Pool Cool

So last night I took my daughter and her friend to the pool. Yep, you heard me right -- The Pool.

In the distant past, when I was young and beautiful but had those horrible, warped, 'thin-but-thought-I-was-enormously-fat' issues (like, 20 years ago), you could not have PAID me to put on a bathing suit and go gallivanting at a pool. Never ever. And really, what a shame. A crime. A waste of Life (which is too damn short as it is). No, today I actually AM fat, hello -- but, while I'm not exactly happy about it, I'm not going to let so much Life pass me by anymore either (thank you, Joy Nash and your wonderful Fat Rant III: http://fatrantblog.wordpress.com/2008/06/19/fat-rant-3-staircase-wit/)

It was hotter than the blue blazes yesterday, and humid -- exactly like a sauna. I finally came This Close to breaking down and firing up the air conditioner (yes, we are stubborn hold outs)... but no. Instead, I suggested a dip in the public pool was in order, much to my daughter's delight. My first visit of the season -- and once I hit that wonderfully refreshing, evening water I couldn't possibly imagine why I hadn't done this yet this summer. Well, actually I probably could imagine -- perhaps because the thought of parading my estimated 250 or so pounds around in a bathing suit in public hasn't always filled me with enormous enthusiasm??? Well, I'm determined to get over myself -- and last night felt like a new beginning somehow.

All in all, I felt very comfortable in my suit -- just a regular, black, one-piece, with no skirt or shorts. For years, I've worn swimsuits with little skirts or faux, built-in shorts. My last suit was truly hideous in every way (color/shape/style/you name it) -- I'd shopped too late in the season and was forced to pick the only thing left on the rack with sewn-on shorts. Super ugly, but by god the thing had SHORTS -- so, I wore it. Begrudgingly. Finally though, I replaced it last year or so with another suit -- just a regular suit, that, while I liked the basic style of it, it possessed no requisite, security-blanket shorts/skirt. My solution at the time I was buying it (at Target), was to just walk a few steps over to the men's department on the other side of the fitting rooms and pick up a pair of loose, basket ball-style, athletic shorts to wear with it. Well, last night I decided 'aw, to heck with it' -- and wore the suit sans shorts. How liberating! Plus I wasn't filled with enormous dread by what I saw in the locker-room mirrors either (so not only did I feel more comfortable in my suit -- I was feeling more comfortable in my SKIN?). Perhaps these last 6 months of regularly working out at the gym, despite no apparent weight-loss nor obvious decrease in overall size (insert small sigh here), HAS had an effect. I looked, what...? Firmer maybe...?

At any rate, the swimming was lovely. I'm not a strong swimmer by nature, but I can get around well enough, and I did. Back and forth across the pool, comfortably treading water -- very relaxing, and fun. My daughter and I made games of going across without using our arms, then without using our legs. I'm sure there was exercise-worthiness somewhere in that....