Tuesday 17 July 2012

Well shit. I'm never going to drown; my stomach is a floatation device

For me to give you advice on dealing with weight gain/loss, I think it's important for you to understand my story. This blog won't really have any advice in it, it's just so I don't have to repeat /explain every time I talk about it. 

I used to do competitive swimming. Before I could even walk I was swimming, I love every second of being in the water. Once my mum had a mini heart attack when I was 4 at home after she witness me rip off my floatys, yell "ADAMMMMM ANT!" and jump into the pool. She sprints over to find me doing laps.

Then until about 17 did I compete (the photo is of me in my funky trunks diving). At one stage I did 12 training sessions a week. My races were the 800m freestyle, 1500m freestyle, 400 freestyle and was starting to get into the 200m backstroke. I injured my tail bone (coccyx) when I was 15 by my cousin tackling me into a birdbath (you can laugh, it's pretty ridiculous). It wasn't too bad it was just a bit sore. But I further worsened that injury by slipping over in the shower. I had to learn how to sit, stand, walk again. I was told I wasn't going to be able to swim again. After 9 internal procedures, I proved them wrong by slowly getting back into training by increasing my training session by 15min intervals every month. Once I had finally got back into it, I was at state qualifiers when I was 17. The 800m free was by far my favoured race and the girl who always used to beat me wasn't competing. I was pretty pumped but after I did the most amazing start/dive I have ever done on the first stroke I heard a pop crunch in my shoulder. By the last 100m I could barely get my right arm stroke further than my head. I came 4th.

After being helped out of the pool and going to the chiro I found out I had dislocated my collar bone and it was pressing down on a set of nerves. This caused my whole arm to go completely numb. /endcompetitiveswimming

Since then, having a swimmers appetite and not doing any physical activity did not help my physical shape. During high school I started to make myself throw up every time I ate, and skipped meals. Not too long after I started uni, I stopped doing this. My attitude to my body image has improved since then and now have some clarity on dealing with weight gain. I haven't lost all the weight yet, I have had heath problems slowing my metabolism WAY down. Not to mention an operation which required them to inflate my abdominal cavity with gas (which they didn't let out after the op), stretching all of my skin giving me excess skin. I still have to sit on a doughnut cushion (which I will have to do for the rest of my life) and nerve damage in parts of my arm causing pain and difficulties while working out. 

I am in no way a professional but I can give you a super honest opinion and interpret my personal thoughts however you like. My unrealistic goal is to look like how I was when I was 18, which may not happen or take me years and years. But if I can at least loose 10-15kgs I will be happy. 


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