"Why yes I did lose 40 pounds and it improved my skating"

So, long story short: I've  lost 40 lb. I'm on my way to losing 15 more, which will put me probably at a 6 or a 4 (US sizes).

You'd think I'd be jumping with all that loss of weight, right? Well, here's my experience. The answer is no the to jumping--I'll explain that next--but yes to the improvement.

Why no to the jumping? First off, I am 67, and while I may get some half jumps later,  *mature* adults do lose strength as they age. Also, our reflexes slow. This is just  inevitable (along with cataracts, baldness, wrinkles, and droopy boobs--gravity sucks). So when you're old--the change is not the same as it is for a 20 year old. A 20 year old with the reflexes and strength of youth might be doing salchows by now after losing 40 lb.

However, my quickness and power did immediately improve simply because I'm not hauling as much weight. I'm skating much faster, and I have better control on my edges, I'm able to do 8's on a single push, and as I discovered last night, I can do stepwork now that I was terrified of before (the dreaded step behind).

Other things that happened as the weight dropped off  were that I became much, much more flexible. I am now able to do a catch foot spiral in skates off ice, and soon I'll have enough blade grab security to do it on ice. And, my strength training did get easier and more productive. If only I had an hour a day to work on it I'd be an adorable muscle model.

What's holding me back from instant improvement?  Well, I have some bad habits left over after all the years of hauling zaftig me around the ice. I'm breaking these bad habits as I run over them and usually I can break them right away. For example, last night I fell doing a spin, and as I fell I had the control over my body to roll myself directly up from the fall without hesitation. I just popped up. I never could do that before.

Edit: Although I just used a free calorie counter on my phone, the weight loss turned out to be expensive.Saturday, my favorite pair of skating pants got so loose I wasn't sure it was going to hold on through the lesson; and only two pair of my capris still fit (one is hanging on by the fingernails, and when that one goes, I'll be down to one pair of small capris).I finally bought  a pair of Chloe Noel Adult Medium over the boot  pants---which fit perfectly, except as one fellow skater put it, "There's more leg in the pants than leg in your leg" Yeah, they don't call me stumpy for nothing. So I have the new Chole Noel, two pairs of capris, and that's it to skate in.

There is another downside. When I was fat I didn't have any facial wrinkles. But now, I look like an old lady. However, I'm apparently a hot old lady.

So, I'm in a convenience store and a gray haired man in line ahead of me, looked at me and said,I'm only 57, and I know you're older than I am, but you're a nice looking woman."
I look at him and say, "I may be older but I don't have gray hair like you do."
His friend, standing next to him starts slapping his leg in laughter. "She got you, she got you."

Damn right. If I'm hot enough for figure skating, strange men are free to comment on it if they can take my shots right back.