What a workout

Today I went to the gym. Not to work out, as Ella is still too young to go to the childcare my gym provides, but we went for Cameron’s swimming lessons.

While Max was in the childcare center, Ella and I hung out next to the pool watching Cameron flip and flop his way around the pool, doing nothing that looked much like swimming, but trying so hard. As I watched the lesson, I couldn’t help but notice the other people in the pool area, as only a small section was designated for the lesson.

It took me awhile to notice this, and I’m not sure why, but after about the fifth one walked by me, I realized that this pool/hot tub/sauna area was FILLED with old, balding, huge, beer belly men! And they seemed to have a routine. They’d hang out in the sauna for a while, then slowly one by one, they’d saunter out to the pool, where some of them would DIVE in the pool. Honestly, if you have a beer belly, you shouldn’t dive because you do more of a belly flop, causing a gigantic splash to cascade over almost everyone at your end of the pool. Then the men would do a lap or two, sometimes swimming, sometimes walking. Next they’d go hang out in the hot tub. And the cycle would begin again.

These are men I NEVER see up in the weight/cardio area. I wonder if they actually consider their routine a workout. I wonder if they realize sitting in a sauna will do nothing for that belly of theirs.

I shouldn’t talk, right now, they’re doing more than me. But once Ella turns 3 months, I will be a frequent visitor of the treadmills, where I’ll look quite fat and feel incredibly self-conscious next to all the young, fit people working out.

Or maybe I should just join the old, bald, fat men. I might not lose any weight, but at least I’d feel pretty.