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I’ve always loved swimming.
I’m not the best swimmer, and I really didn’t even learn how to swim until I was 15, but I still love it. Still though, I have a love/hate relationship with the pool.
My parents have a pool, and when I lived at home I would swim constantly, except for when people were over, or when my parents had one of their huge summer parties. When I was a member of the Y, I never used the indoor pool, despite the fact that I would have loved to be able to swim in the autumn and winter. My old apartment had a pool, but if my landlady was home or if someone was working on the yard (it was a basement apartment), then I wouldn’t go anywhere near it. This apartment has a pool, but all last summer I never used it.
Why? Well, I think it’s the same reason alot of people don’t like the pool, or beach, or whatever: I didn’t want to be seen without my shirt in. My flabby stretchmarked gut, my moobs, my pale skin, I thought all of that was best left under the shirt. I didn’t want to be seen, I didn’t want to be looked at, I didn’t want to be made fun of, etc…etc…
With that said, the apartment pool has opened for the summer, and yesterday, I went swimming! 
And yes, I took my shirt off.
That isn’t saying that the gut, moobs and paleness aren’t there anymore, and it’s not to say that I’m proud of my appearance right now, but I am learning that I need to worry less about what people might think and do what I want to do. I’m also realizing that more often than not, those people are probably more concerned about how THEY look then about how they look.
So yeah, I have alot of work to do, but I think I can now add swimming to my workout routine, and be okay with it. Plus, I like the smell of chlorine, is that weird? 
Good for you!!! Get in the pool, despite flab/skin/fat etc. I got in the pool at 250 pounds (rolls and all) and just swam. Swimming is how I lost most of my weight, too. It’s such a great exercise. And not only that, once you’re in the water, people can’t see your body.
I’ve always loved the water. My parents used to call me their fish, because you couldn’t get me out of the pool, lake or ocean. When I was at my heaviest, I didn’t swim at all. Last summer was the first summer I actually bought a swimsuit in three years. I dug it out last weekend, and both the top and bottoms were too big. With minor sewing on my part to make it smaller, I was good to go!
I’m in love with this post. It sounds like you have gotten your groove back. And that makes me happy!
Have a good weekend, Steve!!!
Way to go getting in the water and not worrying what others think, enjoyment of the life you have now is so important, why wait.
I hate indoor pools with a passion and that seems to be all I can find up here, so no swimming for me for a long time
I learned to swim when I was a baby and never stopped loving, the best is scuba diving, being under all that water!
And yes, loving the smell of chlorine is VERY weird
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Never ask if it’s weird. Cause who cares? You’re awesome and you can do this. And you like the smell. I’m sure this will benefit your life. You will be happier-from the fumes-healthier too. Hooray!
Pale is sexy. And so are you my friend and roomie.
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Awesome job doing this. I can’t swim at all, so I’m first in line of being jealous of you discovering this. I smell a triathlon in your future.
I was the exact same way. I remember never going swimming at camp because of my weight. I would always wear a shirt over myself to hide what I had.
I think about it now and wonder how much fun I missed. Staying away and putting a shirt over myself didn’t ever hide the weight that I had. People still knew I had it.
Anyways…Way to get out there and go for it! Enjoy it!
I love the smell of chlorine as well… so I don’t think it’s odd at all.
When it comes to the beach or the pool I just don’t care because I love the water. I hate my body, but the water makes me happy. So, in that case I choose water.
have fun swimming! triathlon in your future? I bet you could do it.
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Don’t snort the chlorine, man.. haha. Yeah I grew up with a pool too, and enjoy recent hotel pool trips. Memories. Good exercise, those laps. Always good to find new ways to work it. And good job taking the shirt off. No one cares more than us. Everyone is super self conscious, or else the gym wouldn’t be so busy before summer
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I think it’s awesome that you went swimming when others were around! Very cool. Great job putting your feelings to the side and doing it anyways. I love to swim and it’s only been in the past few months that I’ve been able to go and not wear a huge oversized shirt myself, along with my long skirt attached to my bathing suit.
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Love the pool. And I’m bald so I look like a swimmer.
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I love swimming too (but not that good at it!) Glad you got to go, bud!
That’s great, so you’re back to losing weight again huh?
I used to swim all the time too, but unless you’re with a whole bunch of friends, it gets boring. And as all my friends have busy lives now, no one wants to swim with me.
Lol.
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We gave you a longassshoutout on the podcast (technical term
) Im so glad to see youve still got the mojo going.
Carla
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