When our family was in Utah last summer for Sam & Mike's graduation from BYU and the birth of Claire, we all went to Barnes & Noble to browse. Each of us came out with a new book. Mine was "The Art of Thank You", Charley's was something about interpreting your dreams, Emily got a planner for school, and Allison bought a book.....can't remember the title. Frank picked up one called "Faster, Better, Stronger", by Eric Heiden, M.D., five-time olympic gold medalist.
When we returned home, Frank dove right into reading, and told me that according to Eric Heiden, I should weigh 114 lbs. Now, in his defense, Frank has never ever told me I was overweight, even when I am. For that, I commend him and am very grateful. Every wife needs a husband like that. But now, with his new book, he told me that the chart said I should weigh 114 lbs. I said, "No Way! That's smaller than Emily!" He said, "You were that skinny when we got married". I was incredulous. When he told me that he was supposed to weigh 140, I grabbed the book and figured out that he was looking at the wrong chart. Whew! Frank at 140 would not be pretty. After looking at the right chart, we determined that we both needed and wanted to lose 25 lbs.
That night we walked a mile (did a "walking test") so we could figure out our V02max (oxygen exchange rate) which is a formula....are you ready? v02max=132.853-(0.0769xweight in pounds or kilos)-(0.3877xAge)+(6.31xGender)-(3.2649xTime)-(0.1565xHeart rate). This will yield your estimated V02max. This took us about half an hour to figure out, even with a calculator. I wasn't sure what this knowledge would do for me, but I was game for trying almost anything that might help me reach my goal.
After the walk, we came home and did the "sit and reach" test. In our family, none of us are very flexible. NONE. It's weird. Frank and the girls are all pretty athletic and active, until it comes to being flexible. So, I put the piece of tape on the floor, with the measuring tape perpendicular to it and Frank went first. Then me. Frank scored 1 out of 5 stars. One star is the LOWEST. I guess I didn't need to explain that. The book said, "Set up a meeting with your health-care provider or a physical therapist and have her assess whether or not you have any musculoskeletal conditions that may be causing this." I actually had 2 stars, barely, and mine just said, "You are definitely stiff". I thought that was funny, but had to concur.
Next we did the recommended stretching exercises for the one star people. We were on the floor contorted in some weird awkward-looking positions when Emily started snapping pictures on her phone camera. Before we could do anything about it, she had already texted them to her friends, girls on Frank's team, etc. I have to admit, they were pretty funny. I can only imagine how hilarious I would have thought it was to see my parents sprawled on the floor twisted like pretzels...and trying to be serious about it. I think our parents had more of a sense of decorum than to do something so humiliating in front of the children. I bet you are wishing that I had posted the pictures Emily took instead of a picture of the book. But she was instructed to delete them...or else!
Well, that was 8 or 9 months ago. We never did a single thing more with that book, and still need to lose the 25 pounds. The other day Frank saw the book on the shelf again, and said,"We need to get back into doing that Eric Heiden stuff". I just said, "Ya....we do!" I'm looking forward to relaxing on the couch for half an hour while we get out the calculator and determine our current V02 max, going for a walk at dusk with my husband, and coming home and having another good laugh at ourselves. That.....and really making some progress this time. So, thanks, Eric Heiden!
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