First Gym experience

Well it wasn't so bad. I had feelings of trepidation, but I was also slightly excited (go figure?). I headed to the gym right after work, and met up with my friend and her mum. They had come early to try out a zumba class but weren't that thrilled with it. We are going to try another one on Sunday when I can go. It was more of a get to know the place and machines. I did some cardio on the treadmill and elliptical, and some weight machines. Then we hit the pool. I am not as thrilled with the pool, but I think that is because I have been at a pool where that is the main focus. I am thinking I may keep my membership at the rec center up, so that I can do some swimming there still (I still have several months to go before that expires). I really need a lot more instruction regarding exercises etc, but I will muddle through, I know that there are a lot of great resources out there like spark people etc.

Yeah! 2011 is here

I am very relieved to be welcoming the New Year. For most of December I felt like, "is it January yet?" It will be so nice to be able to get back into my routine and not have the dread of holiday feasting to live with. The pool is back open this week, it will be so great to get back in the water, it has been three weeks since I got my feet wet (so to speak). And the Christmas goodies will clear away from the office, only the stuff no body likes is hanging around now. I could have done worse over the holidays, and I could have done better. I did very well until Dec 24th, when as the poor suckers who had to work we decided to throw ourselves an impromptu party and order in Chinese food and then it was a free for all calorically from then on. Then there was the chocolate consumption, I alone consumed an entire box of turtles. At least this was over the period of 5 days. No excuses I know, but I was fighting those lovely hormones at the time.

Finally it is a new year, a new decade, how exciting. I was thinking on what kind of outlook I usually have at the beginning of a new year, and usually it is really negative, for example;

"Gosh how could you get so fat"
"Another year gone and still fat, what a waste."
"you'll never get it off"
"I guess I will give it another try! But I just can't do it" .

But this year I feel really optimistic regarding, well just about everything not just weight loss. Someone must be slipping me the happy drugs without my knowledge.
I lost 47 lbs in 2010 and I fully intend to continue on with that pattern.

Happy New Year, Here's to a new you.

My New swimsuit

Well I received my new swimsuits a few weeks ago, and of course the minute I got them I had to try them on! I got a black one in a size 26 (the biggest they sold) and a flower print one in a size 24 because apparently I was feeling very optimistic. Well anyways the flower print (besides being dead ugly in person) doesn't fit so it has been regulated to the bottom drawer for awhile until it does.

The black is a one piece with a key hole back and a very high neck. It is a crinkle fabric and it is very sturdy construction, it has been great to swim in since it feels like all my jiggly bits especially the Buddha belly is being held in. I also like that when I swim I am not worried about my straps riding down and exposing anything. There isn't any skirt or anything so my legs show, but hey a skirt when swimming is just a big drag anyways.

yesterday in the showers, I could see a fuzzy reflection of myself and realized I look like a giant black pear with legs. So much for the days of the cute blue whale.

Home sweet pool

My regular rec center shut down last week for it's annual maintenance, boy did I miss it. I wasn't going to quit swimming for a week so I headed to the next closest rec center to my home. During this process I learned something, I have been going to the NICE pool. Now I am not complaining. I am very lucky to live in a city that has a great recreation system but wow, what a difference a short car drive makes! It was very nice tonight to be in a change room with stalls that lock, showers with warm water, and staff that were actually padding the swim time a bit instead of calling TIME on the early side (they also didn't harass us to hurry up out of the change room either), and I could walk there and back. It's so nice to be home.

I am built like a God, Unfortunetly it's Buddha

I have a Buddha belly, and thighs, etc etc. And most of the time I can ignore/live with it. However today I realized that gravity is a b*tch to a buddha belly. You don't realize how heavy it is until you jump up and down and damn that hurts! The bounce back made it feel like my abdomen was going to rip away from my torso! I need to get a support garment for it if I ever plan to get rid of it!

And the opposite happens in the pool, the damn thing floats!

One day my Buddha belly will be gone, and in its place I will have a bunch of extra skin and probably a poochy ugly belly, but you know what I'll freaking take it! No offense Buddha but I would rather be built like a Greek goddess!

The pool

I live right behind a recreation centre. Talk about convenience! I can out the back door and be there in three minutes flat, also convenient is the fact that there is an adult swim or a lanes swim almost every night and on Saturday. So that gives me lots of opportunity to gets some exercise in.

I am not a fan of going to the public swims because of all the kids, and their comments, as innocent or not so innocent as they may be. At least adults keep their observations to themselves (at least most of them). I have gone to the daytime swim on my days off, but since the rec centre is attached to a middle school, the students are sharing the change room. They usually glance over in horror and the old ladies and us fat ones. The last time I went during the day one of the girls let it slip "oh my god! look how fat she is" and one of her friends shushed her. I was tempted to say " This is your future..." But I wouldn't want to be responsible for anyone developing anorexia and remained adult pretending not to hear.

I mean I consider it pretty amazing that I appear in a bathing suit in public! I figure people are too busy trying not to drown to be looking at me. And I am too busy making sure nothing is floating out of my suit.