<\/a><\/div>\n

As I have said before, this summer has been very unusual for me. One of the unexpected things for me has been deciding to take swimming lessons. My family has been asking me to do this for years, but my fear and my stubbornness has always lead me to say no. Something in me this year changed though. I decided to get serious about losing some weight and started using MyFitnessPal<\/a> (getting an iPhone is what encouraged me to use the free app and track my eating). Once I got serious with that, I added in walking the dog daily (I took it over from my husband). We then decided to join the YMCA – and something in me clicked to sign up for adult swimming lessons (in addition to working out almost daily).<\/p>\n

This very sweet young lady (who’s the same age as my eldest – so she could be my daughter) is teaching three of us to swim. It has been very good. Though not a swimmer yet, and honestly I don’t expect to be “swimming” at the end of my six lessons, I am slowly getting over my fear of water. I have learned how to “breathe” (did you know if you hum when you put your closed mouth and nose in the water you will blow bubbles with your nose?) and this week (with my new cool goggles) was able for the first time to put my face in the water. I am thrilled with my progress and hopefully by the end of my last two lessons next week I will tread water in the deep end some and be able to back float without the instructor holding me (my personal goals).<\/p>\n

What have I learned through all of this?<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n
1. Lifestyle changes that are started because of others encouragement (nagging) have an “iffy” success rate.<\/li>\n
2. Changes can come at all stages in life. It’s never too late for something to “click”.<\/li>\n
3. Others mean well when they encourage you to do something good for yourself – but don’t beat yourself up if you’re just not ready. Keep the options open in your head and when you’re ready – you will.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

   So, though I’m no Esther Williams<\/a> or Natalie Coughlin<\/a>, I’m happy with being me in the water!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

   As I have said before, this summer has been very unusual for me. One of the unexpected things for me has been deciding to take swimming lessons. My family has been asking me to do this for years, but my fear and my stubbornness has always lead me to say no. Something in me this …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7zbKo-Jz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sheilascribbles.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}