No; that title isn’t the cry of an angry bird. (That’s “ca-caw!” or “squawk!”) It’s the official acronym from the United States Coast Guard and the Department of Homeland Security for the Assumed Average Weight Per Person.
Why would they have such a thing? Well, just like elevators, I guess, ships and boats need maximum loads posted and obeyed so people have a better shot of staying afloat (or suspended, in the case of elevators).
Why would I know that such a thing as an AAWPP exists? Because it matters in a professional sense for a fitness professional to know that the AAWPP is changing December first.
It’s changing from 160 pounds to 185 pounds.
It feels somehow more official when the Coast Guard says it, doesn’t it? We are, on average, gaining weight and staying heavier than our bodies were designed to weigh. I don’t like this trend.
I automatically translate this from boats to elevators simply because I have been on far more elevators (and stared at the maximum capacity signs) than I have boats. This means that when 10 people used to fit on a boat together, now the Coast Guard says only 8 people can fit safely.
That’s a LOT of difference when it’s ten people; imagine how many fit on a cruise ship! This is going to make our vacations MORE EXPENSIVE!! It isn’t just the Coast Guard, either. The airlines are doing it too, I’ve heard. (That one is much harder to find through the FAA.)
Being shorter than average, I am curious how tall the Assumed Average Height Per Person is, if it exists. But being shorter than average, it feels strange that I’ve been both AAWPPs in my past. Eek.
I myself need to weigh less than the AAWPP. What about you?
I know how it is a lot of the time: we feel like we have to pay SO MUCH ATTENTION to our blood sugars, and now you’re supposed to manage your WEIGHT, too? AND exercise??!
Well, yes.
It’s the hand we’ve been dealt. So we can either be sad and fold early, or we can play the best game possible with that hand. You just never know what’s going to happen.
Our job is to do our best to stay afloat.
