It's somewhat odd to talk about swimming in the dead of winter, but Dan Gent mentioned water aerobics in his last post (you can click his blog to the left), and I got to wondering about the advice I was always given to wait an hour after eating before going in the water.

In college I took swimming as my PE class. Since I was waiting tables to put myself through school, I had to eat after the lunch rush hour, which meant that I then jumped on my bicycyle and pedalled madly for the gym, getting into the water long before the hour deadline (I wore my bathing suit under my regular clothes on swim days). No time to change, even.

I never suffered any ill effects from violating the one-hour rule, no cramps, nothing. Which makes sense, I guess, when you consider that long distance swimmers eat and drink during races. Maybe it's just another of those "rules" that get handed down and accepted without question. I know my mother told me about the one hour rule regularly (we lived on the shore) and I mostly observed it. Mostly.

P.S. While poinsettia leaves are not so toxic as feared, rhubarb leaves are. So beware the leafy rhubarb.