The Loose Skin Issue

I know one of the things that a lot of overweight people are fearful of when they think about losing weight is loose skin. I personally couldn't give a shit if I am left with loose skin because it means that the fat is gone. It still astounds me a little when some people say they don't want to get a lap band or lose weight because they are scared of having loose skin. Whether you are fat or thin, you still have the same amount of skin, it's just whether it is filled with fat or not that is the difference.

Us lucky apple shaped girls are more likely to have a problem with loose skin and I am finding that it is starting to become a bit of an issue for me. My skin is certainly not 'loose' yet (still too much fat in it), but it is very floppy and soft and there is NO way it is going back into place. I always knew this would be the case for me because of my body shape and if I ever get to a healthy weight I will probably have a tummy tuck, but that is a long way away.

The reason it is impacting me now is because it is making exercise difficult. Be prepared to spit your coffee out at your computer screen in laughter when I tell you the following embarrassing stories...

I recently decided to try and jog on the treadmill at the gym and not once, but twice in a 5 minute period, as I was jogging my stomach flopped up and hit the emergency stop button on the treadmill and I almost went over the top of the treadmill. So I decided to put my running career on hold.

Then just last week, the weather was bad and I didn't want to leave the house to go to the gym, so I decided to finally try the 30 day shred DVD I bought ages ago and AJ did it with me (well what else is he going to do when my fat arse is jumping about in front of the TV?). So AJ notices that I am doing squats when we are supposed to be doing star jumps (or jumping jacks as Jillian calls them) and he calls me out for cheating. So I explain that when I try to do a star jump my stomach is almost hitting me in the face, so I have to do squats instead. Of course when we realised how hilarious/gross that was we went into fits of giggles and couldn't even move for ages.

I am finding that this issue is holding me back from moving ahead with my exercise so I knew I had to come up with something. Luckily I remembered what a blogger friend (Cinders I think?) had told me what ex-Biggest Loser host, Ajay Rochester, did while she exercised (before she had the tummy tuck). She wore her bathers while exercising. Brilliant. So on Sunday morning I put on my brand new sports bra, my bathers and my gym gear and decided to give jogging another try.

It worked perfectly, it was almost like I had no excess stomach at all and it all held perfectly in place. I was able to give running a proper try and my fat stomach didn't hold me back at all. I was able to run about 1/4 of the 4.2 km track and I plan to be able to jog the entire track by the time I turn 30 in December. OK, that doesn't even sound real to me that I could jog 4.2 kms... I havea lot of work to do between now and then!