Swimming Must Haves & Wishlist

The pool I swim at… waterless. 

I am by no means trying to turn this blog into a healthy-lifestyle blog, even though that’s my lifestyle. But right now, as any good beginning of year when I have resolutions of weight loss to catch up on, I guess I tend to be very single-minded. And since here is a space where I can write about what’s on my mind, well… this is what’s on my mind! Last year, after reading Mindy’s emotional recap running a half-marathon at Disneyland, I decided to try running as well. She made it sound so awesome, and even though her knee hurts (mine hurts all the time!), she made it through. I thought, if she can do it with a hurt knee, than I can do it! My knee was the only thing keeping me from trying that out. So the boyfriend and I outfitted ourselves with nice running shoes, printed the couch-to-5k training schedule, and started running 3 times a week.

But alas, this story has a twist. The Friday I got my best time and distance ever (2 miles in 25 minutes! I’m a beginner, don’t laugh), I also gained a nice little tendinitis on my knee. So I stopped running or doing any cardio for 6 weeks, and now that I’m back on the weight-loss wagon, I’m swimming instead, to try to get my resistance and breathing up to speed. But no worries, I’ll get back to running in the summer. In the meantime, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying swimming, and I think it’s a great way to burn a LOT of calories (with swimming, not just hanging around the pool, guys), and I definitely recommend it. If you’re thinking about getting started, here’s a few of my must-haves, in their “fun” version and “let’s-be-practical” versions:

I have a practical Nike swimsuit (that is also very flattering for some reason), but how cool it would be to have something flashy and fun like the R2D2 suit? I mean, I might even want to go swimming two, three times a day with it! Here are the links to buy them, the Nike one is on sale too! R2D2 Swimsuit | Nike Swimsuit

Here’s some more must haves, in my opinion!

Speedo Vanquisher | Nike Hydra | Flower Cap | Speedo Cap

Ear Plugs | Kickboard | Towel | Flip Flops

And if you want to splurge, on SwimOutlet.com, I saw some underwater MP3 players! I’m pretty tempted to get one if I keep swimming, because the music at my gym is awful!

Note: I have not shopped at swimoutlet.com, so I can’t recommend it personally, but that’s where I found most of those cool (and cheap!) swim gear. 

What do you do to burn calories??