Okay, Where is It?

"One should never put on one's best trousers to go out to battle for freedom and truth."
Henrik Ibsen

Well, remind me not to wear my good jeans to BCT then! =)

Okay, today was not a good morning. I taugh Spin class last night and then again this morning. I sweated my ass off, or so I thought. Then I went to my recruiter's office and nothing! I'm sitting at about 38.5% body fat, according to Army regs, even though with the seven-site Jackson-Pollock method I'm at 18.5% (and yes, I realize Jackson Pollack is an artist...Jackson and Pollock are researches who developed the common method of measuring body fat with a skinfold test). I need to be at less than 35%. *sigh* I really don't know where I'm hiding it anymore...I mean, I can tell when I'm gaining or losing, but not anymore! I look like I did when I first enlisted, but weigh about fifteen pounds more. WTF? My poor boss doesn't understand it either. He was liie, "I don't know what else there is for you to do. You've basically done all you can!" No shit!! I'm thinking of taking a week off of exercising to see if I can jump start this shit again. I am getting so frustrated with it all. All I want to do is serve, but I can't because apparently I'm fat...even though I am in better shape than probably 85% of the recruits going in nowadays. I told SFC B that the Army is missing out on one helluva recruit for now!!

Speaking of SFC B, he suggested that I write my senators, even though it may prove to be futile. Well, hell, at this point, nothing could hurt. So I emailed my Federal Congressman Dave Camp, Federal Senator Carl Levin (he's on the Armed Services Committee), and State Senator Tony Stamas (he's on the State Police and Military Affairs Committe). I figured it wouldn't hurt. This is what I emailed:

My name is Chelsea Rider and I am a graduate of Saginaw Valley State University. I majored in Political Science and Criminal Justice (with a Philosophy minor) and maintained a 3.8 GPA, which allowed me graduate summa cum laude. In January of 2004, I began looking into serving in the United States military, but because I still had a year and half left of school, I did not sign up right away. However, now there is a greater obstacle that seems to be preventing me from serving. As of today, 22 March 2006, I weigh xxx pounds, yet according to a caliper test, I am at 18.5% body fat. Unfortunately, the Army does not accept caliper tests and instead uses what they call the ‘girth’ test, in which, for females, they take the measurement of her hips, forearms, wrists, and neck and combine the numbers with her height and weight to calculate her body fat percentage. Under this method, I am at about 38.5% body fat, and this number can vary depending on who is measuring me, as no one seems to measure me in the same spots. I’m in no way out of shape; I work at a gym and teach indoor cycling classes two to three times a week. I do cardiovascular exercise for at least two hours most days of the week, and, up until recently, was weight training three to four days a week.

I realize there’s probably nothing that you can do, but figured it would hurt nothing by asking. I want nothing more than to serve my country as a Soldier. If, by chance, there is something you can do, please let me know. I can get you references of people who can vouch for how hard I’ve worked and how dedicated to serving I am, as well as references of cardiovascular health (measured in a VO2 max test) and body fat percentages using a seven-site Jackson-Pollock skinfold method.

Thank you for your time!


I dunno if anything will result, but hell, it's possible. *sigh*