My Turn to Overshare My Adventure

mom23mangos wrote: »

Those sequins are amazing and so are you. Thank you for sharing!

LMAO. Not sequins. Printed yoga leggings from KDeer. Coincidentally my daughter gave me an armload of her old workout gear and in the pile was the matching top!

I can’t tell you what a thrill it is to be wearing hand-me-ups from my fit daughter!

Hello! This is my two year anniversary check in.

When Covid started, I vowed to myself I would not regain the weight. I cut calories from 2300 to 1900 per day, and formed a plan to close my Move circle three times a day, which I’ve done every day except one.

I dropped into the 120’s briefly, but was overwhelmed (scared) of that number, so am currently hovering around 131.

I did a Dexa scan last October, and was honestly crushed to find I was at 29% body fat. I just did a new one Tuesday, and it has dropped to 22.1%.

In honor of the lovely, helpful, informative and forthright @annptt77, and her fabulously honest post at https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10809632/loose-skin-50lbs-loss-at-60-4-years-maintenance, I am truly going to overshare this time. (I didnt' want to butt in on her terrific thread.)

Weight loss has done some strange things to my now 58 year old body. Sometimes my stomach is flat and my butt has the droops. Sometimes, my butt is lookin’ good but my arms are creased in a network of fine lines. Then there’s the days my funbags look like sad zip-lock bags full of water. I have no idea what triggers all the constant rearranging of body parts. Maybe it’s that “flow of energy” we talk about in yoga all the time. Maybe it’s too much salt or potassium or sugar the day before, and it just parks in different places. Maybe its the Gods of Weight guffawing at my expense.

But overall, slowly, everything is diminishing. My droopy thighs and knees are no longer “balloon curtains”, but simply “swags”. The uncooperative midsection still spills out when released from its legging constraints, but now pulls out like a baby flying squirrel instead of Grandaddy Squirrel.

Planks in Tanks ? Let’s just say, one day I shall cover my belly in finger paint, do a slow lower, and create art. Or at least Rorschachs. (Please don’t try to “friend” me thinking I roll like that.)

Anyway, what I’ve found is that *my* body seems to have thresholds. At certain weights, problem areas seem to disappear or at least visually improve and mitigate. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes it seems like it’s overnight, sometimes it’s a slow process.

My skin is surprisingly elastic, even though I’m terrible about hydrating, and have a complete phobia about lotions and creams. I’ve been amazed at the resiliency of my skin. The network of fine lines, reminiscent of gift wrap tissue fiercely wadded into a ball and then flattened out, is slowly diminishing.

However, weight loss has accentuated my neck, my wattle, the angles of my face. I think it’s softening with time, but I’m so invested in it, it’s hard to judge rationally.

The really strange thing that I’m waiting to see if will change is my rib cage. I guess years of obesity and adipose (?) fat blew it out. I’m hoping that it will hug back in and not be so obvious.

So that’s the thing with weight loss. No matter how well we do, we find something to critique ourselves about, to pick apart. Although the body dysmorphia is pretty much gone (THANK GOD!!!!), I am still learning to recognize the thinner person in the mirror; to acknowledge that weight loss does not automatically equate to Cover Girl looks or sudden popularity and scintillating repartee; and to give myself some grace to still fail once in a while; and to grant myself self love to pick myself back up when I do.

OK, so here's photos. I know that when I look at other's photos, I sound creeperish, but I study them carefully to see how I compare and to judge where I've come from and what I can expect to get to. So lots of pics.....


My kids shared this with me the other day. Lovingly, of course.


Extended

Flexed. At @AnnPT77 so wisely pointed out, don't stress over the extra flesh. Many times it's muscle and not fat. If you pinch it and it's firm, it's part of the muscle.


Networks of fine weight loss lines appear, mostly on my arms, some on my thighs. These have diminished a lot in the past six months.


Standing straight up but not engaged

Engaged ( aka Sucked in, lol)

Relaxed

Engaged. Pet peeve rib cage is voluminous, probably bulged out because of obesity. It looks weird. I hope it retracts, but life isn't over if it doesn't.

Baby flying squirrel mode. It has gone down in the past few months. According to Dexa scan, there is .43 lbs adipose weight, and I carry most my extra fat in hips and butt, so I think this is extra skin versus fat. I'm hoping this will continue to go down.

You can knead this gut like play-dough. Endless hours of fun.

Odd bits of extra skin pop out in unexpected places. (I did have a reduction, so YMMV. )

Leggings doing what they are supposed to do. You'd never suspect the Doughboy hiding underneath. For this reason, I figure dressing is better than surgery to remove extra skin. And again, time is reducing the extra skin.

Wattle is another problem spot. It is what it is.

Anniversary photo

I celebrated my two year anniversary with a PR benchpress of 140. I lifted more than my weight!!!!! Props to Quicksylver and the other Ladies Who Lift. I have mucho mucho respect for y'all.

With my much loved trainer. OMG. Everyone should have a Jean in their life. Except that she's one of a kind and I'm not sharing.

Thanks for making it this far, if you did!

Love your body, and love yourself!