Some basics…

I’m 41 and my DH and I have been married for 15 years. We have 3 boys (born 1994, 1996, and 1997 - there’s a picture of them below) and a cockapoo puppy. My boys go to Catholic school, and I am the bookkeeper at the church at their school. I work 3 days/week from 9-3 while they’re in school. It’s a nice setup. I’m also an AVON rep - not a real serious one, though. I just like getting a discount on the stuff I use.

I’m a huge music geek - XTC has been my favorite band since I was 14. You’ve probably never heard of them. That’s okay. I only know them ’cause I’m a big geek. I also enjoy scrapbookking and I’m learning to play keyboard (very slowly, from a book).

I was born fat. Seriously. I have 10 siblings and the older ones constantly told me throughout my childhood, “When Mom brought you home from the hospital we all said, ‘Boy, Mom! That’s a big baby!!’” I used to think they were just being cruel, but I’ve seen the home movies and I can tell you that I was truly HUGE. And I’ve battled my weight pretty much my whole life. I weighed 124 when my DH proposed in 1991, and 128 on our wedding day in 1992. But I’m short, so that’s still a little chubby and I wasn’t toned at all. I’ve never been really happy with my body. I currently weigh 161 lbs.

This past year…

I have this really good friend who started running about a year and a half ago. She wanted me to start running, too, so we could run a 5k together. I was (am) really out of shape and could use the exercise, and she assured me that if I couldn’t run the whole thing she’d walk it with me. So I said okay and began training in December of 2006 with the goal of running a 5k in June.

Then I hurt my knee. There was no screaming in agony as I clutched my knee and fell to the ground writhing in pain - just a little twinge that made me think, “That’s wierd. Maybe I should just walk the route today.”  The next day it bothered me, and the day after that it bothered me more.  Eventually I had to get a cortisone shot and do some physical therapy (at home) for a few months.  We had a trip to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon lined up for June, and I was concerned that I might not be ready for a trip that would involve so much walking. 

But I healed enough and we had a great trip. Still, in the back of my mind I kept thinking how out of shape I was and how many things I want to be able to do with my boys now and in the years to come. Here are my boys and I at the Grand Canyon (they’re 10, 11, and 13):

That’s a lovely shot of my “too tight” capris.  I’ve been “Capri Woman” for the last two summers - I won’t wear shorts.  Nobody wants to see my thighs!! In that picture I’m about 165 lbs. I don’t like how I look in pictures, but I hate that I have so few pictures of me with my family. So I decided it was time to do something.

In July 2007 I joined a gym. I planned on using the bike and nautilus machines to work my whole body and work on strengthening my knee. But I didn’t like the bike. And after I was done with 30 agonizing minutes on the bike I went to the machines, and it felt like it was too big a time committment.

So I thought about swimming. I figured if I could swim for 30 minutes I could get my cardio in while I work my whole body (well, okay - I don’t think it really works my abs, but it works everything else). But could I swim for 30 minutes straight? Swimming really wipes me out, so I’d have to work up to 30 minutes. And would I even like it? I’m a huge music geek - I practically can’t function around the house without music, and you can’t listen to music while you swim. And I couldn’t even swim freestyle - I was going to look like a huge dork in the pool with all the serious swimmers!

So I decided to use one of the treadmills that faces the pool and just observe. Serious swimmers? Yeah, there was one of those, but mostly it was senior citizens. And lots of them don’t even really swim - they just exercise in the water. So I scoped out where would be a good place to put my gym bag and towel - close to a ladder so I didn’t have to walk too far with the thighs exposed, of course.

I went in a few days later and just kept moving in the water for 15 minutes. That 15 minutes of doggy paddling translated into about a 2 hour nap that afternoon! But I gradually increased my time in the pool, and practiced swimming freestyle, and now I’m swimming laps for 30 minutes at least 3 times a week, and I only need about a 20 minute rest in the afternoon after I swim.  And I LOVE it!!  It’s my thinking/ daydreaming/ decompressing time - the sound of the bubbles is very relaxing.

 But swimming isn’t enough - obviously.  I’ve been swimming almost 6 months now and I’m only 5 lbs lighter, but I feel better and my clothes fit a little better.  And I do normally gain weight in the Fall (all my boys birthdays are in September, so it’s cake, cake, cake, then Halloween candy, then Thanksgiving, then party, party, party, then Christmas…) and I didn’t gain this Fall.  So that’s some consolation.

 I’m thinking if I start watching what I eat (I tend to eat chocolate without even thinking about how many calories I’m consuming) and continue to swim (and I throw in a few treadmill workouts ’cause if I swim every day I will start needing naps again!) I can keep up with my boys, get some great photos of me with my family, and wear shorts again!!

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This is me in 2005.  I want to use it for the boards, but I needed to upload and resize it somewhere, so I did it here.