Encouraged or Frustrated?

I have got to admit that I have been feeling a little encouraged and frustrated here lately. Now you might ask, how does one feel both encouraged and frustrated at the same time? Well that is the problem that I am having. This morning while swimming laps at the pool, I was reflecting on where I started from shortly after July 1st and where I am at now in my exercise program. I remember the first time in the pool, after I had already exercised for about 30 minutes, I swam 1 lap and had no doubt that I had gone as far as I could possible go.

Over the past 6 weeks or so, I have seen some remarkable changes. I am now swimming ¾ of a mile each time I swim and I have reduced my time by a little over 10 minutes. It now takes me about 54 minutes to swim ¾ of a mile.

Another thing that I have found encouraging is that Terry Laughlin in his book Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster and Easier, (If it were only possible LOL) says that only 2% of all Americans can swim a quarter mile without stopping. Well, I don’t know for sure if his numbers are true, but I am pretty sure that I have never been in the top 2% of all Americans in anything before and especially never in any form of athletic endeavor. So whether his numbers are true or not I will just savor the thought that possibly I can now do something that only 2% of the people can do.

So wouldn’t you think I should be very encouraged by all of this?

The frustrating part is that I haven’t seen the good results from the YMCA translating into my everyday life. I still seem to get out of breath way too easy walking up stairs and such. I really haven’t lost much weight. I started out beginning in the middle of June and lost 14lbs pretty quickly, and over the past several weeks I might have lost another couple of pounds. Of course it didn’t help my cause moving here to the sweet tea capital of the world:( I have never been anywhere in my life where sweet tea was so popular, so readily available and sooooo good. It is like getting a direct IV of sugar right into your blood stream:) Even one of my new found friends “Bentley” who is the adopted son (BIG, BIG DOG) of two of my parishioners, drinks (slurps) a glass of sweet tea everyday from Lee’s Chicken. (They do have great iced tea, we went there on Bentley's recommendation)

Another frustration is that I have a nagging mid back pain that I know has been caused by swimming and my shoulders and upper back seems to stay in a constant state of muscle soreness. I realize that there is something to be said for no pain no gain, but I really am a wimp:) I do have a day and sometimes more in between workouts, but the discomfort seems to persist no matter what I do, so I just keep swimming.

So I am feeling a bit encouraged and frustrated. This doesn’t mean that I am "encrusted" does it? I hope not:)

Blessings