Premature jubilation

It turns out that I should have taken with a grain of salt the perfunctory value statements made about my lipid levels by the office med tech or whoever it was (i.e. not the doctor) who called me Monday morning to tell me about the test results. As far as I can remember, she said that all four numbers were "good". Maybe she said that because all of the numbers had improved over last September; maybe there was a little indicator on the printout that showed them within a wide "acceptable" band.

Anyway, when I visited her yesterday afternoon, the doctor (eight months pregnant!) did not call any of the numbers "good". The triglycerides had dropped so precipitously that rather than smile about it she wondered aloud if I had fasted properly prior to the previous test (on which they were alarmingly high). Never mind that they were perfectly fine now. Total cholesterol, she at first said it was "way too high", until I pointed out that she was looking at last year's results for that number. She may have mumbled something about the new number being "ok"-- I don't really remember.

Anyway, LDL (bad) cholesterol is still a little too high, but I'm within 10 of the right number. HDL (good) cholesterol still too low, more than a little. So I'm supposed to try to cut out more cholesterol (and saturated fat?) from my diet to lower the LDL and exercise more to increase the HDL. Sigh. I'm not sure I can really cut all that much more out of my diet, and anyway, I want to live a little. The doctor did point out what anyone who has seen those goofy TV commercials knows already, which is that high cholesterol partly comes from diet, and partly from your family (i.e. your genes).

I wish there was a way to get more perspective on this, i.e. what kind of danger these particular deviations really represent.

Sorry this was so boring.

America's Next Top Church

As I think I may have forecasted a few posts back, we visited United Presbyterian Church of Manoa yesterday. Angela was a little underwhelmed with their choir. That may sound petty, but her feeling (and I'm more or less with her on this) is that if you're going to do church choir, practice your songs until you can sing the music without making mistakes. It disheartens her when a choir stumbles on the basic execution of the musical notes, during the church service. She was pretty sour about this, but her attitude softened somewhat when a church member showed up at our doorstep roughly three hours after the service with a little welcome gift bag. (Not to try to mollify us about the choir-- I think they do it for all their first-time visitors. ;-) ) She (Angela) said, "Well, maybe we could try one of their other services." (i.e., that doesn't feature the choir that we heard in the 11am service).

Folks that aren't very computer geeky may not get this, but I remarked to Angela on our way home from lunch after church that I currently consider myself to be "safe mode" regarding church involvement. I have retracted myself into myself somewhat, to more easily allow for a phase of browsing, which is largely being directed by Angela. She doesn't really know what she wants, which is fine. I feel that my role is to keep us slow and relaxed, which means--I think--not too many different churches per month, please.

Wacky Bible

I wanted to share about this version of the Bible that Angela and I have been reading together, in a "read the Bible in one year" edition. It's called The Message. The translator has opted to render all of the texts into a very informal contemporary style. This is perhaps most notable in the Psalms. He comes out with a bang with Psalm 1:

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How well God must like you--
   you don't hang out at Sin Saloon,
   you don't slink along Dead-End Road,
   you don't go to Smart-Mouth College.

Instead you thrill to God's Word,
   you chew on Scripture day and night.
You're a tree replanted in Eden,
   bearing fresh fruit every month,
Never dropping a leaf,
   always in blossom.

You're not at all like the wicked,
   who are mere windblown dust--
Without defense in court,
   unfit company for innocent people.

GOD [i.e. YHWH] charts the road you take.
The road they take is Skid Row.
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Anyway, so far it's been a nice solution to a longstanding problem Angela and I have had with doing Bible reading together. I've read so much of the Bible so many times, and in several translations, that it simply isn't very interesting to me to just read through it again, without "working" on it in some way. Angela, on the other hand, has some pretty big gaps in her Bible knowledge, and just wants to cover as much of it as possible and to handle any "analysis" in a casual and gentle manner. The great thing is that this translation is so wacky, that it is virtually a new book to me, and I've enjoyed reading it with Angela. We try to read at least one day's worth (I say "at least" because we started in the beginning of January and we're about a month "behind schedule" already) in bed before turning off the light.

So far, going through the daily dollops that have been portioned out for us, we've read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Matthew, part of Hebrews, some Psalms and some Proverbs. And yes, you're right-- there's only so wacky you can get with Leviticus.

Blood and Pizza

I may have mentioned that Angela and I are both on the South Beach Diet. I'm more or less in my maintenance phase now (at around 140 pounds), but the idea is that you try to abide by certain basic principles forever. So anyway, last Tuesday evening Angela asks me if I'd be willing to buy a pizza from somewhere. Pizza, being a very high-carb selection, has been pretty scarce around our house for the last few months. She suggested that Peace-A-Pizza might have some whole grain stuff on their menu. I looked them up online, and they don't.

I typed "whole grain pizza" Philadelphia into Google and eventually ran into Mom's Bake At Home Pizza, with a number of locations in the Philly metro area. It just so happens that there's a location pretty close to us, in Havertown. Check out this menu! Whole wheat crust available. A little more expensive, but hey-- 25 cents more a slice, on the large pizza. Isn't your health worth 25 cents extra? More tasty, too.

We opted for a large "Positively Pesto" (under "Special Pizzas"-- comes with chicken, sundried tomatoes, and ricotta), with whole wheat crust. The BOMB! One of the best pizzas I have ever tasted. Anywhere. Right out of my own oven. So now you know.

I guess this is a natural enough segue to my next topic-- my lipid panel. For those non-doctors out there, that means a test to find out if your blood has all the nasty stuff that gives you a heart attack. The whole reason I went on a diet this January and stuck with it is that my levels were all pretty bad as of last October, and back in early 2004 I had lost weight and seen the levels fall perfectly into line. Starting late in '04, after Abby was born, and through 2005, I gained it all back.

So anyway, after a little less than three months of dieting and having arrived within one pound of my "official" (for the purpose of the South Beach Diet website) goal weight of 140, I had blood drawn last week to allow my doctor to revisit the issue. Someone from the doctor's office called me on my cell today to let me know what the results were. All four numbers (triglycerides, total/LDL/HDL cholesterol) were "good"! Yay! Warm satisfied feelings inside. It's the combined warmth of "winning" plus the vague warm feeling of having a reduced risk of having a heart attack... some day?