I have had numerous comments and questions about the bathing suit issue. So many of you have asked me how I can be brave enough to wear a bathing suit at my weight. Others have told me they could never do it. Some people have told me how much they wish they could do it, but they can't because of how they look.

I am in the (bottom of the) morbidly obese category. Three times a week I go to the community center of my town and get into the pool. It is not hard.

The suit I have is in three pieces. It has a tankini top that I tuck into boy shorts. Under the shorts is a tummy control brief that may not do any good, but it makes me feel better not to be jiggling around so much. It cost about $45 for all the pieces at Target this year.

I would like to look better in this bathing suit, or any bathing suit, but I don’t. But more importantly, I want to feel better and be able to do more things and not be in pain. One way to do that is to take my overweight self to the pool and do the arthritis swim class. I’m a work in progress, and I can’t progress unless I work it.

Do I worry about what the other people at the pool think when they see me in a bathing suit?

No.

No one cares.

Really.

The hot guys and girls swimming laps don’t even see me. I am off their radar screen. The others in my swim class are as grateful as I am to be in the pool and not in pain that none of us cares what the other looks like. The people in the Water Aerobics class before me come in all shapes and sizes, leaning towards the large.

If I have to worry about teenagers being grossed out, then I'm done for. But guess what. They are very self involved, and don't care about me anyway.

I live in Southern California. It is a very thin and beautiful place. I could worry about a lot of things.

-My hair is not streaked and flowing (and there’s some grey).
-My teeth are not blindingly white.
-I have a double chin.
-I don’t have a cool car.
-I don’t have designer clothes, sunglasses or purses.

Time will pass if you get in the pool or not. You are missing out on so much if you don't do this. One of my cherished memories is my time in Mom and Tot swim class with my 1 year old son. I have one photo of that time. An overweight friend saw it and said, "How could you have done that?" I say, "Thank God that I did that".

I was worrying about the really ugly sun hat I wear during class. It is so ugly I can’t even describe it. This was the only hat that was a remote possibility for me. I was in a huge rush to get the suit, flip flops and the hat before the class started in April. I have to have a hat because I will fry under that California sun as my head bobs along during class. But this thing is just horrendous, and I was feeling kind of bad about it.

Recently, I was re-packing my bag for the pool and I popped the hat on to show my now 16 year old son. He said, “Oh my God, Mom. That’s the coolest hat ever. I can’t believe you’re wearing that to the pool”.

Please don’t worry about what you look like when you work out. Just put your blinders and your determination on. You can do this. You will feel so much better working out than you do worrying about how you might look if you did work out.