Weighty Thoughts

Walking back home from the fitness center after attending a spin class is a great time to think. So is walking there, but then the mind quickly turns to the exercise class at hand upon arrival. Walking back is different. There is a wonderful calm, quiet, peaceful feeling about it. The perfect opportunity to think, and I was thinking. Not of the beautiful scenery around me: the cut grass, the recently power-sprayed sidewalks, a good stiff breeze, coconuts leaves swaying in the wind (and there is no shortage of coconut trees around here), blue skies with lots of clouds but not hindering the bright sun...what does Hawaii have that Guam doesn't? And yet, I wasn't thinking about any of that. I was thinking about two burning questions: 1. Why does the scale in my home read differently from the scale at the fitness center, and 2. How can the one at home tell me this morning I am one pound lighter than I was yesterday morning but the one at the fitness center told me I was one pound heavier than yesterday (which also told me the same thing yesterday)?


I realize I should be looking for trends, but I am confused. I walk along the sidewalk, sidetracked by a couple of small birds hopping around in the grass as I pass by. How long would it take to walk from home to the commissary? Too long, probably. Maybe the BX. I'll have to try that someday. But not today. The sun is strong and bright. I had brought my umbrella with me because it looked like it could rain on my journey to spin class. It's sometimes hard to know when it will rain and when it won't, but it probably will. We are in the rainy season, after all. I've seen it rain while the sun was shining, and not rain when dark clouds threatened. It rained. Just not where I was at that moment. As I said, it is the rainy season, after all, and there's always an opportunity to get wet...somewhere on the island.


The scale delima returned to my thoughts. The one at home is not "calibrated". I'm told that makes a difference. The one at the fitness center is, and it seems to be pretty consistent...but I'm not sure I believe it. I only consumed 190 calories at most before class, I walked to class, just like yesterday, and then it tells me I'm heavier than yesterday...and the day before? I looked at the scale dubiously. I considered how it spun its digital dashes until it landed on a number, as if it were some sort of weight monitoring slot machine: dash-dash-dash-point-dash. I stepped off the scale, paused, and stepped back on. It spun those menacing dashes only to come up with the same dash-dash-dash-point-dash. I didn't bother to have it mock me after spin class. I was satisfied to hear our wonderful spin instructor tell us that we burn off about 600-700 calories from the workout. I had left the class through a different door, deliberately ignoring the scale and hoping it noticed.


I cross a street and look to the left to see a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. I never get tired of looking at the ocean, and there are some pretty spectacular views of it from certain areas on base. I thought about how the base is well protected from tsunamis, being up on the "top of the rock" as they say. Six hundred feet up. The navy base, well, not so much. The sun is hot so I take a few more swigs from my water bottle and drop my umbrella. Putting the bottle in my bag, I open the umbrella for shade and immediately Mother Nature starts to add strength training to the cardio I'm still getting. I walk for a while, gripping the umbrella with both hands, politely waving off the base shuttle bus as the driver slows down to see if I'd like a lift. He turns around at the golf course and we wave at each other as he passes in the opposite direction. I've put away my umbrella by now. Hopefully I will not get sunburned. At least I have a hat.


There must be some sort of conspiracy with weight scales. Why can't they all read the same? Should I even bother with them? Trends. I just need to watch for which way the scale is trending. Well, I think the one at the fitness center is trending toward me hating it. On the home stretch I see a laborer across the street ahead of me with a weed whacker. He's covered from head to toe in protective clothing. Not even his face or hands are exposed. That's for a number of reasons. He is protected from the sun, the equipment, and boonie bees. Boonie bees seem like your average guinea wasp on the outside, only smaller, but they're not your average guinea wasp. Boonie bees don't buzz. That's right -- they make no buzzing sound. You can't hear them coming. They're like ninjas of the bee/wasp world. They can be very aggressive, so you never want to be on the recieving end of their wrath. You need industrial strength wasp-freeze sprayed from 15 feet away from the little beasties to get rid of them. They also make their nests on the ground! Watch your step! They're evil!


Home at last. I return to the scale that gave me a more favorable report at 4 am this morning. What?! How can I be three pounds heavier than I was then?? I haven't even eaten breakfast yet! I'll try to figure this out over a bowl of corn flakes. With raisins.