I'm not a math-phile, but...

I struggled through a few calculations to better understand just what was involved with the percent of body fat issue mentioned in the previous post. Here's what I discovered:

1) 37 percent of my current weight is 59.57 pounds. (Imagine carrying 12 5-pound bags of sugar -- or an average-sized nine-year-old -- on your back every day. That's comparable.)

2) 23 percent of my ideal weight is 32.20 pounds. That means I should lose 27.37 pounds of fat and gain 6.37 pounds of muscle to be reasonably fit.

Okay...27.37 pounds of fat! I'm having a total Bridget Jones moment here. How does one even wrap one's brain around the concept of losing 27.37 pounds of fat?

Not to be whiney, but -- Ugh! This is going to be hard.

Obesity: It's not what you think

For years, the concept of losing weight and getting fit was a pleasant pastime -- lose a few pounds, get into those cute pants; firm up a bit, don't scare myself when I catch a rear-end view in a dressing room three-way mirror.

You get the picture, right?

The other day, for reasons I still haven't figured out, I dusted off my super-dooper Sharper Image scale (it measures weight and calculates percent of body fat) and hopped on. The results left me shocked -- and not in a good way.

I'm still roughly 20 pounds overweight, though you probably couldn't tell that by looking at me. I'm also, and this is the scary part, 37 percent body fat. For someone with a family history of diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, this is not welcome news.

Phillip Whitten, a writer for Swimming World Magazine, says obesity is defined as too much body fat, not necessarily too much weight. Translation: you can be thin and fat simultaneously.

According to one of his articles, men should have 15 percent body fat or less and women should have 22 percent body fat or less during their prime. There's not much wiggle room for boomers, either. Whitten says 55-year-old men who exercise regularly generally have body fat levels of 23 percent; hearty women exercisers have body fat levels of 29 percent at the same age.

Our nation of couch potatoes aren't faring well, however. Whitten writes, "According to 1994 health statistics, at age 35, the average American male carries 25 percent of his weight in fat, average female 33 percent (the numbers are probably even higher today.)"

I'll be honest. I'd hoped there'd be great dissent about how much body fat is healthy. (You've seen those weight charts. They're all over the map.) Alas, it was not to be. There is some deviation, certainly, but overall, not that much.

Why this matters:

If, like me, you have writing projects you're trying to finish or other goals you'd like to complete, and you just can't seem to make progress, if may be because your body -- and your brain -- are under stress from other sources. Becoming more fit may be just what you need to do to get going.

Intrigued? Here are a couple of sites you can visit to see where you fall on the health-o-meter:

Recommended Body Weights and Percent Body Fat Contents for Women

Sports Fitness Advisor

Playing on iTunes right now: Authors on Tour featuring Allan Folsom, author of The Machiavelli Covenant. Authors on Tour is a podcast of writers discussing and reading from their works at The Tattered Cover bookstore in Denver. Sign up on iTunes.

Last week's Quote of the Week

"I haven't written a great book yet -- but I have written some really great paragraphs!"
-- Marianne Williamson
Author of nine books, four of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers, and a former guest on Oprah, Larry King Live and Good Morning America, among others.

I didn't chew.

While reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I gulped each chapter rather than reading slowly and savoring the book. I didn't pause to study the very, very fine line Ms. Rowling occasionally drew between her mythical society and current, real world affairs. I didn't linger to laugh at the sentence, near the end, that appeared to be a friendly nod to Aliens II.

At the end of my romp through the last of the Harry Potter series, I discovered something interesting, though.

The book, while exceptional, wasn't flawless. Every sentence wasn't perfect; every word wasn't gold. What they were, however, were pure J.K. Rowling. Her imagination. Her prose. Her best.

All of which reminds me that striving for perfection, holding on to your creative work until it's absolutely beyond reproach, isn't necessarily your greatest contribution to the world.

Sometimes you can change lives -- and change minds -- simply by doing your best.

When the mind wanders, it's not pretty...

I could be writing. Yes indeedy, I could...and I was. Then I took little break and wandered over to Kathy Holmes site. There I found a link to Shelfari, an online networking site for readers and writers.

Of course I had to go. I explored the site for a while -- loved it! -- then I started reading some of the profiles of frequent contributors. One had a link to a website that lets you take a test to determine your chances of surviving a zombie invasion. Wow!

I had to take the test, right?

Then I had to take it again because I could not believe how badly I fared.

I did a bit better the second time, though apparently there's an unwritten rule that says you shouldn't go to Walmart when zombies prowl.

After a couple, er, a few more attempts, it eventually occurred to me that a Zombie Apocalypse Test (ZAT) is not wholly dissimilar to a Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT). You just keep taking it and taking it until you (or your parents) like your score.

My final score: 41% chance of survival.

All of which makes me think I'm probably better off writing.


Ciao!

Hi, T.J.

The wind in your hair...

You don't have to be outside. You don't even have to be good. But if you've ever been ice skating you know how exhilarating it is to feel the ice-cooled air on your cheeks and the wind in your hair.

(Note: the wind feels wonderful whether your body is gliding over the ice, the image of coordination and grace, or sliding across the surface chin first, arms outstretched, leaving a gaggle of bruised, stunned, knocked-on-their-rears-because-they-couldn't-get-out-of-the way-fast-enough skaters in your wake....One just looks a bit more, uh, dignified.)

If you fancy skating or dancing, take a look at Figure Skating in Singapore. There's a new video of the European Waltz that's really fun to watch.

Playing on iTunes right now: Baby, It's Cold Outside by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. What a fabulous, old tune. Personal opinion warning (POW): A lot of today's popular singers go for volume or shock lyrics. Listen to a song performed by people who mastered phrasing and vocal control. There is no contest.