Accepting the Unacceptable

I cannot tell you how many times I have started to write this post and stopped because I just HATE this topic so very much. My blog would not be complete without it though. I hate this topic because while I KNOW I will lose all the weight and I KNOW I will tone my muscles to look amazing, there is just a whole room full of elephants. There are things that happen when you get pregnant and have a baby that you cannot change with diet and exercise. Sigh...where to begin? There are certain weird things like skin discolorations and losing a bunch of hair after the birth, which is terrifying, but those things go back to normal. I know women whose feet grow during pregnancy and never shrink back to their original size. Same goes for hips. I'm super lucky because out of all the things I just mentioned, all I have had to deal with is the hair loss, and it's unpleasant but it eventually stops. I have to admit that originally my single greatest fear after having the baby was...you know...the whole "throwin a hot dog down a hallway" thing. Sorry, that's probably the best way I can put it! In a way, I'm happy that I couldn't have been more wrong and that most women I have talked to were equally surprised at that not being an issue (who knew??) especially with the lovely discovery of kegal exercises, so that's was a pleasant surprise indeed! Yay, Mother Nature, you got something right in this twisted game called procreation! Ok, so how about the other stuff? Let's talk about bellies first. Some women have diastasis recti. Google it for a complete definition. I'll tell you now that it's a separation of the abdominal muscles as a result of pregnancy, which can sometimes cause that belly "pooch" that NEVER goes away for some women. I feel very, very lucky that I did not have that with either baby, although I have read that there are exercises that can eliminate the muscle separation. The belly is a challenging thing anyway, because after all, that's where that GIANT baby grew. I am speaking cluelessly because I got pregnant one year after my son was born and didn't have a chance to see how toned I could make my belly after having a baby. I also wasn't really trying to tone it. I guess it looked good, but it wasn't skin tight like it was before I ever got pregnant. That is something I'll have to work on and see if it's possible now that I'm done having babies. I believe it is. But I think it must be THE most difficult area to tone. I'm always up for a challenge though. Maybe I will have a blog devoted entirely to belly-toning after this one ends in August...hmm...
It's time to talk about stretch marks. Something like 80% of pregnant women get them somewhere on their body. I got some with both pregnancies. With Ashton they were on my boobs, butt and thighs and not a single one on my belly. With Aurélia I got just a couple small ones on my belly and my hips and none of the places I had them with Ashton. They have already ALL faded and are nearly invisible. I never had the big red ones, so I'm pretty grateful about that. Stretch marks suck though. I know, there's that quote about a tiger earning her stripes, being even MORE beautiful after, yadi yada, whatever, I HATE them and always will. I love my babies but I don't need permanent scars to remind me how they contorted my body, thank you very much. They are not bad though and again, I'm very lucky and I will have no problem wearing a bikini when I'm toned enough, I am not embarrassed by them (especially since they are becoming less and less visible anyway), but YEAH, I miss my old pretty skin that was smooth EVERYWHERE.
And last but not least...boobs. Freakin boobs. Contrary to popular belief, what happens to your boobs is a result of pregnancy, not breast-feeding. They grow a billion sizes too big, look amazing for awhile (unless you get stretch marks), then you get these weird brown "National Geographic nipples" (apparently so the baby can find them...come on...really, evolution? We haven't come past that??) and you feed your baby and your boobs look okay... but then you stop. And they shrink back to their original size... But they aren't perky anymore... And again, I am no expert because I barely had stopped nursing before I got pregnant again, but I hope those dang nipples at least become pink again. I have talked to some friends who tell me they managed to acquire pretty decent "lifted" looking post-baby boobs with weight-training, so you can be damn sure I'll be doing a lot of that. In the meantime, hey, if anyone wants to pay for my boob job, I would be more than happy to accept it. So yeah, that's my candid post about all things truly miserable. It had to be done. Back to business as usual!