Friday Five: I am not FAT!

The older you get, 

the tougher it is to lose weight because by then, 

your body and your fat are really good friends.

~unknown

If you don't want to read a mommy rant, skip to the Friday Five below.

OMG-Missing workouts is detrimental to my mental health. Before I get into Friday Five, let me just tell you I had the BIGGEST mommy melt down tonight. I came home and realized I might need some fuel for tomorrow's race. I ask my little people if they wanted to go with mama to the store. I got a big fat resounding no. This no came from my 3 year old, my 1 year did not comment. I have a job where I get to make decision all day long. I have a job where I have control (for the most part) over my daily routine. Then I come home and I can't make decisions and the ones I try to make are challenged with: "Why?" and "I don't want to" in the whiniest voice ever. So today I lost it. I told my husband it is not fair that I am couped up at work all day, can't leave the house with my kids and all I really want to do is:

1. Get a hair cut
2. Get to the post office to mail a gift I have had since March
3. Get to the mall to get a gift for his aunt and go to the post office to mail said gift
4. Buy a new shirt for work
5. Get a pedicure (maybe)
6. Get to the bike shop to get clip in pedals and cycling shoes
7. Get to Costco to do an eye exam for contacts

To this my husband said, do it. Go tomorrow after your TRI, go Sunday or take a day off from work. Grr, I hate simple answers. If it were that easy, then maybe I would have some of this done, but it's not. Don't ask me why it's not because it just isn't. Ok, now that I am done complaining, my kids are great, I worked a long week, an even longer day today and I missed workouts almost all week. I have pent up energy and I am SOOOOOOO glad I am racing tomorrow morning and have a grown up party to go to tomorrow night. Yes I am selfish, yes I just had an awesome birthday weekend, but I am the type of person that needs regularly scheduled me time in order to function properly. Sometimes that me time is at 5:30AM in a pool or on the road, but sometimes I like it when me time happens at normal hours of the day with other "normal" people. Not that my workout people are not normal, but TRI people are a different, high energy, over achieving breed.

Ok, now on to Friday Five. On Tuesday at our monthly TRI club meeting a member who happens to be a physical therapist or sports physiologist or something like that? Anyway, our team member did caliper/skin fold testing for us to calculate our body fat percentage. In case you are wondering, I am a pretty freak'n awesome 18.6%. Read below to make sense of this number.

1. Body Fat Percentage is NOT the same at the number you get from the BMI chart in your doctors office. BMI is height and weight oriented and DOES NOT take in to consideration lean body mass. So people who are inactive and make poor health choice and are "skinny" are really, wait for it, geez I love this term, ok sorry-distracted, these "skinny" people are actually skinny fat! Don't you just love that term?! Two people 6'0 tall weighing 170 have the same BMI, but if one is an athlete and the other is completely sedentary, it is likely the athlete has a much better lean body fat percentage that reflects their body weight and more specifically what percentage is lean body weight. BMI doesn't draw a distinction.
2. Body Fat Percentage can be measured several ways including skin fold/caliper testing. Within the caliper testing there are several strategies including a basic 3 measurement in the Jackson/Pollock 3 caliper method to the Parillo caliper method which takes 9 measurements.
3. The most accurate Body Fat Percentage test is the hydrostatic, but caliper testing is 95% accurate vs hydrostatic Gold Standard which, in my uber not even amateur athletic status, works just fine. You can also test at home using a formula found on the Livestrong site HERE.
4. Why am I so excited? Well my BMI number is 26.2 and considered overweight. My doctors have drilled in me the need to lose weight, despite my physical fitness and at one point in time I was considered obese. I always new this was wrong, but assumed it had everything to do with my HUGE rack and athletic build, but still thought there was something to the BMI thing and therefore let it feed my insecurities. I am not skinny, but sometimes let myself be fatter than I really am. So I was beyond thrilled to learn my body fat percentage is 18.6. What does this mean? See images below that show scale translation for both BMI and Body Fat Percentage.
5. A little boost goes a long way, for me it was the wrong way. Learning I am leaner thnt I have given myself credit for, has open the junk food eating flood gates. It is actually quite amusing how I reacted to the news that while I am not skinny by any means, I am certainly NOT FAT. So what have I been doing? Eating fattening foods.

Body Fat Percentage Scale

BMI Categories:

• Underweight = <18.5
• Normal weight = 18.5–24.9
• Overweight = 25–29.9
• Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater

Why I Kick A$$: I am totally an athlete and now I have the numerics to prove it.

Thankful Three:

1. For new perspective on my overall body image/health/fitness
2. For my sprint tri tomorrow
3. For my husband, he has a knack for making my terrorist children (they are actually delightful) and my overwhelming mommy moments (truly moments and probably not that overwhelming) sound so easy to deal with. He must have Stockholm Syndrome.