9/25/17

For work, I have a project that requires a C++ program on Windows 10 that compiles without any library dependencies except the C++14 standard library and the Win32 API only when the C++ standard library lacks necessary functionality. Standard C++ has no fork/exec or spawn, so that is one area when I'm using the Win32 API.   It is a very strange API that is usually abstracted away using CoreFX .NET classes.  I'm rarely this close to Win32 metal.  But I'm beginning to understand why Cygwin's fork/exec are so odd.

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So I'm fat. I'm probably about the median weight by USA standards, but, I'm still overweight in a BMI sense.  Of course almost all USA men have a BMI above the recommended 25.1 or whatever.

But I once had an eating disorder.  When I was young, I basically starved myself.  As part of my recovery from that, I've had to change my thinking completely.  I stopped letting myself be concerned about what my weight was or what I was eating.  Whenever I find myself worrying to much about food or weight, I tell myself that I am not allowed to concern myself with that, and I don't let myself think about it.

But now I've decided to lose some weight.  To avoid going off the rails, I'm trying to find some non-subjective metrics about weight, so that I don't have to trust the evidence of my (anorexic, lying) eyes.

That lead me into some interesting research on what shape American men used to be, before the obesity epidemic.  And some of the best metrics for men, and what shape men used to be, is from the US Department of Defense.

DOD-HDBK-743A (1991) "Anthropometry of U.S. Military Personnel" and Technical Report 72-51-CE (1971) "The Body Size of Soldiers: U.S. Army Anthropometry: 1966" are a deep dive into the length, breadth, and circumference of every part of a man.  The difference between then and now is astounding.