Though I am down 50 pounds now, (woot!) with only 50 more to go in the next 7 months, I find myself seeking a state of the belly address...a look over the boobs to the upholstery below that has plagued me and followed me for the past 20 years.
I am much smaller in the waist than I was, and I can now get into size 16 stretch pants, which is great, but the bellyfat that was once pillowy and firm is now squishy and rubbery, and my skin hangs like crepe paper in places. Gravity hasn't been kind to me, either (is it ever kind to women? Why don't men's body parts sag as they age?) and my face has a rather hangdog look to it, sort of like a hound dog or a shar pei. I watch those "lifestyle lift" plastic surgery commercials like an aging hawk. I dream of tummy tucks and lifts to various parts of my body, and always imagine that somehow, I end up looking better than I did in my twenties apres knife. I know this is merely fantasy, as real surgery is expensive, dangerous and often goes horribly wrong, but I didn't imagine that my skin would lose its elasticity after age 40.
But back to my Pooh-bear abdomen. I have muscles there, I can feel them, and my consistent workouts have made my butt and legs firmer than ever. I know that by building muscle, its helping to burn off that adipose storage locker around my middle, but its going fairly slowly and its not going without a fight. For every few pounds I lose, my Crohns gets worse, and I have to spend more time with pain and diarrhea in the bathroom. In fact, I am going to have a colonoscopy with my new gastro doc on Friday of this week, which means after my OB/GYN appointment on Thursday morning, I get to spend all day long drinking laxatives and ginger ale and listening to my guts clean themselves out. Joy, not. But I am hoping he will find out why my colon has decided to make my life difficult when I've got my diet and exercise regimen down to a science.
So stay tuned. Things are bound to get interesting.
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