Weighty Wednesday: Strength and Cholesterol

I finally lost another pound! Over the past few weeks I have been doing pretty well at finding that middle ground I talked about last time. Eating healthy foods most of the time, but leaving some room for treats and special occasions. I have also started to run/walk on the treadmill for about 1 to 2 miles a few days a week, as well as an occasional 21 day fix workout.

Lbs Lost So Far: 18
Lbs Left To Lose: 9

I have been chatting with my old Beachbody coach (We did the 21 Day Fix here!) and she had a great suggestion for me. She said I should add in some strength training to my workouts. I guess strength training isn't something that immediately comes to mind when I am trying to burn calories and lose weight. I know it is important, especially as we get older and start to lose muscle mass. But my mindset has been just do cardio and burn as many calories as possible. But after talking to LeAnn I was reminded of the many benefits that strength training can have when trying to lose weight. So I'm looking for an easy guide to something I can do at home. I know how to do things like crunches, pushups, tri-cep dips, planks,  bicep curls, squats, and lunges. And I have a set of weights but they probably aren't heavy enough. I'm looking for something easy and quick that I could do, possibly after doing my jogs on the treadmill. I'm realistic and I know I won't find the time to do this every day, but every little bit helps.

When talking about my weight, it was brought to my attention that thyroid problems run in my family. So I went and got some bloodwork done yesterday. Good news is that thyroid is perfectly normal! (Can't blame my weight on that!) I also got my cholesterol checked because it hasn't been checked in many years. Here is a little chart I found that shows the ranges.

And here are my numbers:

Total Cholesterol: 177

LDL Cholesterol: 103

HDL Cholesterol: 67

Triglyceride: 37

It was a bit higher than I was expecting, but overall pretty good. I bet I could lower the LDL even more if I lose these last 9 pounds and start exercising more.