Bikini Body

I have my bikini body back.  FINALLY.  That said, I didn't exactly have the greatest bikini body before I got pregnant, and that hasn't changed, but I think I can say that I look almost as good in a bikini NOW as I did THEN ("then" being before Ironman gave me a set of six-pack abs...I doubt we will ever see those puppies again).

So, I guess that's really the best I can hope for.

Before Ironman training (in 2009), I weighed about 143 pounds.  That's a size 10 and on the high end of the BMI scale.  My dearm goal was to get down to a size 8...I've NEVER been a size 8.  Not even in high school when I was a skinny minny. 

Alas, Ironman training began and while I got VERY toned, I did not lose a single pound, nor drop a single inch.  I had rock hard abs, could do 100 push ups, and about a million V-ups before collapsing, but I didn't lose a single pound or a single inch.  I was still a size 10.

After Ironman, I started seeing some doctors because that's just not normal.  I was diagnosed with PCOS.  In short, there is a fat girl version and a skinny girl version.  I had the fat girl version and the only reason I didn't weigh 400lbs is because I was training for an Ironman and making healthy food choices.  I began getting treated for insulin resistance with a medication called Metformin which initially made me want to hurl, but once I got regulated on it, I felt amazing and the weight started dropping off.  In the summer of 2010, I was the skinniest I have been since mid-high school - 136 pounds - but still a solid size 10. 

Those effing pants!!  Makes me crazy.  Luckily, my husband likes a girl with some hips.  But really I think he just says that because he doesn't want to buy me all new pants.

Then I got pregnant.  My pre-pregnancy weight was 136 pounds (but I consider my REAL pre-pregnancy weight to be about 143).  By the end of those 40 weeks, I had grown to a solid 177 pounds.  I weighed more than Tommy (but he was training for Ironman and therefore at his optimal race weight, soooo, I tried not to dwell on it).

I was told that breastfeeding would make the weight melt off. 

HAHAHAHAHAAHAHA.

Breastfeeding made me want to become a cannibal because then there would ALWAYS be food available to me.  Breastfeeding made me the hungriest person in the world.  I would have beaten some starving Ethiopians for their dinner.  Seriously.  I would wake up 2-3 times a night, RAVENOUS, and eat a few slices of pizza or a few bowls of cereal or whatever (a couple of timese a night).  I kept snacks next to my boppie because while I was feeding Anna I would sometimes get so hungry I would cry.  Not to be rude, but you can't lose weight if you are eating 124 large pizzas a day.  I'm just saying.  And I'm telling you that I was NEVER full.  Ever. 

Then I stopped breastfeeding. And while I had developed some terrible habits (McDonald's Chicken Biscuit anyone??), I was no longer starving and was able to at least ATTEMPT to make good choices.  But bad habits are hard to break and it's been tough going.  I was finally able to control my hunger.  THANK GOODNESS.

Getting into the routine of work, baby, working out, preparing meals made a huge difference for me and I started seeing some results. 

By Christmas, I was down to 146 pounds.I made a new years resolution that in 10 weeks, I would lose 10 pounds. 10 weeks just also happens to be my birthday and the start of summer (here in Texas).  That's 1 pound a week for 10 weeks.  I'm 4 weeks in and have lost 4 pounds, but I know these last 6 pounds are going to be the hardest...since I was never able to lose them before. 

But I'm gonna try!!

And finally, today, when I looked in the mirror, I wasn't repulsed by what I saw.  142 pounds of me wasn't gross.  My boobs were a little saggier (but they are so microscopically small, that it don't really matter), and my belly is flabbier, but overall, I'm about back to where I was before the Ironman.  I wore a bikini then, so I can wear a bikini now.  Can't say that I will rock it, but you probably won't vomit.

At 6:30AM this morning, in 50 degree weather, I put on my bikini just to be sure.  Lo and behold, it wasn't too bad.

6 more pounds to lose.  6 more packs of abs to find.  I can do it.