Done yesterday (20091121 Sa)

[mdlbear]

1121 Sa
  * awake 7:30; up 8:30; W=198.4; drugs, nose, teeth; coffee
  * breakfast: fried eggs on a corn tortilla.  Bacon later.
  @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_mass_index
    In an analysis of 40 studies involving 250,000 people, patients with
    coronary artery disease with normal BMIs were at higher risk of death from
    cardiovascular disease than people whose BMIs put them in the "overweight"
    range (BMI 25-29.9).[18] In the intermediate range of BMI (25-29.9), BMI
    failed to discriminate between bodyfat percentage and lean mass. The study
    concluded that "the accuracy of BMI in diagnosing obesity is limited,
    particularly for individuals in the intermediate BMI ranges, in men and in
    the elderly... These results may help to explain the unexpected better
    survival in overweight/mild obese patients."[19] Patients who were
    underweight (BMI <20) or severely obese (BMI >=35) did, however, show an
    increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.
  * email working at savitzky.net.
  * dishes, laundry
  * 12:45 YD's class.  Leave at 12:25
  * State tax refund check arrived
  & Unsuccessful trip to REI and Fry's looking for bag, micro-USB cable
  * 3ish Walk to and around the Rose Garden with the Cat
    pretty strenuous; she had to dial the speed back for me.  Fun!
    New word:  inscootable.  (goes with unBearable)
    ! happy!  | tired, in a good way
  * ask on LJ about a good email program for netbooks
  * leave 5:45 to pick up YD
  * Bun-Bun made dinner
  * bath 10ish, bed 10:30ish, snuggle

Basically a good day. A very good day: the main event was going for a (st)roll around the Rose Garden with Colleen. Our rocket snail takes a good deal of keeping up with -- I had to ask her to dial back the speed several times. (I can keep up with full speed, but only for short bursts; after that I start getting leg cramps. But she needs full power to get over curb cuts.) The battery was pretty nearly depleted by the time we got home -- the "up to 10 miles" doesn't account for Colleen's weight and even slightly irregular terrain.

But, wow, that was a great outing. Along the way we invented a new word: inscootable. We'll definitely have to do that more often.

Other good things included my state tax refund check, and finally verifying that email works at savitzky.net (on Dreamhost). Now I just have to get Colleen set up with an email client. And get thestarport.org moved off its present kludge.

The hot link for the day is the Wikipedia article on body mass index, which includes this fascinating paragraph:

In an analysis of 40 studies involving 250,000 people, patients with coronary artery disease with normal BMIs were at higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease than people whose BMIs put them in the "overweight" range (BMI 25-29.9).[18] In the intermediate range of BMI (25-29.9), BMI failed to discriminate between bodyfat percentage and lean mass. The study concluded that "the accuracy of BMI in diagnosing obesity is limited, particularly for individuals in the intermediate BMI ranges, in men and in the elderly... These results may help to explain the unexpected better survival in overweight/mild obese patients."[19] Patients who were underweight (BMI <20) or severely obese (BMI >=35) did, however, show an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

(I note in passing that my BMI is 30.1 at a weight of 190.)

Comments

[shadowe_wraithe]

Wonderful to hear you had such a great day with Colleen!

As for BMI, well it is better than the old insurance scales/graphs for weight, but still not as accurate as other methods, such as flotation. But for the record, I am at 45/300# give or take a pound or two. I am working on this myself.

One way I decided to help was to stop my ritualistic morning stop at Jack-In-The-Box for breakfast on the way to work. Instead now I do a Breakfast cookie, (well known product actually born and raised here) for about 300 calories, and yummy chocolate too! I haven't stepped on the scales yet, because they can lie (explain in a moment) but I have gotten where my pants are looser.

Scales versus measuring tapes is something I try to explain to folks all the time at work. I have actually seen a 5 pound log of fat, in a class I had and it is about the size of a large Presto log. Now, if you can visualize a very lean 5 pound beef roast...that is the size of five pounds of lean muscle mass. Soooo, you can actually gain weight, and loose fat. Therefore, the measuring tape is a better measure of your body composition moreso than a scale.

*steps off her soapbox with a sheepish grin*

Sorry, I tell a lot of folks at work, daily to throw their scales away, and buy a measuring tape...or hide the scales and forget where they are.

Love, Hugs and Blessings :D

[mdlbear]

In my case I'm reasonably certain it's mostly fat. I've put on about 10 pounds in the last year, mostly around the waist.

Colleen, on the other hand, has definitely been putting on muscle -- her arms and legs in particular look better than they have in a decade.

[tibicina.livejournal.com]

BMI is a flawed system designed by a racist sociologist, which was never actually intended to be used for individuals only entire populations and it's questionable even then, because it presumes no demographic changes to your base population.

Also, people on average are several inches taller than when the 'standards' were developed which /completely throws it off even for measuring populations/ because the sociologist who invented it didn't realize that mass tends to scale as a cube of height.

I will go on a longer BMI rant, if you want, but seriously. I want to smack ANYONE who tries bringing up BMI as some sort of useful metric, because it /isn't/. AT ALL. *STABBITY!*