Toms Diary

Archive for November 8th, 1999

Dear Lynn: On Lowering Cholesterol

Monday, November 8th, 1999

[Lynn],

Given that you’re so thin and your blood pressure is okay, your cholesterol reading probably will be good too, especially since you seem to eat very carefully, without too much reckless abandon. But I’ve learned lots over the years about lowering cholesterol. So if yours is high, I have lots of remedies to share. Here are just a few tips:

Hold total fat consumption to under 20 grams per day.
Keep saturated fat consumption under 5 grams per day.
Get at least 20 grams of fiber per day.
Consume this fiber early in the day so that should you decide to eat fatty foods later on, the fiber will have had time enough to line your intestines and reduce the amount of fat absorbed into the blood from those fatty foods. This in turn helps lower your LDL (bad) cholesterol.
Avoid eating fatty foods late at night. The liver makes most of the blood cholesterol at night, while we sleep. Having excess food in the system to process puts the liver into high gear, and can thus, raise cholesterol.
Walk a half hour every other day (at least).
Eat cleansing foods like miso, garlic, apples, and green veggies.

Enjoyed the talk tonight, as always. Have a good one and we’ll talk again tomorrow.

Tom Hesley

Posted in Food, Health, Journal, Letters, Lynn, People, Relationships, Romantic | No Comments »

Tid Bits: 1999-11-08

Monday, November 8th, 1999

[Lynn],

I switched from KYW to NPR this morning, to hear an in-depth discussion of the Microsoft issue. Bodaciously informative it was. I learned more today about it than I’ve been able to gather in all the previous days since this court case started, about whether MS is a monopoly. Thanks for locating the information about where to find them for me.

I guess I did wake you up. Sorry. Hope you’re not dragging too much today. We should start our conversations earlier I guess. These talks are so energizing, especially when you do your contented mmmmmmm noise. Is that how you would write it? You make cute M noises. I always loved listening to humming. Sounds like you’d be a good hummer. Can you carry a tune?

Well, the cold is a bit better today. But this is really a nasty one. It’s so frustrating because I went for almost two years without any colds, then, this year, I get two, in a single month!

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Apparently, the Microsoft issue is very big news today. It was all over CNN and the business channels. No, I didn’t know the story with the depth that it was reported with today on NPR, until, of course, AFTER I listened to the NPR piece. What did you think of the piece? My thoughts are that Gates is too rich and needs to be reined in. I remember dealing with MS customer service numerous times regarding technical issues surrounding their operating systems. Some of these dealings were personal and some were work-related. They wanted me on several of these calls, to pay them $150 per hour, even though the difficulty I was having turned out to be a bug in their code. Fortunately, I was always able to dodge these charges but one could not help being impressed by the level of greed that the company seems to encourage among his employees. But enough of that. I’m off my soap box now.

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Yes, I’m tuned into your frequency now. You’ll have NO secrets from me now. *snide smile*

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You know, that is certainly one weakness in the English language. It’s quite difficult to convey tone in writing. That is, you can write mmmmmmm. But it really depends on the mood / interpretation / time of day / Etc of the person reading it as to how it will come out. Like, just seeing mmmmmmm on a page could mean any number of things from puzzlement to excitement to ‘What did you say?’ Perhaps you would know this better than I. But certain languages do represent the pitch quality of the voice in their words and letters. Chinese maybe? Language has always been fascinating for me. But like so many other interests, it is one I’ve never really had the time to explore. Aaah well, perhaps when I retire.

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Cool. Looking forward to hearing you sing sometime.

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Yes, I love cats. I don’t mind doing most of the calling. But I must admit, it would be nice now and then, to hear the phone ring, pick it up, and discover YOU on the other end.

And speaking of phone rates: Heard of a new web site today that offers free long distance over the internet. Looking into it now. Do you have a sound card, speakers, and microphone on your computer?

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Yum. Sounds like a banner meal you’re having for your supper. Talk to you tonight.

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Sounds like a glorious trip. By the way, I don’t get jealous. How much does it cost to fly between the mainland and your island? Sometime when you fly, you’ll have to get some pics of those gorgeous views.