Jugtown 8:02

Morning weigh-in: 163#, 6.5% BF

 

Oh Those Social Anxieties: Was the pot roast moist and tender enough? Was the bathroom clean? Did I have ring around the collar? George never drinks two cups of coffee at home... Fear not, everything was fine, but I sure see how that stuff can be exploited -- I wonder if these things were as big an issue before the Age Of Advertising beat them into our heads.

 

The ride was just me, Doug and Eric R, and we were running late so we did a shortened version of the Hellertown loop, skipping some of the later portions south of Easton. Lori was already there when we got back (I left the door open), and Brian, Rich & Linda were walking up the street, so we just about made it.

 

Meeting was sixteen people packed into my living room, pretty rambunctious (I blame the red meat) until Eric B put his foot down, but after that it went pretty smooth. Same situation as the VMB meeting though: too much detail, too many decisions/debates; not all problems should be solved at the meeting. Still, lotsa stuff got done, mostly events and trailwork reports, and we were finished in an hour. After that is was back to the socializing, and playing with my scale...

 

A word about the body fat percentages, for my newer readers: My scale at home determines percent body fat by measuring electrical impedance: when you stand on the scale you're really standing on two foot-shaped electrodes, which turn your lower body into a circuit; the scale sends an electrical signal through the circuit, and uses the circuit's response, along with your weight (and a few parameters like height etc, that you set when you buy the scale) to calculate your percent body fat. Needless to say, there are a lot of assumptions, extrapolations -- the number is not necessarily accurate, and the manual even said not to take any given day's number as gospel; the trends are the important thing.

 

Even that is not quite true though. I find that if I'm dehydrated for whatever reason (a hard workout, say, or some alcohol consumption the day before), the scale interprets this as a lower percent body fat. Meanwhile, my legs have very little fat on them; most of my body fat is in my belly, just above what I suspect is the path of that electrical signal as it goes up one leg and down the other. As I lose weight (and hopefully it's fat I'm losing), the body fat measurements could possibly fail to note the changes, since they're happening just outside the visibility range of the scale's detection system. Thus, even for trends, the body fat could be either too low or two high on any given day. It's a good rough estimate, but in the end those body fat numbers are just a toy. (Check today's number -- one look in a mirror tells me that that can't be true. Note that I rode yesterday and had a couple of beers with dinner. See what I mean?)

 

Anyway, took the interstate this morning, since I was running a bit late. Smooth sailing, until I caught up to yet another backup on the other side of Jugtown Mountain, but my exit was just before the start of it and I was pretty much on time to work.

 

Tonight I'll put the Turner together, then hit the gym; dinner will be root crops & veggies -- all the meat is gone. Which Brew afterward, catch the reggae band.