Itty Bitty Titty Club...Sign Me Up!

My boobs are getting smaller!! Some people would think of that as a bad thing but I personally could not be happier. Let me first explain how I came to find out this piece of valuable information. Today, while being completely bored out of mind at work and having absolutely nothing to do, I decided to give myself a bra fitting. There was nobody in the store and I was just standing there so I figured why not? I took a tape measure that was lying around and proceeded to measure my chest to determine my bra size (thankfully nobody showed up while I was doing this otherwise it would have been slightly awkward). Turns out, my band size is now 38. I stood there completely shocked. I even measured myself twice to make sure I wasn't wrong (I wasn't). I stood there in disbelief because I was measured for a bra a few months back and I was definitely 40 inches around. Now, I'm in between 37 1/2 and 38 inches. This is the first time that I've realized I'm losing actual inches off my body along with the weight.

When I started working out back in October, I decided to track my progress. It started off with weighing myself once a week but at the beginning of November I decided to measure various parts of my body as well. I never wanted to be discouraged that I wasn't losing tons of weight since I knew I'd be building muscle at the same time so I figured keeping track of the actual inches might make me feel better. At the beginning of the month I would pull out my tape measure and see what progress I had made. Well, I only ended up tracking November and December because by January and February I wasn't motivated to do much of anything. Naturally after my bra fitting this afternoon I had to come home and measure the rest of me to see what was happening. I have actually lost a couple of inches in a few places. I'm down at least an inch everywhere including my legs and arms (which I was pretty confident would never get any smaller).

I realize that I've lost 20 pounds and dropped about a size/size and half in my clothes but I never connected how that translated to my actual body dimensions. The whole thing just seems very surreal to me. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't stoked about my findings today. It's good to know that my body really is changing in a way that can be quantified (clothing sizes don't count quiet as much since those change from store to store). And while I may not be moving at a Biggest Loser pace, if I keep going at the rate I'm going now in one year I'll be 40 pounds down and pretty damn close to not being considered overweight. So if smaller boobs is the price I have to pay in order to not die of a heart attack at 55 well then I will take it (besides, my boobs were not all that big to begin so it's not a huge deal).

The Battle of the Jiggly Butt

What is it about those first few minutes on the treadmill or elliptical (or working out in general for that matter) that make your butt feel so incredibly un-toned? Maybe it's just me, but I feel like when I first start running my ass jiggles like crazy! And what's even crazier is that after those first few minutes it doesn't feel like my rear is jiggling all over the place. Literally every day when I start my work out I think about how I should be doing an average of 10,000 lunges and/or squats in order for the rump to stop shaking all over the place.

The most awkward thing about it, though, is that I feel like other people can see my tush jiggling all over the place. I almost feel like my fanny needs a bra in order for it to control itself. I realize this is so ridiculous of a mindset and the chances of anybody actually looking at my bum are slim to none. I mean let's be honest here, I tend to work out in the late morning/early afternoon and the people who are at the gym at that hour are not looking at or judging other people's hindquarters. Regardless, I always feel that wee bit of awkwardness at the beginning of any cardio workout.

Today I decided that if I was going to get over this jiggly butt syndrome I would have to put my derriere front and center in my workouts. In all of the strength training that I do only like 2 of the exercises work my glutes so I sucked it up and worked out on the stair-master for a bit. Now let me just start by saying that I hate the stair-master with the fire of a 1,000 suns. It is literally the most boring exercise you can do at the gym (in my opinion of course). I know that it does wonders for the backside and you burn calories like crazy but honestly who cares if it feels like it drags on FOR-EV-ER? I would much rather spend an extra 10 minutes running then stair climbing because that is more interesting.

Anyway, so I'm on the stair-master and it's not as bad as I remembered but it still is not fun. I just kept plugging away, though, in hopes that one day the Battle of the Jiggly Butt will be won. In that light, I have found my goal for March: to get a few steps closers to winning the Battle of the Jiggly Butt. I think if I do the stair-master for 10-15 minutes some days and lunges and/or squats on the other days I'll hopefully not shake so much when I work out. Of course, I'm always open for suggestions on great exercises so if you know of any great ways to do some booty toning let me know! God knows by next week I'll be even more bored of the stair-master then I am already and hating anything resembling a lunge.

Special Thanks: I would like to acknowledge the thesaurus for it's awesome help in providing me with a variety of synonyms for the word 'butt.' Writing 'butt' over and over seemed boring and then I found it funny using all the different synonyms.