Why Swim?

Swimming is far more than just a sport for me. Swimming is a way of life. Swimming is a part of me, something I live for, something I breathe for, something I am.

For a lot of us, swimming is beyond being just a sport. The time invested in the pool, the blood and sweat that has poured out of us through endless dry land and weight sets. The injury, the overuse, the pain of wanting it so bad, are all things we’re accustomed to. It’s bigger than just being a hobby or a way to stay in shape. Swimming is a part of our identity, part of our lives, part of what makes us, us.

I frequently get asked if I am a volleyball or basketball player due to my height, I just shake my head. My days of those sports are long over. They look at me again and see the shoulders that I try to cover up, “I’m a swimmer,” I proudly say. They always stop, cock their heads and ask, “But, why?”

*I will state that I refer to tennis a few times in this blog. I want to make it known that I am not bashing the sport, as I have once played. Tennis is a great sport and I believe that their athletes are very well trained and do great things.

There are endless number of reasons why I swim. Here are a few:

Swimmers are a little crazy…Takes a crazy person to know one

Swimmers are not your typical conformist who signed up for typical sports like tennis, soccer, baseball. Swimmers accept the lifestyle of having to wake up in the cold, dark of night (while normal people are asleep) and jump into a cold pool and swim laps. Lady swimmers accept the lifestyle of not shaving their legs for months on end, so when you finally get the chance to, you feel so fast, sorry boyfriends! Swimmers accept the lifestyle of always being hungry, cramming food into our mouths regardless of those people who point and stare and make fun of how much we eat, or how loudly our stomach growls. Swimmers accept the sore and achy muscles because we know what we are doing in and out of the water is improving us. Swimmers aren’t in it for the glory and the fans (who enjoys watching swim meets other than swimmers?). So-why do we do it? I still don’t know. I thought this was the point of the blog. You should keep reading. I must say that through all the acceptances we have made in our lives for this sport, it requires the crazy mind of thinking outside the box. For the tennis players of the world, if they think outside the box, they will lose every match. They have to learn how to hit the ball into the little box on the court. Swimmers, however, entrust a passion, a crazy passion to jump eagerly at a new opportunity because that’s how we accept our life.

A good workout clears my mind.

I cannot count the number of times where coaches have dropped an earth shattering practice on me, something I had never thought in my wildest dreams I’d be surviving, let alone complete. But then what happens? We are trained as swimmers, to put good effort in and get results. You not only finish the set, but you leave the pool feeling renewed and accomplished. Whether be one of these “earth shattering” practices or just a recovery Wednesday set, 9 times out of 10, you’ll come out with a breath of fresh air, a renewed and clear mind.

It’s where I go to mediate

Going off of my last reason, no matter what is going on outside of the pool, for that hour or two, you can disconnect from everything. Whether it’s work or school stress, conflict or drama within relationships, swimming gives you the opportunity to shut it out. No cell phone, no social media, no nothing. Just you, the water and the black line.

Goal Setter

In many sports the goal is based on beating the other team. You have no control over how the other player performs. Your team may have given it the best they had, but the other team just out played them, outscored them, the other team won. Swimmers sets goals that are detailed, under their own control and down to the exact detail, whether be how you are going to train or your goal time to the hundredth of a second. In the 200 freestyle, I touched that wall seventh out of eight swimmers, but I had the world’s biggest smile. You want to know why? It wasn’t because I got seventh, it was because I had blown my very specific goal out of the water. Sure, there are swimmers who are faster than me, but having the opportunity to swim next to them in the championship heat and break my goal time by four seconds is simply spectacular. That’s a winning moment for me. Because of this goal setting, swimmers are able to plan and detail orient their lives in other capacities outside of the pool. What I have learned in swimming has created a platform of me being able to set goals for life or work. I don’t think you will be able to find a more goal-oriented person than a swimmer.

No hand-eye coordination

An Olympic swimmer became great by outworking thousands of other kids in the pool and hundreds of other collegiate swimmers. A great tennis player had to work hard, but being naturally gifted for having hand-eye coordination is a very important aspect of the sport. In swimming, more than any other sport, sheer will, determination and motivation outweigh skill. The determination of a swimmer who can log 10,000+ painful yards in one day alone is unmatched. I swim because, yes, I have tried the other sports, the sports requiring hand eye coordination, and you want to know something? I was okay. I wasn’t spectacular, but my will and determination to get into the pool morning after morning to practice a sport that requires significantly less hand-eye coordination, is the sport that I owe my life to.

