Gemstone
Here for the Journey
So there I was one day swimming up and down the pool and counting the lengths when my mind wandered and OMG - a blip - an earth shattering blip - I knew it was an odd number cos of the way I was going but was it 13 or 15. Now as I swam I had a dilema buzzing round in my head - do I take it as 15 and risk exaggeration or drop it to 13, thereby possibly robbing myself of 2 lengths.
I decided on the latter and immediately felt hard done by, then quite smug cos I'd done the right thing.
As I swam up and down carefully counting the lengths I wondered about the importance of numbers. I remember going swimming with my dad when I was young. He would swim all the time we were there and would never even mention the numbers. He exercised, walked and stayed slim and agile well into his late seventies but I never heard him mention weight - it just wasn't important.
When I was a little girl we used to count the paving stones as we jumped so that we didn't stop on an odd number as that would be unlucky.
Number 13 was unlucky unless you were a 12 year old waiting to become a teenager.
Sweet 16 was when all the fun started while at 18 (earlier it was 21) you could have the key to the door.
Life begins at 40 but at 50 you are over the hill - I know cos I'm there, get to the top and you'll see me - a little way down the other side now cos I'm 56.
You can count the calories, count the points and count the syns. You can weigh the food and measure the liquid you take in.
Most of all you want to see the numbers on the scales go down but it doesn't stop there, oh no.....
Don't forget your BMI, your cholesterol, your viceral fat and your BMR. Then you have your weight for your height chart and your bust, waist and hip measurements, your safe units of alcohol and the miles per litre on your car.
During the present economic climate you have also to think of the cost of living and the strength of the pound against the dollar.........
........ and while I was thinking of all this I nearly lost count again and realised that instead of doing 20 lengths I did 32. I was dead chuffed but does it really matter - after all the important thing was that I spent some time (somewhere between an hour and a quarter and an hour and a half, I lost count) doing some enjoyable exercise.
I decided on the latter and immediately felt hard done by, then quite smug cos I'd done the right thing.
As I swam up and down carefully counting the lengths I wondered about the importance of numbers. I remember going swimming with my dad when I was young. He would swim all the time we were there and would never even mention the numbers. He exercised, walked and stayed slim and agile well into his late seventies but I never heard him mention weight - it just wasn't important.
When I was a little girl we used to count the paving stones as we jumped so that we didn't stop on an odd number as that would be unlucky.
Number 13 was unlucky unless you were a 12 year old waiting to become a teenager.
Sweet 16 was when all the fun started while at 18 (earlier it was 21) you could have the key to the door.
Life begins at 40 but at 50 you are over the hill - I know cos I'm there, get to the top and you'll see me - a little way down the other side now cos I'm 56.
You can count the calories, count the points and count the syns. You can weigh the food and measure the liquid you take in.
Most of all you want to see the numbers on the scales go down but it doesn't stop there, oh no.....
Don't forget your BMI, your cholesterol, your viceral fat and your BMR. Then you have your weight for your height chart and your bust, waist and hip measurements, your safe units of alcohol and the miles per litre on your car.
During the present economic climate you have also to think of the cost of living and the strength of the pound against the dollar.........
........ and while I was thinking of all this I nearly lost count again and realised that instead of doing 20 lengths I did 32. I was dead chuffed but does it really matter - after all the important thing was that I spent some time (somewhere between an hour and a quarter and an hour and a half, I lost count) doing some enjoyable exercise.
