Progress, not perfection

Discipline is the ability to obey rules or a code of behavior. It is the practice of training people, or teaching them direction, order and regulations. It is a way to control aspects of our life that might get out of control. If you forget your keys all the time, you decide to have a clip that attaches them to your belt or your purse. Or maybe you don't remember what you need to buy at the grocery store, so you post a list that you keep on the refrigerator door. How is it possible that you can come up with easy solutions for these types of things, but when it comes to your health and the choices that regulate your health, you have a much harder time making good choices? Is it because we were never trained in these positive lifestyle choices, or do we know what is best, we just choose not to do them?

Our ideal weight according to the University of Washington Hamwi Method is pretty easy to figure. If you are 5 feet tall, you are given 100 pounds and for every one-inch after that you are given another 5 pounds, and depending on your size, whether you have a large frame or are athletic body type, you can add on another 10 percent to your weight scale. This means a 5-foot 4-inch female should weigh somewhere between 108 pounds to 132 pounds. But does this mean your scale weight tells us everything we need to know?

Well now we have super scales, that as long as we put in our height, age and whether we are an athlete or not, we can see a lot of other interesting facts about our health. These scales are easy to use and you can buy them for a reasonable cost. On these scales it is possible to see your body fat percent, your muscle mass percent, your BMI (Body Mass Index),your water weight percent, bone mass marker and your Kcal you need to maintain that current body weight. The significance of these scales helps us get an idea of how much body fat percent versus lean muscle mass percent we currently have. The ranges for a female at 5'4” for her body fat then depend on her age. If she is in her forties, then her percent of body fat is less than that of a woman who is 60 years old.

If she is an athlete in her forties, her body fat should be between 15-24 percent, and if she is in her sixties it should be between 16-28 percent. This fat mass percent is important to know because two people may weigh the same, but one may have 49 percent body fat and the other has 29 percent body fat.

You can see how this would make a difference, because one pound of muscle burns 30-50 calories per day, but one pound of body fat doesn't burn any

Our BMI is another indicator of our overall health. Normal ranges should be between 18.5-25 for an ideal healthy lifestyle, whether you are a man or a woman.

You can figure your BMI by knowing your height and weight and doing some calculations. Step one: weigh yourself on the scale and figure your height in inches.

Step two: multiply your height in inches times itself. So a 5' 4” woman is 64 inches, so she would then say 64 x 64= 4096.

Step three: You will divide your weight in pounds by the step two answer. So for her she would take 128 pounds divided by 4096. The answer is .03125. Step four:

Take the answer of step three .03125 x 703 and the answer of step four is 21.9, which is the BMI for our 5 ‘ 4” woman. It appears that she happens to be in a healthy range.

Your healthy numbers is what we are looking for to help you be well.

Take some time this week and do the numbers, see what your healthy numbers should be.

Sheree DiBiase, PT is the owner of Lake City Physical Therapy and she and her staff can be reached in their Coeur d'Alene office at (208) 667-1988 and in the Spokane Valley at (509) 891-2623.