Mike, I didn't think about the fact that you are contending with NY weather and have closed your pool for the season. I totally understand and respect your decision to wait until spring to swim in your own pool, but I have to tout the benefits of public half-nudity if you have the option of a community pool.
When I first started my water cardio class in August, I wore a colored t-shirt into the outdoor pool with my bathing suit, so as not to horrify the tanned, toned, and ripped gymfolk with the sight of my massively fat, chalk-white torso and hairy man-teats. It was not modesty that kept me covered - it was vanity. I wore the t-shirt for a couple of classes, had to deal with the hideousness of climbing out of the pool wearing 70 yards of clinging, sopping wet cotton knit, and thought "Screw this - they'll all just have to deal with the sight of it! I'm going topless the next time!" And I have, ever since.
You know what? Nobody pays any attention - seriously. Fat people are invisible in this society, and nowhere more so than at a gym or a community pool. NOBODY is checking out my body - they're too busy admiring their own. It has been really liberating for me to let go of the fear that I had of other people's opinions of my body (and, as one of my favorite expressions goes: other people's opinions of me are none of my business anyway) and just do my pool workouts.
I will cop to checking everybody else out
, and I see not only lots of good or great bodies, which I choose to find inspiring as well as visually appealing, but also LOTS of imperfect bodies belonging to people who seem to be un-self-conscious about their appearance in bathing suits as they go about getting healthier, happier, and more fit.
I'm not planning on scampering through town in a Speedo, at least until next week, but I am now totally fine with being seen in a bathing suit at the pool (or naked in the locker room) - it ain't pretty, but it's mine and I'm not going to stay away from the pool or wear that g-d t-shirt again!