Eating Healthy or Healthier ugghhh....

I have been blessed with fast metabolism, but cursed with high cholesterol. This all coupled with the fact that I turned 35 this year and to celebrate the occasion my body decided to hold on to a few extra pounds in my tummy and my hips.  I tried to reason with it to shift the weight a little northward like towards my chest, but no such luck. 
So here I go trying to drop a bit of weight and more importantly get my cholesterol as much in check as I can on my end.  Last week Rich, Cecily, and I headed to Trader Joe's for a little shopping.  Trader Joe's and I have a long history.  It used to be the closest grocery store to my apartment in Pennsylvania so on occasion I would try to do a complete shop there.  I would come home with bread the color of bark that tasted equally as yummy and find myself back at the regular store days later.  Luckily Trader's Joe's and the 30 something me have come to a mutual understanding that I won't consume 900 grain foods, but will happily enjoy some of their whole wheat buns and fresh salsa.  Armed with my new app Fooducate, we were able too make some educated food decisions.  I am learning and trying to do a little better for myself and my family.  So this is step one: learning and cutting back on bad things while trying to be a more educated shopper.  It hasn't been too bad and my only regretful side effect was a nightmare that I had consumed an entire Friendly's ice cream cake and had to enter it into my calorie counter.  I have since stopped counting calories and am sleeping better.