I seem to have a lot of ‘new starts’; at least one a week, at the moment. Generally, they’re food and health related, but often they can be creative, work or household based, or a combination of all of them! So I’ve decided that this blog post today will be a slightly different ‘new start’. It’s going to celebrate what I’ve done consistently, before laying down the usual ‘new start’ rules.

So…I’m pleased that I’ve been swimming pretty much every week for the past four months or so, and I can now do a passable imitation of front crawl, which I couldn’t do at all when I started swimming again. I was strictly a breast stroke kind of girl (ooh-err!). When a friend suggested I become her swim buddy a few months ago (the same friend who took those fab photos of me last Autumn), I was keen to do it. I was doing no exercise apart from the odd dog walk and school run (hardly taxing at a toddler’s pace!) and I jumped at the chance of a once a week swim.

The first time I got out of the pool after doing about 20 lengths, my legs nearly collapsed. Talk about rubber bands! This lasted for a while, but after a few weeks I started doing more lengths and feeling less rubbery at the end.  I was also determined to learn a new stroke, as I’ve never been able to front crawl. At the start I could do about two strokes before panicking. Now, I can do two lengths without stopping. That might not seem like a lot to proper swimmers, but considering a) I’m not very fit and b) I couldn’t crawl at all four months ago, I’m quite pleased with that.

The benefits have been subtle; I haven’t lost any weight (but then the diet’s gone by the wayside lately), but I am a bit fitter. I realised this a couple of weeks ago when I had to carry a grumpy toddler most of the way home after the school run, and my arms didn’t ache at all. It wasn’t until later I realised I must be getting stronger.

So now it’s time to ramp it up a level. I’m going to try to stick back to the Slimming World principles this week (within reason -I’m rather fond of my Breville sports bottle blender for smoothies, and I love granola dust, too) and see if combining exercise with diet will shift some excess poundage. My back’s starting to hurt in the morning again, so I know I’ve put a bit back on since the summer.

The thing is, as I said at the start of this post, I’m constantly ‘new starting’ and then finishing again before a week’s out, so this time I’m going to take it day by day (meal by meal, even!) and see how it goes. And if I manage a week, then perhaps I can do another; but for the moment, let’s take each day as it comes.

In terms of writing, I’ve been quite productive over the past couple of weeks. Book 2 ideas are buzzing again, and I’m hoping to have some time to devote to it over the next few days. For now, though, I’ll raise a glass (of water!) to a good week :).