Underwear, Underoos

{The before picture was taken as I shifted from ‘the longest diet in the world’ to my current ‘get healthy and lose weight, already!’ plan that I began back in January of 2012.  I had already lost about 60 pounds at that point!}

Target’s women’s underwear section is like a candy store to me.  When I was a kid, Underoos were the coolest thing ever invented, and the best of the best had to be the Wonder Woman Underoos.  In fact, I believe my obsession with Wonder Woman is directly related to Wonder Woman Underoos- the epitome of awesome to my five year old self in 1978!  They came as a two piece, but not like the traditional undershirt and panties.  Nope.  Our Amazonian Princess deserves more than that! Wonder Woman’s tank was cropped and looked like a bra.  And of course I wanted to wear a bra at the age of five- what little girl doesn’t?  It’s the height of femininity, and a Wonder Woman bra would be a mixture of feminine and badass.  I wanted those Underoos bad.   Alas, we were one of the many families working hard to make ends meet in the 70’s and 80’s by turning off lights, clipping coupons and growing our own food (yes, I mean growing vegetables and cows in the backyard- no joke), and Wonder Woman Underoos cost the same as a multi-pack of boring old days-of-the-week undies.  My secret identity of being Wonder Woman under my clothes was not to be mine.   Until adulthood hit and, apparently, I wasn’t the only one who didn’t get them and the manufacturers stated making them!  So Target, as an adult, is like a buffet of superhero and cartoon undies that are so reminiscent of my Underoo obsession that once I fit into them I had to start wearing them.  Why, you may be wondering, am I telling you this long, involved, Underoos story?  Well, I don’t plan my ‘outfits’ for my progress pictures.  They usually just kind of happen when I am walking across my bedroom, see myself in the mirror and get caught off guard like, “DAMN!  Look at that!  I had no idea!”  So I take pictures right then or force a family member to take them.  Today I was wearing some My Little Pony undies that I got with Jude in mind, my little Brony boy.  I didn’t even realize my folly until I saw the picture of my back!  Oops!  😂 So, enjoy my pony butt.

{Those underwear were really unflattering as they wedged tightly, right in there.😱  I know I’m trying for transparency, but everyone has their line!}
I was inspired to do this photo set by my girl Jess over at Runs for Coffee.  She was writing about her nonscale victory of fitting into a goal shirt and mentioned the extra skin she’s starting to see on herself (go check her out- she’s absolutely killing it).  She started writing about sharing her extra skin on her blog, and I realized I haven’t done a saggy skin pic in a really long time!  It is really starting to change.  I definitely think that muscle tone has a lot to do with it, but I also think that my skin is just really shrinking up since its been empty long enough now.  I think my stomach pretty much is what it will be until I shake off that last 20 pounds or get surgery, but I’m amazed at the changes I can see in my back and lower belly!  Wow!  And anyhow, my tummy gave me my natural Wonder Woman symbol.  Who needs Underoos when Wonder Woman’s costume shows up on your body unbidden?  Must be a sign of my natural awesomeness and inborn, Amazon status, right?😋  It’s hard to share pictures like this but it’s kind of a celebration as well as somewhat informative.  I really stressed out about this issue before I’d even attempted to lose weight.  I thought that starting out at 340 meant that my belly skin would dangle around my thighs, my thighs would be nasty and my arms unsightly.  What I’ve learned is that it’s not that bad at all.  Things are annoying at times, especially when my belly skin is trying to sneak out of the bottom of my bathing suit at my thigh tops, and working out with excess belly skin can be a challenge, but it’s obvious to me that the change was a good one, even with sneaky belly skin.  Everything here is tolerable and I feel good about myself now in body, spirit, health and love.  

  
Today marked day two of my Spring Break running streak!  Wahoo!  We headed to St. Edward Park to do the trail.  I’m all about trying new apps, these days, in the name of making cool pictures to post on my website.  Today I tried Map My Run and LOVED IT.  Strava has been my go-to simply because it’s where my data has been compiling.  Map My Run, however, made its case strong, today, when this lovely voice came through my ears at each mile split, telling me how fast I was, how far I went and how fast my total run was.  On top of that I tracked my playlist (AWESOME!) and allowed me to post pictures and comments to a feed.  I was pretty happy to find a new running app…  However, it didn’t have the photo feature I was looking for.  I went online and asked my running community what they use.  You see, I’ve seen people post photographs with their run stats on them along with the route they ran- like an outline- that is layered over the top.  The Nike + Running app, turns out, is the one that does that while fitsnap is fun for something similar but without the map overlay.  Anyhow, it was a fun day to fidget with tech, think about running and think about my body.  Seriously- I’ve come so far!  What a fabulous day and Spring Break has only just begun!  Yahooooo!
  

Yep.  I got a little excited about making these thingies.  😀