Sally asked me to write my story... I never thought that would happen! (smile) I mean MY story? But upon thinking about it, I realized I DO have a story, sort of.

I am a single mother of a 7 year old girl. I am currently un-employed and overweight. While I’ve been looking for a job and trying to decide if I should change my goals career wise, I have also become much, much fitter and a frequent visitor to the local YMCA.

Once I learned that I could go to the YMCA by applying for a subsidy I never looked back. Now I spend my mornings from 9:30 - 10:00 on the resistance weights every other day, then an hour on the treadmill and finish up with 45 to 50 minutes swimming lengths in the pool. When I started in November I could only do about 30 minutes on the treadmill, at an incline of MAYBE 2, at a speed of 2.8. Now I regularly see the numbers 4.5 incline and a speed of 3.8... and I want to push for more! Swimming started at 25 lengths, now I’m up to 60!

I LOVE this! My family has noticed not only the physical changes, but my state of well being is so much better. My attitude about life has changed and I am a much happier person.

I realize that I am not in the norm, being able to exercise for 2 hours 6 days a week, but while I have this chance I will use it to better myself.

My daughter also enjoys the benefits of our local Y. She takes swimming lessons every Saturday and has recently conquered her fear of the deep end! Also, we’re seen Mondays and Tuesdays for classes she’s enrolled in. I encourage her to appreciate physical exercise in a way I never did. There is nothing but benefits for exercise. It’s taken me many years to accept this, but now that I do, I won’t let her, or myself, slack behind.

Often on Friday evenings my daughter and I go to the family swim, where she showed her friend from school how much fun the Y was, and now her family has joined too. Sometimes on Sundays she and her father spend public swim together, she with her membership and he with a pass.

I have to say that if I didn’t have the subsidy I could never have lost 9 inches from my waist! My knees would still hurt and creak when I walked, and my doctor would still be warning me about my chances of a heart attack. With the subsidy my life changed... and my body is in the process!! It is a wonderful program; I just wish more people knew about it and how easy it is to apply for.