It’s a funny thing. Yesterday I was “pottying a tinkle” (as my toddler calls it) when I felt a bit of skin on my belly sort of tuck under…that’s the only way to describe it. I thought, this couldn’t possibly be happening…not to me. It was fine when I was standing up. There was no sag or drag…a little pooch perhaps, but no sagging.
Cautiously, I put my hand to my abdomen. Yes, yes, there it was. A belly roll. Disgusted, I hopped off the loo and vowed that I would start a diet tomorrow. I would not let this get the best of me. I would be out running a half-marathon next summer…and the list when on and on.
Then I went to the kitchen, leaned against the counter, and savored a chocolate Super Bowl cupcake while I contemplated how I would do this. An app that records my every calorie? A blog about what I was doing? How would I keep myself honest? I made my decision and moved on, though I didn’t mention it out loud, because we all know how I feel about our own body images ruining our little girls.
When I got up this morning, this blog post at Scary Mommy was the first thing I read over my morning coffee. I’m the first to admit that I agree completely with what she’s saying…even if I preach otherwise. Though I do believe we need to keep our dismal body opinions to ourselves so as not to complicate matters with our little ones, I do hate the fact that, even after 10 years of being together, I now hate getting dressed in front of the hubs. In fact, I often get dressed in the bathroom just so he doesn’t walk in to the bedroom when I have only one leg in my jeans. Then I found Shape of a Mother and realized that there is this whole underground society of women who are horribly dissatisfied with how their post-baby body looks.
And, while this article at Baby Center talks about the “first few weeks” after you’ve had the baby, it says nothing about the fact that, for many women, post-baby jiggle is still going on when you kiss your kid goodbye on the first day of Kindergarten. Do real moms even write these stories? And if they do, why are they giving us false hope?
So, from vowing to lose the roll to a cupcake in the kitchen to finding another group of women who are sad about the flab, I’m still not satisfied and still not wanting to accept the little extra that is mine. And while I should stop eating the cupcakes, and I know I should accept my little belly, there’s one I’m just not able to do yet…the cupcakes are the easy part.
Let’s discuss. Have you accepted your post-baby body? What did it take to finally get you there?
photo credit: howtobeadad.com
