Swimming

I learned a rather disturbing truth today (well, relearned it): I am out of shape. By out of shape I mean, HOLY COW, am I out of shape! That fact was made painfully clear to me this evening when Maren and I decided to go swimming. Sounds like a harmless adventure, yes? Don't be fooled. It was anything but.

It started out innocently. Yesterday, Maren and I discussed going to the gym after FHE today (actually during Stake Conference, funnily enough). Well, I completely forgot about this discussion. Until, after we tragically lost a hard-fought game of Cranium to our FHE brothers, Maren brought up those dangerous words: "Did you still want to go swimming?" The extremely lazy, TV-loving part of myself wanted to sit on the couch for the rest of the evening, watching Psych and texting, but the rather tiny, yet somehow miraculously forceful, die-hard health nut part forced the lazy side of me out the door, complete with swimsuit and goggles. We made the short drive to the gym and had a little problem with the womens' locker room attendant (a highly frustrating story for another day) before making it to the pool.

I love pools. For some reason, I just love the smell of chlorine. Maybe because it reminds me of the laundry detergent aisle in the grocery store, which is one of the top five best smells on earth. And, as much as I may complain, I really do love swimming. I used to be relatively good at it when I was younger. But after the first lap of the evening tonight, I felt like an obese eighty-year-old woman with asthma! Talk about discouraging. I'd like to blame it all on the fact that I'm living in a place 5,000 miles higher than what I'm used to, but let's face it: it probably has more to do with the fact that I haven't seriously worked out since last August. Wow that sounds awful. And yet, for some weird reason, I'm very grateful that I did work out. As difficult as it was to actually force myself to exercise, and as sore as I might be tomorrow, overall, it was definitely worth it. Whether or not I'll actually work out again in the near future is debatable, but for tonight, I'm glad Maren uttered those rather dangerous words.

In other news, I've made it one whole week! Talk about an accomplishment.