High Cholesterol?

I'm a 21 year old female and I've been a vegetarian for nearly five years. Yesterday, after a routine blood test, I found out that I have high cholesterol. Since the Dr's assistant called while I was at work, I didn't really have a chance to explain my predicament and get recommendations. I called back today and left a message, asking for advice. I just got a call back from the assistant. She asked me some questions and I explained my concerns. She said it could be genetic and is going to ask the doctor for his recommendation and give me a call back.

My cholesterol is at 227 when it shouldn't be over 200 and my bad cholesterol is at 154 and it shouldn't be over 99.

The funny thing is that I just started exercising more and switched from iced tea to water in an attempt to loose some weight for my upcoming wedding. I don't eat that badly, and when I do eat junk food it's in moderation.

I guess I'll be switching to a more Vegan diet in an attempt to drop the levels down for my three month re-test. The reason I haven't really gone vegan before is because I really don't have the time to make all my meals from scratch. I work and I go to college, along with taking care of my many animals and juggling my precious-little time with my fiance (who is not v*gn). I do eat a lot of ready-made processed vegetarian foods. Quorn chikin patties are a favorite, but those have 0 cholesterol. Going through my cabinet of usual foods, I found that the only things I eat on a regular basis that contain and significant amount of cholesterol are my mushroom ravioloi and the sauce (YUM - sadness!) and these breakfast egg things that I just recently found a couple of weeks ago.

As far as actual dairy - I do drink milk. One or two glasses a day max. However, I only drink skim milk. I eat cheese, but not any more than any other lacto-ovo vegetarian, and I don't eat eggs all that often. Maybe 2 times a week at most. I do eat ice cream, but a pint can easily last me a week.

I don't know any genetic history regarding cholesterol since my mother was adopted and I am not in contact with my paternal side. I'm debating trying to get in contact with some people to see if it's something genetic so I don't starve myself trying to lower my levels if the problem isn't due to food.

Any advice/suggestions would be highly appreciated!

Thanks!