There is a chance to be extraordinary

I’m sure if I would ask twenty people, everyone would have a different definition of what it means to be extraordinary. For some, being able to swim a 400IM without stopping or having a heart attack is pretty extraordinary, for others, a chance to swim collegiately, internationally, or stand on that podium at the world stage of the Olympics. Everyone has different ways of looking at “what it means to be extraordinary.” I swim because it creates an opportunity for me to challenge myself, to fight through the pain, sweat, tears and discomfort and emerge a stronger, tougher, more confident swimmer.  

And that is why I’m extraordinary. And that's why I'm a swimmer. 

Things Happy People Do Differently

Happy People...Find Balance in Their Lives 
Those who are happy have something in common-- they're content with life and don't over think, or stress over, things. Unhappy people do just that - they over think everything and stress over everything causing a lot of pain and unhappiness. This simply means that happy people live balanced lives. They know how to control the busy and the stress without it impacting their happiness. Happy people can focus more on what or who is important to them - family, friends, career, health, religion, hobbies, etc.

Happy People...Express Gratitude 
When you appreciate what you have, you seem to see the world in another light, and be happy. If you aren't thankful for what you already have, you will have a hard time being happy. In Sonja Lyubomirsky's The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life you Want, she refers to the gratitude as "a kind of meta-strategy for achieving happiness."
"Gratitude is many things to many people," she says. "It is wonder; it is appreciation; it is looking on the bright side of a setback; it is fathoming abundance; it is thanking someone in your life; it is thanking God; it is 'counting blessings.' It is savoring; it is not tang things for granted; it is coping; it is present-oriented."  I think Lyubomirsky perfectly described happy people. If gratitude is all of that, that gratitude is happiness.

Happy People...Practice Acts of Kindness
Happy people abide by the rule "Do unto others as you would have them do to you." Happy people embody that and through that rule comes acts of kindness to the fullest. Whether be random acts or just opening yourself up to be a kinder person in life...happy people are kind. Many studies have shown that people who participate in random acts of kindness are profoundly more happy than those who don't. The reason? I think that by having a person interact with another, already boots the happy. Happy people treat others with respect, they are sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others and they show compassion. If this is how you live life, than that is how you will be treated in life.

Happy People...Take Responsibility for their Actions 
This past Monday, it was super sunny outside, which made it increasingly hard to sit in my office filled with windows. 4pm rolled around and I was was bummed I had another hour to work and not be in the sun. So I left and went for a run. It was the best part of my day. The next day, I came into work an hour early to make up for the fact and told my boss. I was straight up with her. I told her I
left to go running. I took responsibility for my action of leaving work early to go do something drastically less important than the work I was doing. I had to tell her, because I'm a happy person and I want her to trust me. Happy people aren't perfect, and we know that. When happy people mess up, they admit it. They recognize their faults and try to improve on them. Unhappy people tend to hold it in or blame others for their faults.

Happy People...Live in the Present
I have had many challenges in life. I had had my heart shattered to pieces and during that time, I obviously wasn't happy. I kept thinking of scenarios, what could I have done differently in this situation to not have this happen? What is I see him again? I was so focused on the past and the future, that I missed the fact I was an emotional wreck in the present. I was an unhappy person, living in everything but the present. Like me back then, unhappy people tend to dwell on the past and worry about the future. Happy people live in the moment and are grateful for the time that they have now. Happy people's philosophy is: "There is a reason it is called 'the present.' Because life is a gift."

Happy People...Savor the Joys of Life
Lyybomirsky states that, "Yet the ability to savor the positive experiences in your life is not of the most important ingredients of happiness." When I went abroad, I had this mantra of saying yes to everything, because in reality, you you only live life once. How many chances am I going to get in life to take months off and go travel and explore the world? I hope many, but that may not happen, so I wanted to savor every moment of every day. I did things that I typically wouldn't do, such as skydiving and bungy jumping. Although I was the most scared I have ever been in my life when I was bunny jumping, I new I had to savor that moment. Savor the fear and the feeling of falling, because that is a joy in my life. The fact I had the opportunity to go abroad and try all these new things created me a strong, happy, woman. So, savor the joys, savor the small things in life, they'll make you happy! 

Happy People...Take Care of Their Body 
Happy people take care of their mind and body and not just by exercise. Happy people actually act like happy people. Happy people smile, are engaged and bring the optimal level of joy to every situation. Healthy people take care of their minds in tough situations by seeking the good that might come from challenging times. According to Lyubomirsky, there is a growing body of science suggesting that religious people are happier, healthier, and recover more quickly from trauma than nonreligious people.

