off the skin and put the flesh in the blender. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend into a smooth and delicious sauce.
2 big yams
Olive oil
sea salt pepper
3 red pepper1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
juice from one lemon
1 clove of garlic
1/2 -1 red chilli
Slice the yams and put them on a baking tray – drizzle with olive oil, sea salt and pepper. Bake till golden brown, crispy and tender.
Serve the crispy yams on a salad with the spicy Harrisa and a fresh squeeze of lemon.
This dish can easily be made as dinner served with whatever takes your fancy – and it can be the perfect leftover lunch to bring to work.
Harissa Sauce
Wishing you a wonderful weekend wherever you are!
Anne Sture Tucker 
Good for you, dear Anne. What a tasty snack. What is the difference betweter sweet potatoes & yams???? Mmmmmm,… 😃
Thank you Sophie – it’s so tasty and good with the harissa 🙂
Yams have a deeper orange colour and they are sweeter than sweet potatoes – both are really tasty, though, and very healthy!
Thank you. We only have sweet potatoes over here. X
This is such a delicious, easy, and healthy way to make sweet potatoes (difficult to get yams here). Congratulations on four years statin-free!!
Thank you Annie – I am so happy to be off the statins!
I have a feeling you would love this Annie 🙂 Im addicted to Harissa 🙂
Most of these recipes I can’t make at home cause I can’t find the necessary ingredients, but hearing that you are off meds and healthy is an encouraging message. Well done, Anne. I know you will keep it up. 🙂
Just had my cholesterol level last week too and though it’s within normal it’s on the high normal scale. I did a lot of diet change and exercise, lost 40 pounds but I guess I need to work on stress and sleep areas since I work night shift in an E.R. Perhaps one day, I can do day shift and go to a less stressful dept . For now, I ‘ll check out eating more healthy food. Thanks
Wow good for you for eating well, exercising and loosing 40 pounds! I think managing stress is really important because we tend to be lousy at making healthy choices when we are stressed and tired. It’s even harder when you work night shifts, but I imagine even important to take really good care of yourself!