I am going to be honest with you. I haven't owned a swimsuit in possibly 5-6 years. Why? I'm fat, I live in the Midwest, and.. well, that's about all. When it gets hot, I don't go to the pool to cool down. I sit in the house. In the blessed air conditioning. With my dogs.

Things have to change though.

You see, I have always been an active person. Whether it be shopping, working, and cooking, I was always doing SOMETHING.

That has come to an end here recently. I've gotten so big that it has sapped my energy. It hurts to even move. I can't shop because within 30 minutes, my back aches like I just walked 20 blocks.

Things have to change.

Today my husband and I joined the YMCA. I am going to start out swimming. When I have lost enough weight I will work on the machines. I want to be fit and able. I want to be able to have kids. When I do have kids, I don't want to be the bump on the log that parks them in front of the TV.

Things are going to change.

So, with the whole swimming gig, that means I need a swimsuit. It is incredibly late in the summer apparently to be swimsuit hunting. I first started at Wal-Mart.

...I know... I KNOW! But I was there... and it was a good thing I was there too.

There was a teenage plus size girl crying with her mom.
Apparently the girl was upset that the only thing available at Wally world was bikinis. She was feeling fat and unloved. (haven't we all felt this way?) She tugged at my heart strings. I did the only thing I could do in a situation like that; I spoke to her.

"Uh.. excuse me?"
the girl looked up at me mortified. "My name is Leslie..uh... I couldn't help but overhear you having issues with the swimsuits. I'm plus sized too...but, you are smaller than me, and I know for a fact they have a couple of great swimsuits here in your size that will not show a whole lot of skin." I pulled two random pieces from the rack. One was a skirted piece and the other was a halter piece that came to the edge of the skirt. Her mom thanked me and she ran off to the dressing room. There wasn't much there for me (very slim pickings) so I left and went to Fashion Bug.

People, before I continue further, I need to let you know that it is the hottest day of the year. I don't sweat and I AM SWEATING. The walk from Walmart to my car culminated into me being a big hot sweaty fat girl. Don't you just LOVE that visual.

I get to Fashion Bug and walk in. Fat, blobby, sweaty and ugh. The sales lady was nice to me either way. I explained I needed a swimsuit and she frowned.
"We don't have many left, but I will show you what we got." She leads me to a rack of swimsuits and I begin digging. LO AND BEHOLD!  I spy a gem of a swimsuit. In my size! that looks decent! OMG!!!! I go up to pay.. AND IT IS EVEN FURTHER ON CLEARANCE!!!  This damn swimsuit is like 10 bucks. I must stop this story.. and do the robot.

*does the robot*

I am ready YMCA. Bring it ONNNN!!!!!

In natural hair news, today I have decided I am going to band my hair.  I will take before, during and after photos of the whole thing. I am excited.

Today's hair outlook is kind of bleak. I conditioned and moisturized my hair within an inch of its life. I don't know if it is the heat or what, my hair feels horrible. It feels like straw.

I went today to purchase bands and a wide tooth comb so that I can comb the conditioner through my hair when I am deep conditioning tonight. While I was at the store, I came across a darling hair accessory. It is a pink flower with a crystal gem on it. It has three small plumes of feathers on it. I have a wedding to go to this month and have been looking for something like this. YAY!!! It was really inexpensive too. It was 1.99 I will take a picture for my banding entry and put it up there.

Now I need to go read about all the fun stuff the Y offers. I want to get strong enough to take a Zumba class!