WATER! SWEET LIBERATING WATER!

I LOVE being in the pool.  I feel the best when I'm absolutely surrounded by water.  Maybe its because I'm a pices.  I don't know.
I DO know that it felt really good to just move around.  It's so hard to move my body everyday, but in the water, I'm free.  Absolutely free.
I was kind of surprised at how small the class was for water aerobics.  There were a couple old people, and couple of morbidly obese people like me, (men and women.  Newton was always just women, and packed to the brim).  I didn't feel out of place at all.  I thought when I got in the water I'd feel gross and fat, but I felt really good.  I did better than most of the people in the class, surprisingly enough.  I can see this being a challenge in the future.
I want to keep doing W/A.  I want to do it for the rest of my life.  The teacher at the Walnut Creek location is okay, but she's kind of lax, and didn't really switch it up a lot and didn't seem particularly fit herself, or excited about teaching the class.  Don't get me wrong, I totally got my heart rate up, and this is perfect for the fitness level I'm at right now.
In Newton, our instructor was an absolute drill sergeant.  She was taut and toned to perfection.  She'd yell out the count when we were doing reps, tell us to push it and push hard.  She had us doing exercises with such intensity, and she got results, damnit. You couldn't help but want to try your damnedest keep up with her.  I LOVED working out with her.  I never got to her fitness level, (obviously), but I made blazing progress.  I dropped a ton of weight and I was strong.  I remember putting on a dress for work one morning and discovered I had a rockin' quad muscle.  That night at class I went up to Sheryl and was like, "do you see this????  I made this!!"
Although this class is perfect for now, (since I need to ease into it), in the future, it's going to become way too easy.  I was looking through schedules for all the Y's in the area I can go to.  Riverfront has a shitty W/A program, but South Suburban's looks absolutely killer.  I have a feeling I may end up driving to the south side at some point in the future, when I need more of a challenge.

For now, I'm completely satisfied.  The people in our class are few, and not in good shape.  Just like me! I didn't feel self conscious at all.  But someday, they're going to drag me down and keep the class from being as great as it could be.  The instructor is going to have to accommodate the people that need to take it easy.  (Sheryl never did that.  If you fell behind, that was fine, but if you came to her class, you weren't going to get sympathetic, weak workouts).  I want that again.  Hopefully I can work up to that in the future.
As for right now?  The workout didn't feel particularly intense, but I am covered in Biofreeze from head to toe right now, and I had to take some Aleve and Tylenol.  My hips and knees are KILLING ME.   I swear to god, I would feel so much better if my doctor would just give me a pain medication.  I don't think anyone really understands how much my body hurts all the time.  Except Mary.  She knows.  She's right there with me.  It's chronic, but I'm sure dropping weight will help.

I'm still actively pursuing the gastric bypass option.  W/A will definitely help keep up or raise my metabolism, but I highly doubt it will have any impact on my weight like it did last time. I don't know that for sure, but based on my past, things look pretty grim.

When I came home from the pool tonight I was absolutely ravenous.  I ate a big sandwich and still felt hungry.  I even tried waiting it out, just to make sure I was actually hungry and not just wanting to shove food in my mouth for a good time.  Nope, I was honest to god still hungry.  I had a protein shake to curb it, and it worked pretty well, but a few hours later I was ravenous again.  I ate another sandwich, then had some of my fancy beans and meatballs.  I finally don't feel hungry, but this is part of the reason I can't keep my fat ass under control.  I was at the store with Sara last night and I was so hungry I felt like I was going to throw up.  Gastric Bypass takes away your hunger.  And because you eat so little when you DO eat, it has to be nutritious.  I can't even imagine what that's like.  When I pick what I want to eat at the store, I pick based on what's going to fill me up the most and for the longest time.  That's one of the reasons I eat so much damn bread and peanut butter.  They fill me up pretty good.  Too bad they're shitty things to eat.  Well, at least the bread anyway.
This should all go in another blog, but right now I'm stuck looking at the big picture.

So, W/A is great.  On off days I'm going to go with Nathan and work the treadmill, elliptical and arc trainer.  I've got a killer mix on my Ipod and am ready to boogie.  My hurdle will be the heat, and the pain in my joints.
I wish I could live in the pool.  I wish I had my own pool personal trainer, doing things that will help me feel challenged, instead of having to adjust to all the slower people.  Maybe I'll track down Sheryl sometime and ask her for a list I could do on my own, when it's open swim.

We're all set for now though.

......................  for now.