New Books

So far I have not come across any new information about cholesterol, but I did finally receive my new books in the mail. One I mentioned in my last post is Cholesterol Protection for Life. I have not read much into it but my brother's synopsis was, "Eat as much fruits and vegetables as you like, have starch once a week and animal products once a month." I am not sure that I will go that far into this diet, but I will certainly be paying more attention to what I eat. I was surprised to hear that starch is one of the things I should not eat a lot of. I love starch, mashed potatoes, corn, rice, pasta, bring it on! Unfortunately starches cause a decrease in High Density Lipids which is the good cholesterol. Of course, endurance exercise uses mainly starches to fuel the body, so it is not surprising that endurance exercise increases HDL. Now I am not talking about hours and hours of exercise. I have read that 30 minutes of continuous exercise is sufficient to increase HDL, and for each 10 minutes longer per session there is a corresponding increase in HDL levels.

The other book I bought is Base Building for Cyclists. Since my HDL levels were not low and I tend to ride for at least 30 minutes at a time, I do not plan to cut back much on my starch intake.

Cholesterol

Earlier this week I received a call from the doctor's office informing me that my lipid count was too high. I was preoccupied at that moment so I really had no idea what the nurse was talking about until she said, "low cholesterol diet and vigorous exercise at least three times a week." Oh. Well, since all of my family has high cholesterol, I was not very surprised with the news. Fortunately my cholesterol is not so high that they immediately recommend drugs.

My brother is a doctor-to-be and so I mentioned my cholesterol to him and he recommended a book to learn about diet changes that will lower my cholesterol. While waiting for this book to arrive I have been looking up research related to cholesterol, diet, and exercise. Currently I have discovered that while it is certain that exercise improves one's cholesterol, there is some controversy as to how, how much it improves cholesterol, how much and what kind of exercise are necessary, and what type of cholesterol (HDL or LDL) is affected.

Recent studies, this one in particular, show that High Density Lipoproteins (HDL) increase with increasing exercise session duration (the longer you exercise the better). As I understood the article, the intensity of exercise correlates with Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL) concentration, so the harder you exercise, the better.

Most of the studies I have come across so far are studies of obese or "at risk" populations. I have been searching for studies of "healthy" population. I will let you know what I find.

Playing in the snow

We had fun playing in the snow last week. Joseph enjoyed it very much and was quite irritated with me when I insisted that he come inside. I made a snow man, but I only had broken dog biscuits to use for the face and one button. I am sure that the dog biscuits that did not turn into soggy mess were enjoyed or hidden by the dog. The snowman fell over a few hours later and quietly melted away, although there is still a half-square-foot lump of snow left as a remnant.

By Sunday almost all of the snow had melted except in the shadows of trees and homes. By Monday the snow was all gone but we had a cold rain. M. took J. after his morning nap and that left me free for a lovely bike ride. I pedaled through the cold damp to the Mazda dealership where I am negotiating obtaining a Mazda5. No suitable vehicles were yet available, so I pedaled home into a stiff headwind.

My speed to the dealership must have been pretty fast because even with the headwind my average speed for the 26 mile round trip was still 14.5 mph. I know, for most guys that isthe speed you go when you aren't pedaling, but for me that is a reasonably fast average for the route I took. The last long (30 miles, I am working up!) ride I took I averaged about 16 mph, however there was no rain, hardly any traffic and the route was mostly flat. The ride was enjoyable and almost all of the drivers were quite nice.

Let it Snow!

Yesterday we had a winter storm. I did not expect such an occurrence. It was a lovely snow, perfect for snowmen. And when I have built a snowman I shall add a picture of him.






About an hour after the first photo I took this photo. You can see the snow is falling thick enough that the trees across the way are less distinct and the sky is darker even though it was not that close to sunset.





And this one was taken the next morning (today). Shortly before it stopped snowing we measured the amount of snow on our picnic table out back and it was just at four inches. We also lost power for more than four hours last night. It was kind of fun doing everything by candlelight. We had to bundle up and put several blankets on the bed to sleep. J. had three layers of clothes on! Before the power went out J. was flipping through his book of animal sounds that I have read to him often; when he flipped to the duckling page he said, "Quaak." Then, rather amazed, I said "moo" when he flipped to the cow page and he replied, "mmmmm!" When I told my husband about this, he figured the quack was random chance, but then we heard J. behind us repeating, "quaa quaa quaa." It was quite amusing.

Cool things my son does

I know that all of you long time parents (anyone with more than one kid) out there probably won't find this amazing or cool because, well, all your kids did that too. Earlier. Better. Faster. It really does not faze you anymore. However, since I am still a newbie parent, I still find every progression very interesting. For instance, this week my son wandered off down the hall and after a few minutes my husband went to check on him. J. was sitting in his room by himself flipping through one of his picture books. A few minutes later he toddled into the dining room where we were, carrying his book and sat on the floor and flipped through the book. But the best part was a few minutes later when he stood up, brought the book to me and climbed into my lap so I could "read" it with him. Even better was when he got down, went away, and came back with a different book for us to look through.

We recently obtained a cat whom we have named Bedina, Arabic for "fat girl". She is fluffy. J. loves to play with her. Last night she was laying on a piece of tissue paper from an unwrapped present and J was tearing bits off, which B would bat at, setting J to giggling.

Biking has not received much attention lately; moving my bike into our sunroom has made biking on the fly easier. It is less of a hassle to stop in the middle of a ride on my rollers and pop in the back door than when I had my bike and rollers out in the shop.

I have posted a few new articles that have caught my eye. I have not managed to read either of these yet.

And finally I have started using Magikey to enter genealogy information with help from the makers of that fine product.