My aquatic life

I had a pretty good weekend. I went to see my family in Modesto.. it was my niece Sierra's 6th birthday party on Saturday. Chris and I tried our best to enjoy ourselves (some family drama related to my ex-stepmonster who is Sierra's grandmother) and we did for the most part. The part that kinda sucked is it was HOT.. like 105 degrees in the shade. And being the rolly-polly that I am, I was pretty uncomfortable. I've always hated summers in my hometown because it sucks to be obese and overheated. But - the good news is that we were invited by friends of my dad to come over and go swimming after the party. I was so there!

Swimming was always a really big part of my life, until after high school when my weight spiralled out of control. My dad taught me to swim when I was 2 and he'd take me to the pool every afternoon in the summer. I couldn't get enough.. he would have to make me get out of pool. My fingers would actually hurt from being so pruney. When I got into junior high, my mom signed me up for lessons with a coach and I joined the local swim club and started to compete. In high school, I was on my high school swim team. I had practice starting at 6:30am and again after school. I was never late for practice - I loved swimming so much. In the pool, I didn't feel self-conscious or out of place like I often did on land - I felt free and fearless .. and weightless. But as high school went on and puberty really hit, that's when my weight started to become a problem. I had always been a "big girl", but I had always been really active too. One of my most painful memories is of the yearly physical that my high school required for us to have with our family doctor before we could participate in sports. Before the swim season my junior year, I went to my doctor to fill out the physical form. And she wrote on it .. "weight 202.. patient is moderately obese". That is the first time that I had been labeled as "obese".. I guess I was about 17. I felt such an extraordinary amount of shame when I had to turn that form into my coach. That was the last season that I swam competitively. And over the years since, I've swam on occasion, but I've never done laps or practiced any strokes or techniques at all.

So back to this weekend.. we got to the pool in our friends' building, and I got really excited because it was of a decent size and pretty deep .. about 8'. So I thought to myself.. let's see what you can do, girl. I swam laps.. freestyle, breaststroke, backstroke and I even attempted butterfly. And kickturns! I did a couple of kickturns! The next day, I totally paid for it though. The muscles in my arms and shoulders and even my glutes were on fire, but it was so worth it. Chris told me, "you should have seen the look on your face.. you looked so happy". And I was.