Whirlwind of A Weekend

With great anticipation we waited for my friends flight to arrive Thursday evening from Wilmington, NC. After we arrived at Atlanta Hartsfield International airport we realized that it was a "hurry up and wait" kind of event. The flight had been delayed leaving NC due to severe weather conditions and tornado warnings. Once they finally landed the airplane had to taxi around the Tarmac for another 15-20 minutes looking for an available gate. Aka: parking space.

This reminded me of my thoughts on not wasting time driving around the shopping center parking lot, but to park in a distant space and getting some exercise when walking to the entrance of the store. Could you imagine the pilot stopping the aircraft after landing and announcing over the loud speaker, " I'm sorry folks, but it appears that the terminals are all full and we think it would be in your best interest to exit the airplane here and walk to the concourse and over to baggage claim.". Have you ever been to the Atlanta airport? Can you imagine how far away that would be and how much walking would be requrired. Those passengers would certainly be able to work off those excess calories from their miniature bag of peanuts or their pack of crackers.

When my friend arrived we greeted her and since all she had was one piece of carry on luggage we were off. It was almost 9 pm and none of us had eaten dinner so we stopped into Felini's in downtown Atlanta and shared a large pizza between the three of us. I ate one slice and a half slice and I was quite satisfied. In my old days I could have finished half of that large pie without giving it a second thought.

By the time we got home it was almost midnight and we had a full weekend of activities planned. The next morning we had breakfast and drove down to the AAA office to buy tickets for the tourist attractions that we wanted to do. We purchased discounted tickets to The Georgia Aquarium, The World of Coke and Medieval Times.

We toured the GA Aquarium and the World of Coke on Friday. I had never been to either place and boy was I impressed. The aquarium was so much larger and nicer than I had expected, and The World of Coke was really quite impressive. Both venues are great representations of Atlanta and all that she has to offer.

But I guess what impressed me more than anything was me. I was up and on my feet for over 10 hours on hard concrete floors. This may not sound like much to many of you, but I do not get that much activity, or should I say, exercise, on a daily basis and it was a lot of exercise.
My back, legs and feet were very sore by the time we arrived home.

I then remembered something that my doctor had told me a week earlier. (I can't believe it has only been a week since I had that great doctor visit.) It was at this doctor visit that we discussed my weight loss and my desire to do more activities and exercise. I told him that i had tried walking on the treadmill and using my elliptical machine. He explained that walking, even on a treadmill was probably not my best option. He felt that i would be putting too much strain on my knees but he had a great idea.

He told me that he would like for me to consider swimming. I said swimming? For how lomg? How much time wiuld i need to swim? I, like most over-weight people, have a tendency to "float" more than swim. And he proceeded to tell me that he would think 35-45 minutes a few times per week would be a good start. Well I can swim, but I told him that I did not think that I could swim for that length of time. Well just like he did when I had told him on my original doctor visit on December 11,2010 that 1200 calories was not enough, and he bumped it up to 1400 calories per day, he suggested that I rotate by swimming laps across the shallow end until I get tired and then "walk" the distance across the width of the pool and use my arms in a swimming motion. He said that I would burn a tremendous amount of calories and the water would actually take the pressure off of my knees entirely. I haven't given this much thought until now. I think that I will pursue the swimming / walking in the pool. I was impressed with my ability to do so much walking and activitY at the aquarium and the World of Coke but it was not without great pain at the end of the day. But what is that old saying? "no pain, no glory?" Well I know this was a good pain if ever there was one. I am happy to be improving my health and lifestyle. I know that I would not have been able to enjoy these experiences half as much as I did if I had not lost the weight and I am looking forward to being able to do even more in my future! My next mission should be to find a pool to swim a few laps. Anyone have any ideas?