OP in journal...
Here's a comparison of my test results for 3 years

Ladies and gentlement, let this serve as a perfect example of why total cholesterol value is crap. My 2003 "syndrome X" style Chol results (and this is after lcing for a few months mind you) show that my cholesterol is ok. My second reading (vastly improved when read intelligently) has a scary H for HIGH next to total cholesterol and LDL . My most recent one has another scary H next to total cholesterol. Ruh Roh... it's suddenly bad to have 85 HDL, 119 LDL, and 36 triglycerides . Better eat plenty of carbs and fat free.

My A1C has continued to improve, even though I am eating more carbs than before. Maybe this is premature, but perhaps that means my body is healing itself from IR with LC? My fasting blood sugar is also more normal.

Let the record show that between 2003 and 2004 I barely lost ANY WEIGHT and was already quite slender; my diet didn't change much either. But indicators of health improved a lot. That's all LC magic.

Looking good! Did you do anything different to get higher HDL? More exercise?

I'm trying to think and honestly I can't say my diet and lifestyle changed tremendously.

I tend to go on exercise kicks, but even in the begining I went through those. The last kick I was on was a few months ago and it was pretty short lived. I do walk more than I used to, and I walk very long durations when I do. But then again I do much less treadmill work too.

Diet wise, I can think of very little that's changed. I eat more cals than I used to. Before I rarely ever used dressings with "calories" now I use quality fat based light dressings (they are ken's brand, which are reduced calorie higher quality fat (olive & canola) based dressings with low sugar... not fat free garbage dressings).
Even though I eat more cals than I used to, I use more reduced fat products. Before I would use a very small amount of full fat, now I use full portions of reduced fat... in the end it works out that I am eating more.
Another increase in cals came from eating much more nuts particularly almonds, walnuts, and peanuts. I eat nuts like regular people eat starch. Like for example, today I ate 3 oz of peanuts, a teaspoon of pb & half an ounce walnuts so far. That's an extreme example (my nut/legume consumption usually runs 1-2 oz) but just wanted to illustrate nuts & non-starchy legumes are a big part of my diet. I also have been eating lots of berries. But I've been eating lots of nuts and berries for a long time (after the first result, before the second).
I eat eggs very often, and I typically consume one avocado a week.

Red meat consumption has stayed the same. Oh BTW I eat lots of meat and love it. I haven't had much meat these past few days due to empty fridge syndrome, and I feel really longing for it.
The most common meat I eat is chicken, followed by beef, and then fish, and in last is pork. I also am quite fond of lamb and other seafood products (scallops, shrimp, crab, lobster, etc) but it's rarely consumed.
I love chicken skin, and always eat it. I also love chicken marrow, and eat a lot of chicken bones. Wings are my friend. My fav parts are the tail, the crispy skin around the "cavity", and the wing tip. I throw out the gross "yellow fat" on the inside though. Even though thigh meat is delicious it often has too much yellow fat and turns me off.
I eat beef fat too but not as much as chicken fat, because the type of fat in beef tends to be that soft storage fat that I hate with chicken. I stick mainly to the crispy beef fat which is delicious, throwing away the rest.
I eat just as much fish as always, which is several times per month. Usually it is salmon (and I am a glutton for the buttery fat & skin :yum or sardines (love em) but also I am partial to a nice cold tuna pita sandwich with low cal mayo (now that I"ve found these awesome 3 carb/40 cal per half pitas).

I also eat a TON of cheese, and like nuts cheese fills the starch void for me. I eat cheese with almost every meal, I feel weird if my meal has no cheese at all . The cheese usually comes on my veggies. Most often it's reduced fat cheese but I also eat full fat but less often. The only fat free cheese I eat is cream cheese and that's because I view cream cheese as not a real cheese (it's more like a "fun food" and a poor nutritional choice, like say butter and oils... the fat free actually has a more concentrated source of nutrition than full or reduced). I eat other dairy like sour cream, and very small amounts of real milk (but it does not agree with me and tends to mess up my blood sugar).

Veggies, I usually eat at least one big salad a day. I eat lots of carrots as snacks. Avocado, tomatoes, onions, romaine, carrots, bell peppers, cucumber, broccoli, salsa and ketchup (sugar free) are staples. I also eat a lot of spinach asparagus mushrooms but less frequently than others.

I've been eating a lot more low starch grain products (wraps, pitas, bread) and consume an average of 2 every 3 days maybe. I also eat at least 1 serving of LC diet food (cereal, bar, etc) every day.

WAY MORE INFO than you wanted to know but there you go

I think most doctors in the know look at your HDL to triglycerides ratio as one of the simpliest indicators of how healthy you are. You went from 36/151 to 85/36 which is amazing.

Thanks for your post. It's good to see that the benefits continue and increase, over the long term.

I tend to agree with you that it probably takes time for the body to heal. After 1 1/2 years on low carb I continue to wonder if my body is again fully sensitive to insulin. Regardless, I will continue my reduced carb life. However, I just returned from a 2 week cruise and did enjoy a few sugared desserts and one pina colada. I gained no weight during the vacation and I suspect that my body, if not fully healed is at least more sensitive to insulin again.

After almost three years of low carbing -- it is easy for me to tell that I am still sensitive. All I have to do is eat something high glycemic and I can feel my blood pressure shoot up, and I get tired and sleepy. I don't know if I ever will reverse the curse.

Yep.
I'm still sensitive too. Challenged myself w/ 50 grams of dextrose awhile ago... bs after eating went all the way to 148 an hour after eating, and then shot down to 41 an hour and a half after that. this was after carbing up sufficiently for 2 days too.

wow those are good numbers!

I want those numbers. My triglycerides were down to 165. At my last blood draw they were282. Hdl improved from 32 to 36. LDL came down from 121 to 100. I wish I had the success that you are having. Congratulations.