I like...swimming!

Growing up in the tropics, the coolest thing to do was join the swim team...partly because of the abundance of beautiful pools and bored kids, and partly because swimming was the sport that offered the least possibility of heat stroke. I lovvvved swim team, and continued to swim through high school, then stopped when I got to college, mostly because I got lazy. Hence the Time of Working Out Sporadically and Eating 4 or 5 Meals a Day began (strangely, I LOST 15 pounds when I went to college, but those habits have caught up with me now)! Add in the Time of Being Married to a Person Whose Favorite Channel is Food Network, and we have a recipe for disaster (pun not intended).

Fast forward to last month, which I like to call the Time of Banishing the Flab. I have spent so many five-day periods slugging away on the treadmill for an hour at a time, trying to motivate myself and convince SOMEONE that it's worth it. Five days after my must-get-fit obsession began, it would end because I wanted to take an ax to that darn treadmill or kick it til it wouldn't make me run on it for another horrifically painful minute. Finally, after months (okay, years) of this battle with the Dreaded Treadmill of Doom, I in all of my genius observance have discovered that my key to getting fit in a way that is sustainable and lifestyle-changing is finding something that I actually ENJOY. I know, it's not rocket science, but for some reason I had myself convinced that running was the only mechanism for banishing the flab, even though I detest it and want it to die and would rather jump in a pool of purple pond sludge than do it.

I discovered that working out CAN be enjoyable again, and I really found this out by going to Zumba class for the first time. I got to shake my booty to awesome Latin music and get a CRAZY workout out of it! This salsafied inspiration got me thinking about other ways that I could work out yet enjoy myself and end my workout like those crazy weirdo runner people who say running helps them think better. For the record, all running does for me is help me think about how much I HURT and how much I just want to stop running and walk straight to Freddy's Frozen Custard to make myself feel better.

Sooo, all of this thinking about exercise, along with the discovery that I can get an awesome discount at the Health Sciences Center health club, made me remember how much I loved being an Aquadragon (the Jakarta International School mascot is the Komodo Dragon, so swim team = Aquadragons), and I decided I'd take up swimming again. So I drove myself to Academy, bought a sweet Nike swimsuit, and drove myself to the pool. I tried to swim my first lap at the pace I was used to going at, before the Time of Fourth Meal at Taco Cabana caught up with me, and let's just suffice it to say that did NOT work. Yikes. So I resigned myself to the fact that I'd have to start out slow, but at least I'm not as slow as the 30 year old dude with a mohawk who believes with all his heart that wearing a Speedo will make him the next Mark Spitz...it will not, FYI. I feel pretty good about my ability to get back into form, swim at a fairly respectable pace, and not half to turn over halfway across the pool to float on my back so I can breathe...but then Michael Phelps version 2.0 comes into the pool - no matter what time of day I am there, he is there - and I decide I have a long way to go and decide to get out of the pool for fear of looking like the weird speedo dude who thinks he knows what he's doing.

The point of all this is to say, I have been swimming at least 3-5 times a week for the past month, and I love it! It clears my head, it's a fantastic full-body workout, it's relaxing, and it doesn't make me cry or yell in pain or give dirty looks to anyone who passes me because they should be suffering with me in my running, darn it! I'm not quite back to my Aquadragon days, but I'm getting there. Yay for getting fit!