Today I am Less

I had a breakthrough today!  For the past six months I’ve been participating in health sessions offered free-of-charge through my work.  This afternoon I had a screening where they checked all my vitals: cholesterol, blood pressure, waist circumference, blood sugar, etc.  As usual all my non-weight related vitals were in the very-good to excellent range.  That isn't the exciting part.  The exciting part is that for the first time in YEARS I have a normal body fat percentage!  I’m still fat, but at least I know I’m now a “healthy” fat.  (Haha, oxymoron much?)  This calls for a happy dance.

I mentioned before that I am clinically obese, but before you ask, no, I’m not a 400 pound blob.  I walk the very fine line between “obese” and “overweight”.  That’s going by BMI standards, with which I have a problem.  It doesn’t take into account sex, age or body type.  It is strictly a height to weight ratio.  For most people, this is a great way to judge what general weight is appropriate for your height.  I, however, am rather heavily muscled for a girl, not in the ew-where-are-your-boobs-you-look-like-a-dude kind of way; more hey-under-all-that-fat-you-have-a-lot-of-muscle-and-are-rather-proportional-aren’t-you.  I refuse to let a stupid ratio make me feel back about myself.  I’m capable of doing that all on my own, thank you.

BMI says my brother -- who is lean, lean, lean-- falls in the "obese" weight category.  He is a competitive body builder and has a negative 10% body fat.  You see my problem?

I am very active.  I work out daily -- lifting weights three times a week, yoga four times a week and intense cardio six to seven days a week.  There is a reason my signature is “Outdoor Junkie”.  My dog and I can go a max of two days inside without going insane.  Being outdoors is our church, our therapy and our meditation all rolled into one.  Whether it’s hiking, biking, running, in-line skating, snowshoeing, skiing or sledding, I need to be outside. 

The year I discovered this obsession I lost 40 pounds in two months.  The yoga and weight lifting were added later to help minimize and repair the damage I do to my body during my adventures. 

I suppose I should be happy my body allows me to channel stress, pain and negative emotions into something productive.  Really, I’m just grateful that I’ve found something that nine times out of ten will make me stop feeling like I’m about to crawl out of my skin.