A Big Mistake

            I made a big mistake today. A biiiiiiiiig big big huge mistake. I looked at my reflection in the window while working out. Oh, God.

            I’m on an exercise kick. There is a saying about the fluctuation of weight during and after pregnancy: “nine months on, nine months off.” Well, it’s been 11.75 months and I’m still 20lbs heavier than I was before I got knocked up. So every day, I spend 20 minutes with a Jillian Michaels DVD. It sounds lame, I know, but it’s been working! In the past three weeks, I’ve lost nearly 10lbs. I lost an inch each off my chest, hips, and thigh, and an inch and a half off my waist. But most importantly, I CAN DO A PUSH-UP! A real push-up, off the knees!

            Needless to say, my confidence is up. I feel strong when I’m working out, keeping up with the ripped ladies on the screen. I know I don’t have their abs or slim arms or perky butts, but I feel good about my progress and myself. Or at least, I did. That was before. Before the unfortunate event that has forever altered the image I have in my head of how I look when exercising.

            You know when you see old ladies power-walking, and they’ve got their arms swinging and a silly little swagger and everything? That’s what my butt-kicks (jogging in place, bringing your heel to your butt) looked like. My lunges were about half as deep as I thought they were. Common decency prevents me from describing how my body looked during jumping jacks.

            From now on I am exercising in a room with no windows, no mirrors, and no reflective surfaces of any kind. I wish they made matte TV screens so I’d be in no danger of ever witnessing such a sight again. I guess it’ll just be more motivation to get the weight off!