CAVERS UNITE: June 2005

Weight, Body Fat Percentage and Body Mass Index

It's all very confusing, isn't it? What's more important, BMI or Body Fat Percentage? In my opinion, body fat percentage is more important because it is based upon real, qualitative data from the individual, rather than simple height and weight. An index is only a number based upon a comparison of two other numbers.

The Navy Method calculates my body fat percentage based upon the measurement method. This is their calculated chart for me:

Your Recommended Blocks
Your weight is: 110 pounds
Your sex is: Female
Your Body Fat percentage is: 16
Your Lean Body Mass is: 92 pounds
Your 'Ideal' weight is: 113 pounds
Your activity factor is: 0.87
Your recommend blocks per day are: 11 (82 grams of protein)

My Tanita impedence scale (calculated with scales - the impedence method uses a low level electrical current which comes from the feet and travels through tissues, up the leg. Fat and muscle conduct electricity at diffent levels) measures my body fat percentage at a range of 14-16%, the mean being 14.5.

The National Institute of Health BMI calculator places my BMI at 18.9.

Discovery Health calculates my basal metabolic rate as 1238.6, which apparently means I can only eat this many calories without getting fat. If I run 6 miles per hour for one hour, I will burn 499 calories. I would burn 324 calories for one hour of general aerobics.

Chloe's tap routine made it to National Finals Shootout in Gatlinburg. Isn't she beautiful?

Hanging out, having fun

Little Girls

Some women are dripping with diamonds

Some women are dripping with pearls

Look at me, look at me

Look at what I'm dripping with. . .

Little girls.

Excerpt from song "Little Girls", broadway play "Annie"; as sung by Carol Burnette in film of same title.

Yes, that was the theme of my weekend. It was my daughter's 7th birthday and we planned an adventure campout, complete with horse back riding, smores, camp fire pizzas, caving, nature hikes, the works.

Some of that occurred. I thought I had the worse case scenario properly imagined. But. I failed to account for the chaos which comes naturally when 11 children are gathered together. I failed to account for a 7 year old's dislike for helmets, duck tape, knee pads, and gloves. I didn't realize these children would want perfect gear. It's like herding fish, you never get anywhere. As soon as I would get one child all "geared up" for caving, another would demand an adjustment. I was lost in a never ending story, a veritable twilight zone, a nighmarish de ja vous experience.

Over and over and over and over - I worked on their gear. "Adjust this helmet". "My knee pads are sliding". "These gloves are too big." " I am hungry." "My flashlight won't stay. " "My shoes are untied." "My knee pads are sliding again". "This duct tape is sticking to my hair". My exasperation mounted until I nearly screamed; "enough already". It took hours and hours, or at least it seemed like that.

Finally we got in the cave. Immediately the trepidation started. Bears seemed to be their biggest fear, with an occasional snake terror. Around every bend and through every passage I heard a squeal with the word bear or snake. They did not really fear the usual cave creatures, troglodytes. Bats, crickets, fish, crawdads, spiders - these animals never occurred to them. It was the scary cave bear and the scary cave snake which stirred their imaginations. I even heard an occasional scream of wolf, fox and lion.

One child was so fearful of snakes in the water and just plain fearful of the cave environment, I had to radio base camp for an (EEFCE): Emergency Evacuation of a Fearful Cave Explorer. We had planned for this contingency and within minutes my father was there to return the shaky spelunker to the comfort of camp. Other children accompanied the evacuating spelunker including my own daughter.

Three hardy young uns stuck it out to the finish, doing a belly connection crawl, and having a mud fight. These three I have hope for. We missed the presents being opened, we missed the smores, we never went on a nature hike and we never sang happy birthday. We never ate the cake either, although it is quite smashed.

Next year, I pray for a McDonalds party.

Climbing at Red River Gorge - taken from above.

My First Race - June 11

Ran in a 5k called Run by the River. I came in 2nd in my age group and gender, got a trophy (27.57). This was all a surprise because I have been running some but never had an idea of my pace or how I compared to others. While I was 2nd for my age group and gender, isn't like that saying "you did really well considering your age, gender, hair color, finger length, chewing speed, and number of sociology courses in college"? You define the category narrow enough and everybody wins. It's still mediocrity. In fact, isn't coming in 2nd in the 5k female 40-45 group the poster child for mediocrity?

My husband says that's what I am all about. "What"?, I asked. He said, maybe you are not the world's best at any one thing, you are good at lots of things. "Well", I said rather sarcastically, "my epitaph will be really interesting. 'Here lies Batscout, she was kinda good at lots of stuff but not really good at anything". My husband said, "stop hating mediocrity so much. What if the thing about you is that you have so many interests, hobbies and skills, you can't and won't concentrate on any one thing because you want a varied life, that's not mediocrity; that's a well-rounded human being". Okay, he didn't exactly say that, I juiced up his statement; but that is the gist of what he said.

No matter how you look at it, I am mediocre and I want to be better. I am a little down right now; I'm tired, sore, and I need some pepping up. Vitamins!

Bolero

Time and life march on. It's like the tune, Bolero. Bolero goes on and on, a staccato beat, hardly changing. The tune itself is more than five minutes long. I remember Professor Cogsworth, my world history professor. He used Bolero to emphasize the passage of time in history.

We came in to history class, one of the big freshman UK auditorium style classrooms, without any human speech. He indicated that we be quiet. Bolero began. He had an overhead projector on which he put the word "Time". And then every minute or so he would put "marches", ......"on" or other words to emphasize how the human experience of time is really skewed by our mortality and ability to record memories.

While it was an unorthodox method, it really did impress upon me how time flows, is created, and can be stalled --- by boredom. It's quite something to think how long five minutes takes when you are waiting a red light or for a loved one's return. Then you look back on your life and 20 years are scrunched up into a thimble's worth of time.

Bolero was good for the time passage purpose but Bo Derick's character in the movie 10 used the piece for another purpose. Perhaps that made better usage of Bolero's time.