In the October 2009 issue of Oxygen Magazine (one of my favs!) there was an article by publisher Robert Kennedy titled “Are You Skinny Fat?”
It really resonated with me because at 27 I had become a skinny fat girl. I have always been tiny. Years of ballet, dance, musical theatre, cheerleading, being busy, eating relatively healthy and a fast metabolism kept me in the thin, “skinny”, svelte world. Then bam. I turned a year older, a year wiser and my metabolism said: “Enough is enough”. Time to slow ‘er down.
I ate what I want over the winter of 2008/2009. Microwave bags of popcorn for dinner, ice cream late at night, wine and cheese, muffins and cookies galore at office meetings, bagels, and cream cheese for breakfast. Barely any fiber, fresh produce or healthy carbs. It didn’t seem that bad to me. I never considered myself a binge eater or overindulged. I just didn’t “watch” what I ate because I didn’t think I had to.
My condo has an indoor pool and one day in December 2008 I decided to go swimming. I checked out my butt in the mirror as all girls do and I gasped. Did I, the skinny girl, have cellulite. Umm… no way. It’s the mirror. I continued to say oh it’s fine I can keep going like I normally do. I scheduled a photo shoot in January 2009 where I would be doing implied nudes in dancer poses. I told the photographer to give me 2 weeks after the Xmas holidays to hit the gym. Really? That’s all you need girl? Sure!!! I did the photo shoot saw the photos and went home crying. My abs were not attractive. I didn’t take good pictures and I knew it.
I had become skinny fat. I knew it. When I read the article from Oxygen this summer one sentence reminded me of my winter moments before my fitness AHA moment. “Incredibly even though both women were thin his forefinger sank into a sea of fat.” My boyfriend could grip my love handles and I had had enough. Then my fitness why happened. Check out one of my first blog post for that.
So below are two of my first before pictures taken. I wanted to make sure I documented the change. The changes were slow in the beginning. I did a lot of cardio since I had developed quite a lot of “fat” for my body. The hips slimmed down, the thighs carved up and I lost 2 cup sizes. Now my abs are starting to come in, my thighs are becoming more muscular, I’m building a butt shelf and I have tickets to the gun show! Just kidding! But the biceps are coming in quite nicely!
If I could do it over again I would’ve started lifting weights much more at the primary stages to build the muscle underneath as I was able to shed the fat in as little as 3 months. Now I’m what I would consider tiny again but having a heck of a time building the muscle now. I’m so proud of what I’ve been able to do over a short 8 months and hope I can inspire at least one person (even another skinny fat girl) to take initiative and get fit or just take care of their health.
Before:
After: Three Fitness Competition Photos from 2009
While my fitness why was completely based on vanity. I’m so glad I’ve started a fitness journey towards becoming healthier.