Hi everyone...
Tonight is my very first masters swim practice and I'm really quite nervous.
While I've been a competitive swimmer since the age of 5, swam on a US team, competed in both long course and short course US Nationals, and then went and swam in college.....I'm a nervous wreck about tonight's practice. Although I have more than enough swimming experience, I'm terrified that I won't fit in with the master's team.
I've been "out of the water" for 6 years now and I'm very out of shape and I've gained a considerable amount of weight. I can't believe that I've allowed myself to get like this, but it obviously didn't happen over night. So I've been doing cardio and weights at the gym to get myself back in shape but it doesn't seem to be working very well. I realized how much I miss swimming and that I'd like to get back into the sport and thats how I got interested in masters swimming. I'm excited to swim for me...not for the coaches, not for my parents. I'm looking forward to ENJOYING swimming, rather than dreading practices and having kick boards thrown at me if I have to stop during a set. I'm excited to meet people and have fun.....but I'm still so nervous to step foot onto the pool deck.
I guess I'm mostly embarassed. I know its silly to be like this, but I'm afraid everyone will be in good shape and I'll get run over during the practices. I'm wondering if maybe I should put off swimming for a little while until I can lose some more weight.
Can anyone please shed some light on their first masters practice and what you might have been feeling?
I really appreciate any help or advice that you can give me. Thank you!
Parents
Former Member
Hey, the best of us let ourselves go. It's really easy to preach "Just stop eating" but it's more than that and those of us who have dealt with serious weight issues, understand that. I've lost and kept off 100 pounds and let me tell you, if it was as easy as "eat less, move more" I would have lost that weight WELL before I did. It was the whole mental aspect that people who have had the blessing of never having a weight issue, can't begin to understand. (At least some of them.)
I will say that I think you're 100% on the right track. You have found your inner athlete and you are redefining who you are. You are not a "former athlete" you're a current athlete. I know once I started thinking of myself as an athlete (well before anyone else might even CONSIDER applying that label to me...and I'm sure it would have made many people on this board laugh), it gave me a different focus. Athletes eat well to fuel their bodies and their workouts. They train because it is a means to an end (as well as mentally and physically enriching). I'm a runner and triathlete who has a big swimming improvement goal this year (which is why I'm here) and I know that if I decide to have a fatty breakfast and then go out on a 15 mile run, good things will not come of it. Therefore I have to think about everything I eat in relation to where my training is, what my plans are, and how it will impact my performance and the way I feel. That has helped me stay lean and clean for over three years now.
My own personal secret of success isn't so secret...I journal everything I eat. I'm one of those type-a control freaks (I like to refer to myself as "charmingly in control...of EVERYTHING) so to me it is comforting to know, with a small margin of error, exactly what I've eaten, how many calories I've burned, what the calorie deficit is (if necessary), and how that's averaging out over time. I also exercise daily and happen to run daily (it is the sport I love).
I won't bid you good luck because this isn't about luck. It's about health...so instead good health!
Hey, the best of us let ourselves go. It's really easy to preach "Just stop eating" but it's more than that and those of us who have dealt with serious weight issues, understand that. I've lost and kept off 100 pounds and let me tell you, if it was as easy as "eat less, move more" I would have lost that weight WELL before I did. It was the whole mental aspect that people who have had the blessing of never having a weight issue, can't begin to understand. (At least some of them.)
I will say that I think you're 100% on the right track. You have found your inner athlete and you are redefining who you are. You are not a "former athlete" you're a current athlete. I know once I started thinking of myself as an athlete (well before anyone else might even CONSIDER applying that label to me...and I'm sure it would have made many people on this board laugh), it gave me a different focus. Athletes eat well to fuel their bodies and their workouts. They train because it is a means to an end (as well as mentally and physically enriching). I'm a runner and triathlete who has a big swimming improvement goal this year (which is why I'm here) and I know that if I decide to have a fatty breakfast and then go out on a 15 mile run, good things will not come of it. Therefore I have to think about everything I eat in relation to where my training is, what my plans are, and how it will impact my performance and the way I feel. That has helped me stay lean and clean for over three years now.
My own personal secret of success isn't so secret...I journal everything I eat. I'm one of those type-a control freaks (I like to refer to myself as "charmingly in control...of EVERYTHING) so to me it is comforting to know, with a small margin of error, exactly what I've eaten, how many calories I've burned, what the calorie deficit is (if necessary), and how that's averaging out over time. I also exercise daily and happen to run daily (it is the sport I love).
I won't bid you good luck because this isn't about luck. It's about health...so instead good health!
