Accuracy

On Sunday April 25, Mike, Steve and I rode through Elmwood and East Kildonan to the North Perimeter and across the Perimeter to the Town of Bird’s Hill. We returned by a slightly different route which included trails along the artificial lakes in a rather posh subdivision. The wind was from the west blowing at 50 to 60 kilometers an hour, which was a factor at some points, although the route was largely north and south. Distance for the day was about 55 k. Steve had nearly 57 but he normally rides from his house to usually joins Mike or me at one of our respective houses.
After the ride, we sat outside and had beer – that’s one low-carb Big Rock Jackrabbit each. It was barely past noon and the rest of the day awaited. We had a chat about whether beers after rides offsets the exercise benefit. Are we riding as an excuse to hang out and drink beer? The hanging out is good. A couple of beer are ok, but it can be a trap. The cycling guys will end up like the cast of Cheers in cycling shorts.
I weighed myself on Monday and was surprized the scale showed me at 146 pounds. On Friday last week it had showed 142. There is no way I had gained 4 pounds on the weekend. I had been suspicious of that scale. It is an old spring type scale, which Jan may have received second hand from her family when she first moved out of her house long before we were married. I had wondered about it a few times. Last summer, that scale was showing me down to about 152 lbs by early August. At that time I was weighed at the hospital before surgery and the nurse had said I was 158 or 160. However when I had a full physical in early September the scale in the doctor’s office seemed to agree with the scale at home at about 150 pounds. With hindsight, I think those readings all fit together. My diet changed for a few weeks after surgery. It was partly reaction to the surgery, and I also lost my appetite when n. ran away.
Jan and I never replaced the old scale. Jan had bought a scale through one of her Network marketing connections – a high priced electronic thing that is supposed to measure percentage of body fat bioelectrically. I never used it. Jan was always lending it to her Network associates for their health assessments of potential USANA customers, and I had never been able to figure out how turn it on. I realized that I would need a new scale soon anyway – Jan will take the old one soon. So I stopped at Walmart and got a new Taylor digital read-out scale.
On the new scale I weigh 149.5 pounds. I took some barbells and weighed them on the new scale. One 10 lb weight shows up a few ounces light. Another 10 lb weight and a couple of 15 lb weights weighed in exactly as advertised. Putting them all on the new scale together yields a reading of a few ounces under 50 lbs. The new scale seems to be accurate. I put the same 50 lbs of iron on the old scale and it read 47 lbs. If the old scale was losing 3 lbs in 50, that means when the old scale said I was 170, I was actually about 180. I’m not sure how heavy I was because I didn’t weigh myself before I started exercising. I have a general sense that my weight in the winter of 2002-2003 was around 170 on the old scale. I can add about 10 pounds because of the margin of error on the old scale.
The bad news is that I am not as close to my goal as I had thought. The good news is that I have lost over 30 pounds in the last year.