Baked salmon and eating the healthiest diet

For years I was of the "I'll eat what I want to when I want to mold." For whatever reason, I was blessed with a metabolism that could process just about anything: Twinkies, ho-hos, potato chips, fried chicken, red meat... none of it mattered to me. I was six foot one, one hundred sixty five pounds for about ten years from age sixteen to age twenty five. It was nice to be invincible.

Then one day my metabolism stopped. I went from one sixty five to one ninety five in about the span of a month. My cholesterol went from 155 to 240 in the same time span, and my triglycerides jumped to above one hundred fifty, which is "hey, you might have a heart attack really soon" range. It sure sucks getting old.

So I had to change my diet as well as my lifestyle. First to go was cigarettes, second was potato chips. Processed foods in general followed - anything that comes in a can or a plastic pouch, anything with high fructose corn syrup, et cetera et cetera. I also began exercising regularly. I started with a pretty leisurly five miles every other day on the exercise bike, eventually working it up to 12 miles five days a week. And I also had to drop my beloved red meat and fried chicken.

The replacement for me - and I'm lucky because I happen to like fish - has been baked salmon. There is literally no healthier protein than baked salmon. It's low in fat, but high in beneficial fatty acids. It's low in calories, but filling and high in protein. And if you season it right, baked salmon is absolutely delicious.

Great baked salmon recipes can be as complex or as simple as you make them. For me, when I get a particularly nice piece of fish, I'll go the simple route: a little salt, a little black pepper, a squeeze of lemon, and then just cook it briefly, giving it a bit of a crisp on the outside.

A less impressive piece of fish might get a little more treatment. Whether it's lemon pepper, cloves of garlic, dill, or even a coating of flour, sometimes you have to work the inferior pieces a little bit more. And certainly you'll want to cook it more as well.

Since I've switched my diet and improved my lifestyle I've dropped twenty pounds, back down to one seventy five, and cut my cholesterol by seventy points overall. I've also been able to drop my triglycerides to 105, LDL cholesterol to under 100, and raised my HDL (the "good" cholesterol) by about five percent. Not ground breaking, but at least everything is heading in the right direction again.