Thursday, July 16, 2009

Before Pictures (Kind of)

I took some true 'Before' pictures back in June, but I am too scared to post them. I wore a sports bra and bike shorts, and I NEVER exit my house wearing that little. Even when swimming, I wear a swimming suit with board shorts over it. So I'm not brave enough to post those yet. Since I couldn't post them, I took fully-clothed pictures on July 1, 2009. This is about 10 days after I started exercising.

(Side note: I am guessing that a lot of my body image issues could be solved by not wearing Mom Jeans. I thought the only way you could avoid Mom Jeans was by wearing low rise jeans. There is no way those would work with my body, and I would be very uncomfortable in them. So I figured it was a lost cause. But I stumbled across this fantastic post about wearing flattering non-Mom Jeans and my life has been changed! I actually know what to look for now! I keep waiting to be able to afford some awesome jeans, but I think I'll give up on that for now and go to the thrift store and see what I can find.)

Don't mock my awesome smile:




As I hope you agree, I don't have a weight problem. However, I would like to stop looking pregnant from the side and I would like to reduce some flab around my high hip area. All my excess weight goes straight to this area, and if it gets worse, it will look really bad.

Regardless of the above, I have decided that my primary goals with this exercise program are to be strong, feel full of energy, and feel healthy and joyful. I need to refine those a bit, but that's my main focus, rather than getting to be a certain size or losing a certain number of inches.

3 comments:

Norma said...

I always buy jeans that say "sits lower on the waist" or "slightly below waist" or "midrise" They are hard to find so when I find some I buy 2-3 pairs. Kohl's has some at a decent price when on sale for about $20

Rachel said...

I'm glad you enjoyed the post! I definitely think you would be amazed at the difference that the right jeans can make.

One trick to buy non-mom jeans less expensive is to get on some coupon mailing lists. Express, Ann Taylor, and New York and Company have amazing coupons ($10 off of $20, $20 off of $40, etc.), and if you combine these coupons with their VERY good sales (buy 1, get one 50% off at Express and New York, and at Ann Taylor they often have their jeans at $39), then you can REALLY get a good deal - WAY over 50% off.

(I'm addicted to only buying things if I feel like I get a REALLY good deal.)

Also - if you're near any outlet malls, it's the perfect time to get REALLY cheap jeans - right before they come out with the fall line and they're still trying to get rid of last year's jeans.

Or another way is to go to a "hip" consignment store (a chain that we have here in Alabama and I know it's in at least Florida too is "Plato's Closet") - but really any consignment store that claims to be "designer" would work. I don't know if it would be cheaper than shopping the sales or not, but it's an idea...

Good luck with your jeans and your goals! Thanks for the shout out!

Katie said...

Whoa, I had no idea I was getting comments -- I must have them turned off. Oops.

Thanks for the ideas. We actually do have a Plato's Closet here!