Eowyn Challenge: (There and) Back Again

[pegkerr]

I added up the mileage I've gone since leaving Mount Doom, and spent an absurd amount of time making an Excel spreadsheet to calculate how far various members of the Fellowship traveled, both There and Back Again, subtotalling at various landmarks, using Karen Wynn Fonstad's figures. I've calculated that Frodo's entire journey (Bag end to Mount Doom and back again, and then onto the Grey Havens) was 3884 miles. Sam's (the same as Frodo's journey, adding miles back to Bag End from the Grey Havens) was 4091 miles. Merry's journey was 4334 miles, give or take a few. Aragorn's journey (if you count him starting from the Prancing Pony) was 3223. Pippin did the honors for the longest journey: 4531 miles.

Anyway, I have gone from Mt. Doom (1779 miles) to Morannon where Sam and Frodo were nursed by Aragorn (1879 miles), to Minas Tirith for Aragorn's coronation (1999), and I am now 28 miles past Minas Tirith, on the way to Isengard.

I did workouts both days this weekend. I'm trying to devote myself anew to eating healthy and cutting portion sizes.

But I remain intensely irritated by the fact that I've done 225 workouts this year, the most I've ever done in a year, but yet I weigh five pounds more than I did last year. And yeah, yeah, I know that muscle weighs more than fat. But I'm still over the normal range of weight for my height. This is So Unfair. Phooey.

Comments

[king-tirian.livejournal.com]

Do your clothes fit better than they did at the beginning of the year? Do you feel more energetic? Do you get sick less? I don't want to take a side in the whole "fit and fat" debate, but I'll go so far as to say that weight and height alone are not enough datapoints to determine health.

You should track down someone who can do a fat percentage analysis on you. I get that through my health club, but I don't know who else has those fancy electrical impedance calipars on hand. That would be a more sensible indicator of whether your lifestyle is paying healthy dividends.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Serious athletes often weigh more than the "normal range for height," I believe, which is not a terribly accurate way of measuring whether your weight's in a healthy range anyway.

You should just keep exercising and eating a healthy diet and ignore your weight. But if you'd like to be reassured, your doctor could get a more accurate measure by checking your percentage of body fat.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Just chiming in with what everyone else said -- just sheer weight loss is not a great marker of physical health (people can lose lots of weight and be v unhealthy, or not lose weight and still be healthy). I think the questions about having more energy and insurance charts being off are great. Also, in the various weight loss plans I've been in, the emphasis was not on weighing yourself -- we were encouraged to do that maybe once a week, and chart it -- but whether or not you were losing inches and going down in clothes sizes (altho that last isn't a great marker since American sizes, esp for women, aren't standardized). Body fat percentages, cholesterol levels, endurance levels &c are all better indicators of health, IMHO, than how much weight someone's lost.

[gamps-garret.livejournal.com]

Great job on all those figures, Peg. I'm far, far behind you, but started quite a bit later and don't walk as much as you do.

Just for curiosity, how do you calculate your daily distance? I know there's a way of calculating time spent in workouts as distance traveled -- do you do that? I do yoga and glider workouts, but don't calculate them in -- I just wear a pedometer and aim for four-five miles every day.