A fish out of water...

As most of you know, I have been shrinking. I managed to get through the summer still wearing a size 12 bathing suit despite being an 8.  Speedo bathing suits are tight anyway, so I just went with it. It wasn't that I did not want to buy a new suit, I did.... I just could not agree on one. I had this funny idea that my husband should help me pick it, and despite having 100s to choose from, he selected 2 and did not like either one once I tried them on. Granted, none of the these bathing suits were athletic. With the new body, I wanted something a little more attractive than a Speedo or TYR. Dare I say, bikini? Shoot, I would have settled for an attractive tankini.

My very intelligent daughter manipulated my husband into agreeing that if I got a bikini that she could have one too.  Now, I did not think this was fair since my husband knew that I had very strong opinions on this subject. It isn't that I am ultra conservative and did not want my daughter to wear a bikini. It really was the fact that bikini's for 7 year olds might as well be for 13 year olds... and I wasn't ready for that. The tankini with the open back pushed me passed my boundaries already for my little girl - why do designers want our littler girls to look like teenagers and our teenagers to look like Victoria Secret models? (Okay, off of the soap box now).

Where is all of this going? You guessed it. I got a suit. After all, I am trying to compete in a Tri, right? I need a swim suit to train, right? And at a 4, I cannot continue to wear a 12 Speedo, right?

So, I bought a Nike swim suit. And not just a suit an athletic suit. And not just an athletic suit, an athletic bikini suit. And I feel great in it.

It is a little skimpier than I had wanted. It makes me feel like I have no boobs (they have been shrinking too). It is a little low cut in the bottoms, but I bought it ANYWAY. My daughter still isn't getting one, btw and my husband did not have any thing negative to say when I tried it on (or positive for that matter).

On Thursday... late, around 9pm, I decided to take this baby for a test swim. I went to my gym and pranced up to the pool in my new suit. Of course it was mostly middle aged men swimming and after getting over a little shyness, set my towel on the bench and hopped in the pool.

By the time I has finished, with several tops that were WAY TOO LONG, I had swam about 1100m and had a cramp in my toe.  It felt awesome to get back into the pool. I HAVE a lot of work to do. But having the confidence to rock the athletic bikini... well, isn't that what all of this hard work is about - being confident?

And no, I am not confident enough to rock it in Blog World... yet.