Each year on my birthday, I set a goal to do something that I have never done, one year I ran a marathon, one year I did a Tough Mudder...etc. One year I tried to learn how to sew(and failed miserably)... you get the drift.
When I woke up on my 33rd birthday, February 23 2012, I made a goal for myself to lose my belly fat and try to achieve respectable abs. Now, to those of you that have always been thin, or have always been able to see your 6 or 8 pack, well, you're not going to get this...HA!
Abs are nearly impossible to achieve for most humans. Yes, I said it. At least I thought this.
When I had my second child, my waist(post the hospital deflate 8 weeks after) was a 38.5 inch waist. I'm 5'5...so this would have put me in the "grossly overweight" bracket on the BMI chart.
In 2012 I worked out on my own, I did fairly intense cardio, and a lot of it. It wasn't until January of 2013 that I started REALLY training properly. I worked with a trainer once a week and did a lot of weight training, very heavy weight training. I progressed into being able to do a 90 minute circuit workout with very little rests in between. I would say I was eating fairly healthy at this point, green vegetables, lean meats, and very little processed food. I was drinking alcohol about 2/week. My trainer at the time, Ryan, created an ab-based workout called the "1000" because it was 1000 reps of abs. This helped me a lot, and as I continued to lose body fat, I continued to see results.
Towards the end of 2013 I was in a great place but no where near where I expected myself to be. Over the holidays I did not bake the 100 dozen cookies that I normally do, I started to cut sugar out of my diet. This was a huge turning point for me. Sugar builds fat in your body. But it tastes SOOOOOOOOOOOO good you say. I know it does, I am a recovering food addict, if there is birthday cake or powdered donuts in the tri-county area-I WANT THEM! And then after I eat them you may find me comatose several days later eating splenda packets!! But at least I am aware that sugar is a terrible trigger food for me...
At the end of 2013 I decided that I wanted to get serious and train to do a women's physique competition in 2014....I KNEW abs were definitely my largest weakness, and I knew that after having 2 kids it would not be easy to compete at the level on stage if I didn't completely revamp from scratch.
So, at 33, I had a 38 inch waist.
I woke up on this past sunday, turning 35 with a 27.25 inch waist!!!! Now, of course, I am months out from being on stage and I'm not done yet but I can look back and be proud of what I have accomplished for MYSELF. This is a birthday present that I accomplished selfishly for me. What did it take?? It took over 1000 workouts, countless times where I went to the gym instead of going out to dinner with friends, constantly telling my physique coach "there is NO WAY I can do that!!", having to say no to a lot of foods that I knew would NOT help me attain this goal, and constantly changing my workouts in order to push past the wall that I would hit every few months.....
I'm sharing these photos to help motivate and inspire others. This is not meant to fish for compliments, the best compliment I can get is being proud of what I have already done. I am a mom, a wife and a human being. I know that there are many sets of abs out there that are way better than mine, but this is to show you that it can be done.
If you look in the mirror today and have a muffin top, you need to dig deep and change. The fat around the "trunk" or "core" of your body is responsible for countless diseases; you owe it to yourself to get healthy. You must break up with the excuses!