Unhappy people, are you sold yet?

I am 100% confident there are more things that happy people do differently in life...these are just the ones I am comfortable sharing because they are things that I, a happy person, have in everyday life. My question is why are there so many unhappy people in life? Life is a wonderful thing, it's a gift and you should live it. Bad things happen, that's a part of life and growing up, but your quality of life can change dramatically based on how you respond to the bad.

My challenge for you becomes: how do you want to live this gift of life? Do you want to dwell on the past and the bad, or do you want to seek the joy, kindness and compassion of the present that comes with the life of a happy person?

Rejection

Nobody likes rejection. It sucks. Whether personally or professionally, it can make you feel worthless and make you question yourself or what you have to offer a school or job. It can make you compare yourself to others and wonder what the others had that you didn't. At one time, or many, we have felt the bitch slap of rejection. After all, rejection is part of life. I think the amazing part of rejection is how that individual responds. For me, it's been a learning process, but I am confident to say that today I am in the phase of accepting rejection by seeing it as something good. As I look back on all the instances I have been rejected, I can see myself coping with any of the following:

Rejection Doesn't Have to Be Scary 
Receiving hundreds of rejection letters from social work agencies, non-profits and other jobs I may have applied for was frustrating. I had the experience, I had the degree, but why weren't these people hiring me? I can see now that I was being re-directed, towards something better, in life. I accepted a position that allows me to share my love of swimming and active lifestyle with kids of all ages. Sure, it may not be what my degree is in, but for time being, it's what I love. So, maybe receiving all those rejections was a good thing.

You Can't Be Everything to People, And That's Okay!
Don't chase people in life. Work hard and be you. Live a life that makes you happy, not trying to conform into what makes someone else happy. The right people who belong in your life will come find you and stay. You do you. This is something I continue to work on. Life's a mess, but you learn a lot through the messiness. If someone doesn't appreciate the way you talk or how much you talk, your compassion and caring for all people, then sucks for them, they just let a great person go. Rejection doesn't mean you aren't good enough; it means the other person failed to see what you have to offer.

Build Up Tolerance
After receiving the first, I don't know, say thirty job rejections, I was over it. The more you put yourself out there and be vulnerable to others and receive feedback and criticism, the more you'll build up that tolerance. You'll get to a point, that I did in jobs, where it doesn't hurt when another e-mail comes in and rejects you. Oprah Winfrey said, "I don't want anyone who doesn't want me."

Sometimes We Need a Reminder That We're Human
And sometimes being human sucks. Humans all fear rejection, want attention, crave affection, and dreams of perfection. We're human. We have flaws but those flaws are what makes us, us. Rejection sometimes bumps us out of something that we thought was great and humbles us to see that, yes, we are still human.

It Allows You to (Finally) Stop Obsessing 
In relationships, the question of what are we? Was that a date? Are we a thing? Will he call? Should I call? Does he think I'm annoying? Should I have said or done something differently? We can drive ourselves insane trying to figure out what the other person is feeling of thinking about us. Getting an honest "I'm not into you" or "You're smothering me" is a great way to stop the obsessing. Now we can move on. For me, it's like a big, THANK YOU. It's one less thing I can obsess over.

Your Creative Juices Start Flowing - It Makes a Good Story
I was rejected today...Guess what I did. I wrote a blog post about rejection. The best time, for me, to feel my creative juices running through me is after something bad happens. Today, rejection. And it's not bad, it's God's way of telling me He has a different door. Rejection allows you to open up your mind to emotions and feelings that you may not have had access to while content. Give yourself a chance to grieve, then allow yourself to have amazing rejection-inspired creativity.

I leave you with this:
"Trust that when the answer is no, there's a better yes down the road." 

Stereotype Breaking Dog

So, Roxy, my roommates dog has surely shown a whole lot of different behaviors lately. 

At first, I claimed she was a stalker dog. She walked around the house silently and sat and stared at me while I completed everyday tasks. 

Second, I concluded she was a lazy bum because she sits and sleeps all day. When you let her out in the backyard, she sits and stares (stalker tendencies). 

Thirdly, she wants to be a human. By the way she cuddles on the couch with pillows and the TV remote, and howls like she's trying to have a conversation, she seems like a human. 

