I could sure use it too.
Well. I finally got the nerve after discovering that I don't *mind* pool swimming as much as I thought I would to visit my local pool. Prior to that I'd been swimming in lakes.
A brief history. I started T in 2003 making navigation around gender binary change areas in fitness club/rec centres an 'issue'. Since I was already self conscious about my size, I took to the trails and swam in a lake 20 minutes from home. when I moved to the west coast in 2006, I found another lake 7 minutes away but didn't want to deal with men's changing areas.
I've been told that yes some pools the men's area has like ZERO privacy.
Forget that.
Anyway, long story short, buddy of mine did some research and happy to say that almost all pools in my area have 'family' change areas, including my local pool which is less than 5 minutes away. I no longer have any excuses to not do my favorite workout in the winter.
Nothing is going to stop me now.
Right now I'm not bothering with stats. I'm just showing up to do a solid 1-2 hours of swimming (non-stop) 5 times a week. That's the goal. Between 2002-2005 (although 2004 was the main year), I lost a total of 125 lbs, and keep off most of it (100-110lbs) over the last 4 years. That's an achievement in of itself but I got a lot more to go as I'm still over the 350lb mark.
Today my routine consisted of 2 breast stroke, 2 front crawl, alternating between the two. I also want to work on more upper body so today when I swam front crawl I did so with no kicking (love doing that... I really feel the burn in my shoulders).
I gotta long way to go but the journey is all part of it.
Good luck to rest of you and your routines. Glad to be here to help motivate each other!! (woot!)