Workout Buddies

After reading about my exercising at HPU and how much I love swimming, Mom decided she would become my swim/workout buddy for the summer at the Duke pool.  We started last Monday, and have tried to get to the pool every day.  She did better than I did since I took a day off for not feeling well.  Despite that, we made it to the pool every day except Wednesday (because of Church), and Friday because of the weather.  The first day was difficult seeing as how I haven't been in the water for quite some time.  I quickly noticed how much I had lost the stamina I'd worked so hard to build up last semester.  Regardless, it felt good to be back in the pool and I swam my thirty minutes! I'm trying very hard to get back on track with my weight loss goal.  I've lost 13 pounds so far, and as rewarding as it is to see those numbers on the scale dropping each time, I'm still not at the 20 pound mark like I had hoped.  Hopefully, this swimming every day routine will get me back on track and the pounds will start shedding off again!

I have to say, for not working out for such a long time, I thought for sure I would have put back on all of the weight I'd lost.  To my surprise however, I've kept it off! I've been using this great little app on my iphone that lets me track my food intake, exercise, and weight loss.  Having to visually see how much I'm eating each day, what the calorie intake looks like, and entering my exercise has really motivated me to eat better and exercise more. I feel so guilty on the days that I don't exercise and can't enter a workout for the day.  It's all a process that I'm having to slowly teach myself.  Breaking habits that have been in my life for 22 years now is difficult, but not impossible!

It felt very good today when I got back to my normal swim routine.  I usually swim 24 lengths of the pool aka 12 laps in 30-40 minutes.  Today was the first time I've been able to do that since I started back swimming.  I definitely felt the burn, and was breathing heavily at times, but at no point did I feel like I was gasping for air or about to die!  When we started Monday I had to pause at the end of each length to catch my breath.  Today I was able to get up to four lengths (2 laps) before I really needed to take a minute to stop and catch my breath.  I love seeing/feeling this improvement!  I'm finally getting back to where I left off when I was at HPU, and the only place to go now is up!  My goal is to add two laps or four lengths to my swimming each week. More importantly, my goal is to lose at least one if not two pounds a week.  Fingers crossed I can keep that goal a reality!  It definitely helps to have my workout buddy! Love you mom!  Thanks for doing this with me!