Doing it when you just don’t wanna

I really didn’t want to go swimming today. I was stiff and tired and sore. And it was cold. But I put my cozzie on under my work clothes, like I always do and took my swim stuff to work. (I couldn’t get them in the boot of my car this morning – it was frozen shut).

Come lunchtime, I figured, I’ll go, do 10 lengths then see how I feel. If I’m still stiff and sore, I’ll get out without feeling guilty about not even trying. So I did. And of course, I carried on after my 10 lengths. So I guess the moral of the story is not too cop out too easily, give it a shot and just make a start.

As it happens, I was a little late for the session, which is only 30 minutes long anyway. The leisure centre is attached to a school and is only open to the public between 12.30 and 1 during the week, which works quite well if you’re trying to fit some exercise into your lunch hour. So I did 20 minutes and managed 16 lengths. If I were to extrapolate, that’d be 24 in 30 minutes, up from 20 last time. But I’ll wait till I actually do 24 lengths in 30 minutes before I rest on my laurels. I also did it in 2-length blocks, like in my mini-goal number 2, but it wasn’t the full 30 minutes, so I won’t count it this time. I’d been doing it all wrong, starting with backstroke to warm up then doing freestyle. Then I needed to rest because I was so puffed. This time I started with freestyle and the backstroke was my recovery length, meaning I needed much less time to recover after every 2 lengths. My goal for next time is to do the full 30 minutes like this, then start building up to my mini-goal number 3 – 30 minutes freestyle. That one might take a bit longer to achieve.

Anyhow, so far this week, I’m right on schedule exercise-wise, and feeling much more positive about myself because of it. I also have a confession to make: I did sneak a peak at the scales on Monday morning. Just on 15 stone. And I couldn’t resist going back to weighing myself daily. The good news is that I’ve gradually been going down each day. I was 14 stone 12 this morning (208 pounds). I’m hoping by Sunday, my official weigh-day, that I will have undone a good chunk of the damage of the last two weeks.

Not much else to tell you today. Check in tomorrow to read about an inspirational young woman and her amazing body transformation. ‘night all.