The Real Reason Your Cholesterol Keeps Going Back Up

The Cholesterol Coach
6 days ago
4 min read

Woman walking in nature, representing a calm and balanced approach to health and lifestyle

I had a discovery call recently with a lady who was considering 1:1 coaching, and within a few minutes of chatting, a pattern came up that I see all the time.

She’d been diagnosed with high cholesterol a few years ago, which understandably came as a shock.

So she did what most people do… she went away, researched everything she could, and for about six weeks she went all in. She cut out dairy, cut out processed foods, cut out red meat, stopped drinking alcohol, and increased her exercise. Really committed.

And to her credit… it worked. Her cholesterol came down when she had it retested.

But then… life happened. And slowly, things slipped. Not overnight. Not dramatically. Just gradually… back towards how things were before. And now her cholesterol is higher than it was to begin with.

And if you’re reading that thinking, “That sounds a bit like me…” you’re not alone.

I see this exact pattern with cholesterol, with weight loss, with health in general. There’s that initial motivation. The “right, this is it” moment. Everything gets overhauled in one go. You manage to keep it going for a few weeks… maybe even a couple of months… and then it starts to feel hard. Restrictive. A bit miserable, if we’re being honest. And eventually… something gives. And when it does, it’s very easy to slip right back to where you started. Sometimes even a bit further back.

What tends to follow isn’t just frustration… it’s self-doubt. That quiet voice that starts questioning you.

“Why can’t I stick to anything?”

“Other people seem to manage this…”

“Maybe I just don’t have the discipline.”

And this is the bit I always want to gently challenge. Because more often than not… it’s not that you couldn’t stick to it. It’s that what you were trying to stick to wasn’t designed to fit into your life long term.

We’re often led to believe that the answer is to go harder. Be stricter. Be more disciplined. Cut more out. But that’s usually what creates the problem in the first place.

Because if the way you’re improving your health only works when life is quiet, predictable, and perfectly controlled… it’s not going to hold up in the real world. And the real world is where your health actually needs to exist.

So instead of asking, “What can I change, and how quickly can I change it?” a much more useful question is, “What’s one small thing I could do differently today… that moves me in the right direction?” And then tomorrow… you ask the same question again.

Not glamorous. Not dramatic. But incredibly effective.

Because this is where things start to shift. Not in one big overhaul… but in small changes that actually stick. The kind that don’t require you to avoid social plans, or overthink every meal, or feel like you’re constantly “on track” or “off track”. Just small adjustments that slowly become part of how you live.

This is exactly what we spoke about on that call. Rather than bouncing between two extremes, doing nothing… or doing everything… we look for the middle ground. Something that supports her health, without taking away from the life she enjoys.

Because she said something that I think is really important. She said, “I have a good life. I don’t want to lose that.” And she shouldn’t have to. Improving your health shouldn’t come at the expense of your life. If anything… it should enhance it.

I was reminded of this again recently with one of my clients. He’s about 10 weeks into coaching, and he went on an all-inclusive holiday.

Before we started working together, he was worried about it. Worried he’d undo everything. Or that he’d feel restricted and not enjoy himself.

We caught up when he got back, and he said it was the best holiday. He went to the gym every other morning because he wanted to. He chose balanced meals during the day because he liked how it made him feel. And in the evenings, he relaxed. No guilt. No overthinking. No sense of “being good” or “being bad”. Just… balance.

And what’s interesting is, if I’d told him at the start that this is how it would feel… he probably wouldn’t have believed me. Because it would have felt too far removed from where he was at the time.

So instead, we didn’t aim for that. We just focused on the next step. And then the next. Until that way of living just… became normal.

Something else happened this week that really stayed with me. My parents were round helping with some DIY, and I had to step away for a couple of calls.

My mum said, “I thought you were full with clients?” And I said a few people were coming to the end of their coaching, so I had some space opening up.

And she said, “I guess you’re a bit of a victim of your own success… because you set people up so well, they don’t need you forever.”

And she’s right. That is the goal. Not to have people relying on support indefinitely… but to help them build something they can carry on themselves. Because that’s when you know it’s worked.

So if you’ve found yourself stuck in that cycle… all in… then off track… then starting again… it’s not a sign that you need to try harder. It’s usually a sign that you need a different approach. Something a bit more realistic. A bit more flexible. A bit more… human.

You don’t need to overhaul your entire life to improve your cholesterol. You just need to start making changes that you can actually keep going. Because that’s what adds up. That’s what lasts. And that’s what moves things forward in a way that doesn’t feel like you’re constantly fighting against your own life.