Trying to get in the SWIM

I'm feeling very blog-worthy today as I had an excellent day yesterday on the eating and exercise front, and am on track today as well. I'm always nervous when I post about doing poorly, not maintaining my goals or heaven forbid, gaining weight. All 3 of the aforementioned were embodied in yesterday's post, and more significantly, throughout last week. Yet I got support, encouragement, kindness, and even commiseration from others who are also struggling. Makes a gal feel like one of the many, and not some alien who has no business having a weight loss blog when she's not losing weight. I am so appreciative of all my blog buddies who are journeying with me here.

Yesterday my food was good, and I got in a 45 minute walk after work. My knee (to be known as "Lefty" for the rest of this post) felt almost normal during the walk, though it stiffened up later. Totally tolerable, and clearly coming along nicely. I'm aware that walking is definitely more taxing to Lefty than biking, so this morning I finally returned to my gym and did the stationary bike for 22 minutes. I could have gone longer, but am trying to back off from my usual setting of "gangbusters" into a more reasonable and prudent "sensible". It felt great being back there. After the bike, I did some leg lifts ala Physical therapy instruction (from which I've been discharged, btw) also, and will strive to add in more of the PT kinds of moves and stretches gradually.

My next thing that I'm going to be posting about a bit is that I'm trying to get myself psyched to do swimming. I've always loved to swim, and LOVE the water, but for the last 20 years have not submerged more than my toes and below the knee parts because of not wanting to put on a bathing suit. (Note my URL is "willswimagain... related to this missing piece of my life.) Those of you who've been reading me awhile remember when I bought a new swimsuit in October to take on our trip to the Dominican Republic. It was pretty difficult, but I got one from Land's End that by some miracle fit. I didn't like how it looked on me, but it's a fairly cute suit
that I planned to wear if we swam in the DR. Turns out the only time water was involved in our day to day doings was a day that I woke up with no voice and really sick. So...I just wore the top part of the suit under a tee shirt, and escaped from the full body disclosure I was so dreading. (Sorry for those of you who've seen that pic and heard this scintillating drama before.)

Well. The planets are lining up in a manner that is pointing me to the water. The bathing suit is quietly lying in a drawer, calling out to me to give her some consideration. She wants to be part of my life...to have a relationship with me. Several people, including orthopedic professionals and PTs have urged me to swim as the best means of exercise that will not cause ANY impact or damage to Lefty, or her mate, Righto, not to mention any of the joint cousins. It's even been suggested that swimming will actually help with the knee rehab. My gym has an olympic size beautiful pool, and lots of classes for water exercises and stretching. Swimming options abound. And now I've even found a blog by a woman who is swimming her way to fitness and weight loss, and she has put on a swimsuit when she was pretty darn heavy. Check out her blog here. It's really great, and very inspiring. She even sent me an email to encourage me to get over the bathing suit bullshit (my words, not hers) and dive in.

So I'm thinking about committing myself to a date when I show up to swim at my gym. I'm not ready to do it yet (emotionally), but am working on willingness. By starting to talk about it here I'm hoping make this manifest in my life. If not now, when? In the meantime, I'll alternate biking and walking, striving to increase time and resistance.

On another note, I saw Avatar on Thursday night with a friend, and it was freaking amazing. I held out awhile, as it really isn't my kind of movie, but finally succumbed to peer and offspring pressure to see it. I went with a friend to the local IMAX theater and saw it in 3D - a first for me. It was quite remarkable, beautiful, incredibly creative and clearly a work of art. The story is good, but it falls short of the overall visual and sensory experience of the film. My friend Bev and I saw it, and I couldn't resist taking pics of us in our 3D glasses:. Even if you hate action/adventure/sci-fi/fantasy, this is worth seeing.

I hope everyone has a good Saturday, and I'll be back tomorrow, in accordance with my Perfect 10 goals!