Getting fat/ feeling phat!

Imagine having a perfectly good reason to eat all around you with the emphasis being on having enough calorie intake to not get sick, be able to get through your weekly schedule and put on some insulation for an upcoming event?
That’s how I interpreted being pregnant back in 2006/2007, delighting in rasher and marmalade sandwiches every morning, chocolate and many snacks to be carried on my person at all times, washed down with a bottle of gaviscon to counteract the hearburn. Which was probably from the rashers as much as forty toes kicking my stomach daily.
I went up to 84kg in the space of seven months. I got so big that I literally popped at 33 weeks. Being this size really freaked me out and I felt like I had been eaten by and was trapped in another persons body. Or a person and a half if you will. Does this fall under pregorexia or preggers body dysmorphia? Who knows?
While I left the hospital at 72kg, it took me a while to get back to 62kg and feeling like myself again. Marathon and triathlon training brought me down to 59kg which felt like me –too thin? Why thank you! My head too big for my body? Oh, you’re too kind!
However, I don’t want to fall into the trap of being “too vain to gain” so I’m up at about 65kg presently. Despite my best efforts to tell myself it’s not my weight, that it’s only borrowed, it does bother me a bit.
I am not sure men training for the channel have the same self image problems as women. Hell, I’m not sure women have the same problem as me!! Objectively, I’m fascinated by how much my body has changed in the last year. I’ve gone from a size 10 to a size 14 within the space of 10 months. On my shoulders and back, it really does seem to be muscle, so that’s cool and I feel like an amazon woman.However, and to continue the rasher theme....
There’s my BLT - butt, legs and tummy – or my “womanly bottom half” (a direct quote from a Monday night swimmer to my husband!!) My consternation came to head last week when I heard a distinctive ping and the button holding my favourite shorts closed gave up his epic battle and made a run for it. I saw another slightly harassed mother in Disney,who may have “let herself go” since “the kids” I smiled in acknowledgement. At my reflection!
Because yes, it’s not just my arse that has taken the brunt of the channel attempt, I also look tired, am redfaced from chlorine, black eyed from goggles, grey and bestraggled from lack of hair dresser time. There is only so much that make up can do, and let’s be honest – who has time for more than slapping a bit of foundation on?

Speaking of foundation use, I recently used it to cover Oscar’s chicken pox so we could board a plane. We were coming back from Disneyland Paris, which was fun, a good break from training and has me invigorated for the 123 days between me and my channel attempt.

In other statistics, I’ve managed my first double lap of Sandycove for 2012, completed my first freshwater swim in the Blackwater and am up to 1hrs8min in openwater in my togs. Looking forward to boosting these numbers this Easter Weekend. Eggciting times ahead!