Fat Mommy to Fit Mommy

I had my first swimming class last night. I was nervous about it - although I was a competitive swimmer as a teenager, it has been a long time since I worked on stroke improvement or swam in a class. In addition to my nervousness, I had to fight against fatigue - another sleepless night with Luci (4th in a row)... and, a very busy day! From teaching a clinic I rushed home, ate a quick dinner, packed up Cohen and went to his music lesson, rushed home, got changed, and drove to the pool.

Excuses were running through my head all day. I've been sick all week - surely, swimming would make it worse! My knee was bothering me more than usual - swimming would be a bad idea, don't you think?

But I sucked it up and went.

My class was larger than I expected - 12 adults. 3 males, 9 females. 3 "fat" ladies (myself included), 2 "fit" ladies, and 4 "average" ladies. 1 older male, 2 "fit" males. An interesting mix, to be sure! We were divided up into "non-swimmers" and "can at least swim halfway down the pool swimmers". I was in the latter.

My teacher - well, that was the unfortunate part of the night. My kids have been taking lessons at this pool for a year and a half, and have experienced many teachers - and the one I had last night was one of my least favourite. She talks about herself a LOT (the first thing she did, after introducing herself, was get us all to look in the office to see the flowers her boyfriend sent her. I may have rolled my eyes at that), and she speaks in a really condescending tone. Not just to us - to other instructors too! Further, I can tell that she sees this class as her "slack" class: lots of chatting, goofing off, and not a lot of instructing.

Other than that - I had a good time. I was surprised at how tiring it was to swim 25m - I had to stop and catch my breath after every 25m. Hopefully that will improve class after class.

Here is what our class included:
50m front stroke
50m front stroke with flutter board
50m back stroke
50m back stroke no arms (rolling shoulders)
50m breast stroke
100m own choice
50m cool down

Really - that's a LOT of swimming! It was great. I had a great workout. The teacher didn't bother with me at all - she had her hands full with the two "sinkers" in the class. She did come up to me at one point, with about 20 minutes remaining, and say "you're so quiet!". I replied (with a BIG SMILE) "well, I'm here to swim, not talk, hahah, plus, I'm pretty tired today!". She replied "well, you can leave early if you want".

Huh? I'm pretty sure what she MEANT to say was "well, good for you for being here, and feel free to rest for a few minutes, then get back out there and work hard!".

There is one other lady who is a very good swimmer, and it's a good thing, for me. She had no idea, but I was racing her the entire time. (And I won all but one of those). I am a competitive person, and it really helps me to have someone in the class who pushes me. As a result, I worked extremely hard, and my legs were like Jello when the class was over.

I'm glad I signed up for the class - it's nice to do something different! I am hoping that I have a different instructor for at least some of the classes though. I know I have good technique, but there are some strokes that I really need help on.



I am also SO excited that my oldest and bestest friend is going to join my gym (hopefully!). It is SO much easier to get to the gym when you have a friend to motivate and motivating you! My goal is to make it to the gym 2x per week while I'm doing swimming class, and 3x once the class is over. We're going together on Monday, and I can't wait!

Eating-wise - FINALLY went grocery shopping today. I can't believe how expensive it is to shop for a family of 5! Anyway, I planned 3 new recipes for this week, including 2 chicken recipes. If they work out, I'll post them on here.

I'm also making my famous Chili this week. This is a recipe that was passed down to me by my dad - and it's one that he perfected over many years of firehouse cooking. It's SO good that when I worked in the restaurant industry, we ended up adding it to the menu. I used to make it at home 3x per week, and bring it to work with me. Maybe I'll share it...stay tuned!