June 21, 2005
Well here I am getting ready in the morning to head to a weigh-in. The new First Segeant wants to weigh everyone to make sure that they are not over their weight limit. I of course have always had a problem making my weight. Ever since my first day in the Army, every time I have had to weigh in I have starved myself by not eating or drinking for 2 full days before the weigh in. I have eeven gone to such extremes as sitting in a sauna to sweat out the last few ounces of sweat, taking ex-lax to get rid of any waste in my body, cut my hair and trim my fingernails, even sucking on the most sour candy I could find and spitting out the saliva to lose a few more ounces. The Army has rediculous standards that are impossible to meet for some soldiers. Take me for instance. Look at the picture above. Would you consider me to be 10 pounds overweight? Well the Army sure seems to think so. For those people who cannot make thier weight they are given what is called a "tape test," where they take the measurement of your neck and your waist and calculate how much of your weight is fat. If you are over 22% body fat, then you are overweight. Well, according to the Army, I am a whopping 24% body fat. Yes that's right, 1/4 of me is solid fat. I don't know how they figure that, but I fail every time. However I have a friend who is the same height as me and a full 80 pounds hevier than me and he has never failed yet. How can that be you ask? Well his neck is 2 inches bigger than mine, Of course his gut is 15 inches bigger than mine too, but he still manages to pass every time. The Army has been using the same technique for about 30 years and refuses to update it, so they just continue to allow those soldiers who truly over weight to saty in and those who aren't even close to be forces to starve themselves for a few days so that they can stay in the Army. And they wonder why a lot of soldiers complain about the physical training in the military.
Anyway, sorry for the complaining. I just thought I'd share a little insight to the military with you. So after work today I went to the gym for a lttle while and then walked off post to buy a few movies. Nothing really looked that interesting, but I bought a movie anyway, just for something to watch. I don't have any television, so I just have to watch a movie every once in a while. I got a movie called "Sisterhoof of the traveling pants." I know it sounds stuoid and in fact it looked pretty stupid. But the old adage never judge a book by it's cover works for movies as well. It was a "chick flick" but it was a good movie none-the-less. After the movie I emailed my wife and went to bed early, I had to get up early to go to the firing range the next day.
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