Today, my first and second opinions on her were shot down, when I came bursting through the front door, hands full, she proceeded to sprint out of the house and down the snow covered street. I dropped my things and sprinted after her. Four houses down, I caught up with her, grabbed her by her collar and walked her back to our house...until her collar slipped off of her and she went sprinting down the street again. I caught her, more quickly this time, and carried her back to the house. Maybe she just really wanted some bonding time with the snow. Maybe she was howling "Let it Go-The cold never bothered me anyways." 


Whatever the reason, I know Roxy is a track star! Way to break stereotypes, Roxy!

Remember that time....Celiac Disease

Remember that time….when I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease?

I am enlisting a new series to my blog, to try and keep me motivated and honest about how much I say I am going to post. I am calling it, “Remember that time….” The only thing is, not many people remember that time. It’s me sharing my thoughts about how ridiculous and traumatizing that event may be. In this case, remember that time….when I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease?

In fourth grade, I remember driving to the lake house in Mt. Vernon, Ohio. I had just eaten some ice cream and we were going up and down the rolling hills of Ohio to get there. I did not feel well. I opened up the window and threw up all of the side of the car. My grandma self-diagnosed me as Lactose Intolerant. I have been since then. Not too sad about it, there’s a one a day pill for it.

In seventh grade I found out that I was allergic to citric acid as a preservative. I was very unhappy with that verdict. It meant that I could no longer eat fried food, eat processed food, or go out to eat at restaurants. It meant that I could no longer drink PowerAde, Gatorade, Fruit20 or any other sports drink that athletes drink while competing. It was a big problem, I cried a lot but then my view changed and I thought I could change my eating habits and become a healthier person. It’s a preservative, so why not eat all homemade, homegrown, organic healthy options. It was great.

In my freshman year of college, I found out that I was allergic to sodium nitrite and nitrates. If you know anything about these, you will know that I can no longer eat bacon or packaged lunch meat. Not entirely true. I can eat the above, but the cost is about double, nearly triple, the cost of its unhealthier counterpart. Big deal? Not so much. I’ll eat healthier lunch options, I thought.

Six months after my twenty-first birthday, I found out that I was allergic to sulphites, a naturally occurring preservative in preserved fruit and wine. Well, I thought, there goes my chance to find a wine that I like! I wasn’t too disheartened by the allergy, just meant I couldn’t drink wine and some overly priced packaged and preserved fruit.

Sometime when I was a junior in college, I found out that I was allergic to some kinds of aged cheese. That’s all I know. I know I eat cheese and I don’t get sick. As long as I stay away from weird, smelly, moldy cheese, I think I’m okay. No sadness for that one.

So you can see, my life has been crazy. Reading labels, convincing myself that I am doing this because I’m healthy, and I was! I joked around with my sister that by the time I was thirty, I would be allergic to every preservative, forcing me to eat totally organic, unprocessed food. No problem with that, except a social worker doesn’t make enough money for that, so thus the jokes about me marrying an engineer, who could support my weird eating habits came in.

I had never thought about what allergy might come next….but it did. For four months I was so sick. I was tired, my skin itched and itched and I would scratch until skin came off, I had night sweats, I couldn’t sleep at night, my body ached all the time. It may sound ridiculous, but I thought I had cancer. I went to the doctor and they ran every lab test they could think of. Everything was negative. Great that I don’t have cancer, but why did I still feel like shit? So, I went to the allergist. All of my allergies to this point have been self diagnosed. So I knew something had to be wrong. I stated my symptoms, got the back pricked and was negative. He drew blood. Two weeks later, sitting in our lodge at Snowbird Resort in Utah, I recruit my pharmacist sister to decode my results. She laughs and says I have celiac’s disease. I won’t accept the answer until I hear from the doctor. 

Four days later I receive the phone call. I’m devastated. How am I supposed to eat no grains with six other preservative allergies. I still can’t tell you the answer.
Within one week of my diagnosis, I lost 8 pounds. Eight pounds that I didn’t have to lose. Four of those have come back, it’s been three weeks. It helps having a best friend with celiac and her mother who works at Trader Joes, but this isn’t a lifestyle I can support. I’m hungry all the time and don’t have an answer on what to eat. I’m a busy woman, don’t have too much time to make GF meals. But I need to sit down and learn. I need to be healthy, take this disease by its reigns and stop it before 1) I kill myself or 2) I lose a lot of weight. If you didn’t know…Celiac disease kills your insides, so when I eat gluten I’m killing myself. That’s not the way I am meant to go.

I’m learning and this weekend I am going to bake my first ever GF creation…banana bread.

So, remember that time….when I was diagnosed with Celiac disease? It’s a great one…