Summer of love.

So, I joined a local health club and started taking the aqua aerobics.

The thing is, I have always hated to get into cold water of any kind. I simply can't do it.
Years ago during our annual family vacation at the ocean I would lay out soaking up the sun and salt. I would make sure all the kids had SPF 200 on and that I had enough snacks to sustain a hungry family.

I would lay on the blanket and sunbathe with my girls and remember feeling happy and restful. I would sit under the shade of the umbrella with my husband drinking icy cold sodas with a thin layer of sand clinging to the outside thinking " could I ever want anything more than this?" I loved our beach life. I looked forward to each vacation at the shore. All things seemed possible during those times.

Well, except for one thing.

I rarely ever got into the water. I loved the water. I loved watching the girls boogie boarding and hopping waves. I would watch my husband get into the water and play with the girls, he often had one hanging off his neck and the other two bouncing around in the waves with him. But, I seldom ever joined in.

It wasn't vanity, my hair was wild on that week anyway. It wasn't fear of the water or what was in the water. It wasn't the jelly fish or that I was embarrassed by how I looked ( I looked great ). It was getting into cold water. I just simply couldn't do it.

It has been many years since those perfect summer vacations. My beautiful girls are grown and moved on. Those family vacations remind me that there was life before Multiple Sclerosis and diabetes. It was a life I loved. It was a life I miss.

Fast forward 10-15 years, enter MS and diabetes.

One of the most important therapies for MS is exercise. But, so many of us have balance and stamina problems, exercise often seems impossible.

Like wise, part of staying healthy with Diabetes is exercise. It helps with weight loss and it helps the body process carbohydrates ridding the blood of organ damaging glucose.

Clearly I had to find a way to exercise. It was a the only tool I still had some control over and I needed to use it. Enter aqua aerobics. It was perfect. If my MS made me fall while jogging in the water, so what? If my right leg sort of drifted away instead of coming up to touch my hand, so what?

It was perfect.

Aqua aerobics is more efficient move for move than land aerobics. A double hit. I had found my perfect workout. Except for one thing.

I would have to get into the water.

Think YMCA pools, think outdoor pools after a pouring rain, think the ocean. Think " how in the world am I going to do this???" But I was determined that I had to, there was simply no other reasonable option for me. I just knew it wasn't going to be pleasant.

" Ha!" my inner Nazi said " really? and you think MS and Diabetes are pleasant? Huh??"

Aqua Aerobics is was.

So, there I was, standing at the edge of the pool. I wasn't thinking about the fact that my bathing suit showed just how weight I had gained or that my modesty was going to be sorely tested in the locker room. ( when did they start making these short little bath towels? I remember when they used to wrap around me a couple of times at least. ) All I was thinking about was stepping into the cold water of a pool.

Then I took that first step into the pool.

I knew I had finally found my exercise. While the warm soothing water started hugging my body, my brain was flooded with the memories of those perfect summer days with my family at the beach.

But this time I was in the water.

The euphoria was kinda short lived because the instructor Nazi soon started the music and barking at us to tune of " you gotto move it, move it, move it" Still, I was hooked.

Now, every time I go to workout I get a few seconds of pure pleasure memories flooding my brain.

What better motivation could I ever need??