Don’t Get Rid of All Your Fat Pants

I’m going to give you some advice that goes against all other advice you’ve probably heard before. Advice that health-minded people will totally poo-poo (because I totally would have been one of those poo-pooing people before). If you’ve lost weight enough to change pant sizes, don’t get rid of all your fat pants! Save one. Save one pair. One comfy pair. Or, two.

A newer acquisition of desperate proportions. And, I found them for under 25 bucks!

Now, this advice is really only a backup plan. A contingency plan of sorts. If you’re healthy, it isn’t a reason for you to wimp out and gain that weight back because it’s the holidays or Valentine’s Day or Easter, or summer barbeque season or whatever food-eating holiday excuse comes up. If you’ve worked hard and conquered your weight-loss goals and got yourself fit…never give up on that.

That’s where I felt I was just last spring. Healthy and fit. Quite a few years ago now, I had lost extra weight that had slowly crept on. I had finally felt like I was getting in the best shape I had been in since my early 20s. I had kept that weight off because I made a lifestyle change. I was eating healthy and I was exercising regularly. I was getting that six pack on my abs and feeling so great about myself and then…I had my head injury.

I love this meme. Not sure I'm ready for stretchy pants, though.

Every day for the last 9 months, I’ve had to deal with the effects of this concussion. Even small amounts of physical activity cause my head to pound, cause an increase in intensity of my now-constant headaches, and cause nausea or dizziness. I’m having a hard time not looking back at what I used to be able to do. I’m not supposed to compare my hiking ten hours in the White Mountains of New Hampshire or going out for a fun 15 or 20 mile bike ride to what I can do now. On a good day, on a really good day, I can walk about a mile. On flat ground. With lots of breaks. Forget about activity that requires balance or positional changes like biking or yoga.

So, without physical activity, what happens to your body? Um, as we all know from shows like The Biggest Loser, we gain weight. I’m lucky that I haven’t turned to emotional eating on top of all this. I still try to eat as healthy as I can. Part of that is from the lifestyle change I made. I still do yogurt and flax meal most mornings for breakfast. I watch my carbs. I watch my fats. But, without that cardio exercise I had before my injury, I’m finding it difficult to keep the weight off.

Darned comfy GAP jeans. Unfortunately, they are covered in paint.
Most of my jeans have worn out in the right knee. I'm okay with that.

I’m looking at a new twenty extra pounds. Most people look at me and say I look great (I look fine, remember?) But, for me, I don’t feel as great. My abs are losing their definition. My thighs are bigger. My butt is bigger. My boobs are bigger. Okay, so the bigger boobs are fine. My pants are snuggly. Some are way snuggly.

I had made a promise to myself to never gain that weight back that I lost. I promised myself to always be as active as I could. I thought I was invincible in that thinking. I thought I’d maintain that level of fitness that I had achieved and then some. And, if I lost that level, it would be slowly as I got (much) older. Little did I know that something would happen where I had no control and that it would change in an instant.

I’ve made a new plan with my doctor to try to help. It involves setting very small goals of physicality and putting smiley stickers on my calendar when I meet those goals. I’ll have a happy visual that works well in my fluffy bunnies and happy rainbows sort of world.

These are clipped to my calendar. As I meet an exercise goal,
one of these happy little faces gets a new home!

So, here I find myself digging through my closet trying to find pants that give me just a little more room. Especially on those bloaty days when women just need that extra room. But, I don’t have any. Well, except for one pair of “painting pants” that I don’t want to wear out of the ‘hood. So, don’t be like me and give away all your fat pants. And, Jillian Michaels, please don’t kill me for saying that. I just might need to borrow them.

@Ybbeige

http://facebook.com/barbarabeige

www.barbarabeige.com

My Chick Read

Tofu, Vulvas and General Squishiness

I was involved in two interesting conversations today. Not that they were out of the ordinary for me or my friends that I had them with. But, others may find them extra interesting. Or, maybe they are horrified by them?

Topic One was about tofu. I'm a big tofu fan. Been eating it more and more instead of pork or red meat (I haven't given in to the vegetarian thing yet...). I cook with it and even eat it raw. That thought can make people squeamish right there. I had told a friend about my tofu fried rice dish that I make. She is interested in starting to eat more tofu and that seemed like a good beginner meal suggestion. My version is very low-fat. You almost can't even use the term 'fried' for it. But, 'tofu rice' doesn't really describe the dish or even suggest a flavor like 'tofu fried rice' does. Even if you've never had tofu, but you've had fried rice, you can semi-guess on the taste.

My tofu fried rice. Low fat, easy to make and delicious.

Anyway, she is new to tofu and researched it because that's what she does. She found some interesting information on the web that I didn't know. Like young children shouldn't eat raw tofu. I had to look that up myself and found that as long as it was individually packaged and pasteurized, it was okay. She also found that because it had so much protein, it shouldn't be over-eaten. I do eat a very high-protein diet. Between my Greek yogurt every morning and other sources of protein...hmm...may have to rethink the mega protein thing...but I do balance my diet out with lots of fruits and veggies and healthy carbs. (Okay, so the homemade sourdough bread I'm making every few days may not be able to include the moniker of 'healthy' but it's homemade...doesn't have preservatives and crap in it...so it's healthier than not. And, it's darned yummy).

My sourdough francese bread that I make every few days. Not quite as good as Iggy's Bakery in MA, but darned close.

I posed the question on Facebook tonight as to what came to mind when my friends thought of tofu. With over twenty responses, I got things like "Yum," "Cooking some at this very moment" to "Where's the nearest Five Guys?" and "Sponge." Who knew it could be such an interesting topic?

Tofu cubes and half a block. I'll eat them raw like
this with edamame and Bragg's liquid aminos on them or
maybe topped with a ginger miso dressing of some sort.

Now, if I posed the question of Topic Two that came up at work today, I may have got even more interesting answers. Or, I may have been defriended by many conservative friends. But, then again, I'm guessing that I could have had friend requests from friends of friends. That question would have been, "How fleshy is your vulva?"

This whole diagram of the female parts "down there" falls into the vulva category...
just so you know for sure what  we're talking about.

How does that topic even come up, you ask? Through yoga. You know, those tofu-eating, healthy people? Actually, it came up with two awesome friends who are share-anything-with kinds of people. It was really more about yoga pants than yoga itself. And, the question of do you wear underwear under them? A thong? Or, nothing at all? If it's nothing at all, and you have a fleshy vulva, the whole camel-toe thing could come into play. Remember Sally O'Malley from Saturday Night Live? She liked to kick! Stretch! And she was 50 years old? She was proud of her red outfit that she called her Desert Rose because it featured her camel toes. She sure liked to show hers off. (Check out the link to Hulu.com below if you haven't seen it before...or at least in a while).

Sally O'Malley from SNL

So, I was talking with another friend tonight about the vulva conversation that I had had and she was absolutely horrified that I'd be involved in talking about that. I honestly don't think anything of talking about this stuff. It's the human body. I see it like a medical professional would. I don't think of it from any sort of sexual point of view. Is that how others see it? Maybe? Maybe not? This all goes back to my theory that the more things are kept taboo and hush hush, the creepier people get about them.

Why don't we just talk more about tofu and vulvas and take the squeamish out of squishy?


Do you ever talk about vulvas at work? Leave your comments below!



www.barbarabeige.com
@Ybbeige
http://facebook.com/barbarabeige
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