Swimmertainment

Okay friends, here we are again for another swimmertainment! Today I would like to focus on the good old, "Please, I beg of you, do not do that again."

So y'all remember the guy in the rainbow striped speedo? He is the one who would swim a length of the pool, hop out and either do jumping jacks, sit ups, push ups or all three. Well it is bad enough for a young (about 19), very thin guy to do this. It is a whole other story when a guy who is about 10 - 15 years older, about 150 pounds overweight, and very hairy does this. Thankfully he was not wearing a speedo! However it is rather awkward sharing a lane with said guy as he is climbing and pulling his way out of the pool as you are finishing a lap and his shorts are starting to droop and all you see is a hairy butt crack. "Please, I beg of you, stop doing that!" Please leave the pool for swimming and take the jumping jacks, sit ups, and push ups somewhere else!

Going back to yesterday's blog on what not to wear, I would like to talk about the other end of the spectrum. I have seen a lot (both in number and the physical amount) of butt cracks because bathing suites are too small. Please wear something that fits. While on this subject of what not to wear, if you are a guy and you have any extra weight (more specifically 100 pounds or more) please do not wear a speedo. I do not say this to be mean, I simply say this to say that it is not a good look and it is kinda awkward for everyone else. Ladies, your turn. Bikinis are great if you are in shape and sitting by the pool or on the beach. Please do not try to swim laps in a bikini. It is not a functional or practical bathing suite to swim laps in. Although it is HIGHLY entertaining to watch you attempt said task. So if you wear a bikini to swim laps, please know that I will have atleast a grin on my face as I watch you!

On another day in the pool, I finish up with my laps, grab my towel and head back to the locker room. The locker room is a fairly open space with lockers in the main part with bathroom stalls, shower stalls, and changing rooms off of the open space. When I walk into the locker room after swimming said laps and notice this gal changing into her bathing suite right next to the locker that I was using. A smidge awkward already but okay. Well as I get closer, I advert my eyes and quickly grab my bag so I can take it to a changing room when the lady jumps and yells "Excuse me! Why are you standing so close to me and why are you looking at me? Can't you tell that I am trying to change in privacy?!" I almost couldn't tell if she was being serious. I kind of wanted to laugh at the absurdity of this. I didn't know what to do so I just turned around and walked away. This is when I say "Please, I beg of you, stop doing that!" If you not want people to see you change, please use one of the changing rooms, otherwise please do not yell at people. It was highly entertaining to say the least.

I have one more story, as of right now, to share with you, but it is something crazy/ridiculous that I did while swimming. So I will save it for later. Hope y'all enjoyed today's ridiculousness!

All in.

What Not To Wear

What not to wear? Clothes that are too big. They make life hard. People keep saying isn't it a great feeling? Honestly, not really. It is a pain in the butt. You have keep pulling up your pants or your shirts have too much fabric and it really is just annoying. It also means you have to buy new clothes and that involves two things 1. Shopping and I do not like shopping and B. Money which is not growing on trees. However, I am real thankful for my parents who have bought me some new clothes and for the Old Navy gift card my brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Amber gave me for Christmas. I have added some clothes that I have shrunk out of. Not only for y'all to see, but also for me to look back on and see how far I have come and to encourage to keep going. Disclaimer, these pictures are bad and nowhere near my normal quality of picture taking, but I am okay with that for now.

 Pair of pants on the left - too big. 

Pair on the right - smaller size.

 Both too big...

 Pair on the left, too big pjs - also my favorite pair ever. Sad to put them to rest.

Pair on the right, new pair.

 Shirt on the left, old pj shirt. Also a favorite. If you are ever in Bozeman, I will pay you to buy 

me a new shirt! I am totally serious!

Shirt on the right, new pj shirt.

 Both pairs of pants...too big.

 Pair on the left, biggest pair of pants I have ever owned.

Pair on the right, two sizes smaller.

 I pulled this out to wear with a black dress to a dressy dinner with my 

dad's staff in Richmond. Too big. Wore a green sweater instead.

Slowly but surly, the box is filling up.

It hit me this morning that I have lost 41 pounds overall. 41! That is a big number! That is a lot of weight to lose. It often doesn't feel like a lot because I usually think week to week instead of overall. But today I was like woah! 40 lbs. I would be very impressed with anyone who has lost 40 lbs and I have done that and I need to be proud of myself!

I have lost this kid! This is my 4 1/2 year old nephew, Luke. I have 

officially lost him...and a smidge more!

All in.

Weekly Weigh-In

Well here I am, another pound lighter. A one pound less then last week and I will take it after a week of being sick, travel, and not the best workouts. I did not gain and I know I can make it through the the holidays without gaining weight.

12.26.12 Day 95, Lost:1 Total:36, Weight: 154

36 pounds on this program, 41 overall, 49 more to go. I can do this. I got this. More to come tomorrow!

All in.

