August 3, 2004
Advantages to swimming:
- Good workout
- Easy on the knees, which are genetically programmed to go bad at some point
- Occasional cute girls in swimsuits
Disadvantages to swimming:
- Cold water
- Lack of corrective lenses leads to a distressing number of false positives on the cute-girls-in-swimsuits front
- Increased appetite
That last one's the one that gets me... it doesn't feel like I'm really burning a whole lot of energy while I'm in the pool, even though I'm in there for about an hour. When I'm at home I can at least make a second portion of whatever I'm having for dinner; if I go out with friends, on the other hand, I start getting nervous looks and they check to see if they're missing any silverware. I'll grant you, I'm not quite at a Dave-at-Quiznos level of feeding frenzy, but sometimes it feels like it. I was even willing to risk an Eat 'n' Park roast beef sandwich the other day.
Hopefully the reason I'm staying the same weight is because I'm building muscle at the expense of fat, not because I'm making up for an increased metabolism by sucking down even more calories.