Since I started college, I had been gaining weight. The only thing mythical about the Freshman
Fifteen is that you only gain it freshman year.
Back in the summer of 2010, I did Weight Watchers for a little bit, and
managed to lose 15 pounds, but when I went back to school in the fall I gained
it right back. I won't go into
specifics, but let's just say that I weigh more than I would like to
weigh. The worst part is that I'm pretty
lazy when it comes to working out, especially since I hate running, so I never
really had a routine for going to the gym or anything.
After the Olympics this summer, though, that changed. Watching all of the swimming events reminded
me of how much fun I used to have swimming and how much I used to love just
being in the water in general. So I
decided that a great way for me to start losing weight and getting back into
shape would be for me to get back into the pool again.
I started swimming when I was ten years old, when the neighborhood
pool we were members of started a swim team, so I was a founding member of the
Rivershyre Tiger Sharks. I loved
swimming in general, and being able to swim competitively just made it even
better. Unfortunately, I was never very
fast- I got last or second to last in almost everything, but I always loved
going to the pool and going to practice and just being in the pool in
general. I had already basically chosen
club soccer over club swimming at this point, so I was just swimming in the
summer and the kids who were swimming year-round were getting so much better
than me, but I didn't really care that much.
By the time I got to high school and started swimming there,
the 2004 Olympics had happened and I had a Michael Phelps poster that I'd
gotten at a meet that summer hanging up on my wall and despite the fact that I
loved soccer, swimming was my favorite sport to actually do. I loved being in the
water- it was a great way for me to take my mind off everything else and just
relax in the pool. I kept it up all
through high school and was a co-captain my senior year.
I went to the first meeting of the swim club my freshman
year at Georgia Tech, but I didn't want to make time to go to practices at
night, so I just never went back.
Looking back now, I wish I had, because not only would I have been able
to stay in better shape during college, but I would have made some more
swimming friends too.
So when I was inspired to get back in the pool after the
Olympics in August, it was the first time I had been in the pool in over four
years. I started out slow, using some of
the beginners Speedo Pace Club workouts of around 1000 yards. I kept gradually bumping up my yardage until
I was doing a mile or more every time I was going to the pool, which was one to
three times a week, depending on how I was feeling.
After Thanksgiving, I decided I wanted to kick it up another
notch, since I knew I would be eating more and the main reason I had gotten
back in the pool in the first place was to lose weight. With my dieting and swimming combined, I've lost
20 pounds so far. I've been doing up to
two miles now the past couple of times I've been to the pool, and even though I
haven't been in a couple weeks due to being out of town and not feeling up to
it, I'm excited to get back into the pool after Christmas and diving back into
my swimming routine.
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