Another Weekly Weigh-In

Here we are on another Tuesday. I'll keep this short, but here are some fun things. One thing being that I have lost 35 pounds on this program. 40 overall!! Yay! A few weeks ago, my health educator (the gal who leads our group), Meghan, asked us to write down a goal weight of where we wanted to be by New Years. I wrote down155. Well I hit that and now I have to think of a new goal weight.

12.18.12 Day 88, Lost:3, Total:35, Weight:155

And now I weigh less than this guy!!!

This is my sweet brother, Kory. Love him and the fact that I now weigh less than him! Kory and his wife, Sara, have been huge encouragers in this process and I have loved having them in on this journey! What a blessing!

All in.

Weekly Weigh-In and a 30lb Reward

This weekend was wonderful. I spent the weekend in Richmond with my Dad's staff and their spouses (for those who have spouses). Many of these people were friends of mine before they went on Young Life Staff or became a friend over the years. I am always a little sad at how short our weekends are for catching up with everyone. Most of the people there this weekend had no clue that I had started this program and it was such a great feeling to have so many of them notice the change. Such a sweet weekend with sweet friends.

Since we have a bunch of new readers to this blog, I will give a quick run down of what I do on a regular basis. If you want to know what I eat and about the program I am on, read this blog post. Every Tuesday, I go for a weigh in and post a picture and my progress here. I started this program at 190 lbs which is five pounds less then my heaviest. So in my pictures, it will say how much I've lost in total while on this program. Add five pounds and that is the real overall weight loss number. So here is this week's picture:

12.11.12 Day 81, Lost:3 Total:32, Weight:158

Also, for every 10lbs I lose on this program, I treat myself to something new as incentives along the way. I normally buy myself a Christmas cd from Starbucks this time of year and when I went tonight to pick one up for my 30lb reward, I chose Blake Shelton. Looking forward to listening to that!  Super excited!

More updates soon. All in.

Swimmertainment!

It's finally here, friends. Swimmertainment! As many of you know I like to swim laps at the local Rec Center. I started swimming laps at the of March and usually swim like five day a week. There is always something funny or weird happening when you are at the pool to swim. My friend, Natalee, and I worked together at Mark 2 and we both have worked with folks with disabilities in and out of Mark 2. With that being said, we have a saying (and not a bad one) that we have a high tolerance for awkward. So in the midst of something kind of awkward, we can stay calm and with a straight face. Well this has helped me while swimming. There have been several awkward moments at the gym that I have encountered then often texted Kory and Sara afterwards to share my awkward moments and they have shared in the laughter. So I'm bringing Swimmertainment to y'all so y'all can join in on the fun. Today I have a few stories to share:

So in order to get to the pool you have to walk through the locker room. I often go midday because it's the least crowded. However no matter what time I go, I somehow always go right before or right after the Senior Swim Class has been in the pool. I don't know what it is, but it always seems like every lady over the age of 60 has no issues when it comes to her body and believe that everyone should be okay with their nakedness. Multiple times I've walked into the locker room and have seen a lot of naked women; one lady in particular on multiple occasions. She looks like Betty White. One day in particular, I walk in to the locker room and Betty White is wearing a shirt, socks, and shoes but no underwear or pants and she's leaning forward to dry her hair in the hand dryer by the sink. Really Betty White's look-a-like? Sigh.

A few days later I was swimming laps and I look to the next lane over and it looks like the guy in the lane next is wearing socks. And I was very baffled by this. I tried to get a closer look to prove myself wrong. I thought maybe he's wearing some kind of swim shoe or something. As I was finishing a lap, I noticed he was getting out of the pool. And sure enough, he takes his socks off and rings them out one at a time then he walks back to the locker room barefoot. What? Seriously?

For my final story today, I have to tell you about rainbow speedo guy. This guy looks about 20ish and he gets in the pool wearing a rainbow colored banana hammock. I wish that were the awkward part, but lets be honest, lots of guys wear speedos and most of them shouldn't. I continue to swim, no big deal. Well then I realize that this guy didn't think that swimming was a good enough work out. So he would swim one length of the pool then get out and do jumping jacks, sit ups, push ups, or all three. Then he would get back in, swim another length and do the same thing. Nobody should do these activities in a speedo. Ever. Just sayin'. Really rainbow speedo man?

I hope y'all enjoyed these stories. More to come. On a different not, both my brothers, Mike and Kory, are about 6'1"ish (that's my guess on their heights, I could be very wrong. I'm short, everyone is tall to me) and they both weigh in the 150s. I hate them both and their skinny-ness. So my next goal is to weigh less then both my brothers. Sigh.

All in.

Weekly Weigh-In

I know I promised a swimmertainment entry. I have not forgotten. I will this week. I promise. For real. This week has been crazy. I survived the movies (Breaking Dawn Part II, naturally) with my friends Stacey and Terresa without snacks and junk. So fun to have a girls afternoon with the two of them. This weekend I am heading to Richmond to hang out with the Young Life Staff and Spouses from our Region and I am SO looking forward to it! Cannot wait!  I will keep this blog short tonight. Here is the picture....

12.4.12 Day 74, Lost:2 Total:29, Weight: 161

All in.