It's one year on and feels like an achievement

mandy_godfree

Tonight is my exercise and fitness New Years Eve. Tomorrow marks the beginning of year two of a healthier lifestyle.

A year ago tomorrow, I started swimming again and calorie counting because I had spent two years with back problems, almost total muscle wastage down my left side and pins and needles in my hands and feet, sometimes losing all feeling in my feet.

My fitness had taken a steady nose dive after surgery in May 2013. I had a year of physio and knew I had to make some changes or a I would not be fit enough to keep my job. It was not a fun time.

The first time I went swimming on 15/08/2016 I thought I was going to die after just 4 lengths and struggled my way to 20 lengths by swimming a combination of strokes and taking more than one or two breaks. It was so demoralising because I used to be such a good strong swimmer.

Upon the advice of the asthma nurse I was instructed to use my asthma inhaler before every swim session to make sure I had enough clear windpipe not to die from an asthma attack mid session.

Every muscle in my body ached for days, and as you may imagine I thought my left side which had no meaningful muscle at all was going to drop off.

Here we are a year later and I have lost 35lb ( 2 1/2 stone) in weight, used my asthma inhaler once since February, passed my work fitness test, found a few muscles in my left side, I never swim less than 100 continuous freestyle 25m lengths at a time, and gone down two sizes in clothes.

My fitness has improved enough now for me to start concentrating on improving my swimming stroke instead of simply trying to breathe.

I have a similar swim fitness level now to when I was 19 which isn't too bad for an over 40 who actually couldn't even walk more than a few metres for 6 weeks after surgery. It's been a lot of effort and hard work, but well worth it. Here's to the start of year two.

I'm not quite where I'd like to be from a weight point of view. Another 7lb - 14lb off would be nice, but it's been one hell of a year, and I feel like I've achieved so much.

middlehaitch

That is one brave and awesome year you have just had.
I admire you tremendously for taking your fitness into your own hands and starting back swimming.

Onward and upward form here on in (except for the weight of course, that will continue down).

Cheers, h.