I am not a trained swimmer. I grew up swimming on Hubbard Lake at my grandparents house every summer--but I was never like "official" in any way...I just had to keep my head above water and keep my feet from getting eaten by crawdads and other crabs. So lately I've been trying to hit the YMCA pool and swim laps to whip myself into shape. First of all, if you are going to be swimming laps at a gym, and you want to feel like you know what you are doing and look like you know what you are doing, you need a snappy pair of swim goggles. These are supposed to help you see better...but actually when you are wearing them they either fog up and you can't see anything, or they fill up with water and make you feel like you are drowning. I prefer to wear them for a few laps to look sleek and cool, then just have them around my neck for the rest of the time for extra caloric-burning drag. Second thing I've realized now that I'm in the "cool-lap-swimmers-club" is that I definitely need a better swim suit. My swim suit is like not streamlined at all...it's like a weird polyester material, it has a tie at the neck, buttons on the chest, and a very saggy bottom...but again--back to the drag thing--I AM burning extra calories by wearing it! I thought it was cute a few years ago, but after wearing it through two pregnancies, it's extremely embarrassing to get OUT of the pool with my stretched-out saggy-bottom swimsuit.
Now, if I wanted to be REALLY cool I would get a swim cap (wait, I take that back--I have a swim cap--it came with my cool goggles)...I would WEAR a swim cap. Hmmm, I remember my Great-Aunt Pat wearing a swim cap at the Lake growing up, and I thought that only old ladies wore those to protect their most recent perm or color treatment...but no, no. Fashionable swimmers of all ages wear these caps. I have extremely thick hair--when I tried to put it on, I looked like a cone head...and there was NO way I could get it ALL THE WAY ON. I guess my hair wasn't meant to be protected from the chlorine. I'll just have to use lots of conditioner.
And so, I am now officially a swimmer--I can even sort of breathe on the side in that neat, official looking way (thanks to my hubbie who was always on the swim team teaching me!). If I can keep this up, I will look oh so hot by summer--sizzilin' hot. hehehe
5 comments:
Haha! Aren't you the next neptune's daughter??! :-) Swimming is one thing I just can never do as a work out because I am just not.. should I say... Streamlined enough??? And when I swim I look like I'm just frolicking around in the water.. It doesn't look AT ALL like I know what I'm doing!! haha. BUT, I give you props for being able to do such a skillful workout, and its the best way to get the bod you've always dreamed of... if you know what I mean. LOL!
you should just do solo swim dance routines and weird out the lifeguards.
When I swim, I always end up floating and frolicking, neither of which get me sweating(which is my sign of burning those calories)... wait...how do you even KNOW if you are getting a good workout if you are not sweating in the water?? Or maybe you ARE, but you just can't tell... hmmmmm.
SWIM on, Neptune.{'s daughter}
Yes, yes--I think frolicking about the water is a great way to put it! haha--that's what we would do all summer long, huh? Solo dance routines would definitely put me in the "watch out for THAT lady" category at the pool. hahaha
Oh, and the sweating thing?--no, I don't think you sweat technically in the pool, but you can definitely tell you are getting a good workout when your arms can hardly move and your heart feels like its going to die.
My hubby loves swimming as well - it's definitely his favorite mode of exercise. For me, I'm all about my exercise DVDs! :) But cheers to staying in good shape! I wanna look "sizzlin' hot" by summer too. :) Great post!
~Lauren
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