Getting Ready for the Big 4-0! - Florida

Ok, here are my "stats".... 39 yrs old, 5'3", 120-125# (depending on the time of day- I’m a little obsessive with the scale). Stay-at-home mom of four; ages 11, 9, 6 and 2. Married 15 years to a great guy. Living in central Florida. TT w/ some lipo and BA scheduled for June 14th.

I have been joking about getting my belly "fixed" since I was in my 20s. I've never had a great belly, always had a pooch. I used to say it was genetic, but if I had ever really worked on building some muscle when I was younger, I probably could have had some decent abs. But 20 yrs and 4 pregs later, it seems to be a lost cause. After my last baby was born it really started to hit me that it was now or never as far as looking my best. After 12 yrs of either trying to get pregnant, being pregnant or breast feeding, I'm finally ready to concentrate on myself. Not to mention the not so subtle hints from my sweet little devils. “Mom, you should get that Cortisol, it burns belly fat.” Yes, they watch too much TV, but they sure are honest! (*And by the way, why are these belly fat commercials on Nickelodeon anyway?!)

So once I stopped nursing the youngest about a 1-1/2 yrs ago I started to finally lose weight. My trick? I got busy. I painted the whole inside of my house. Before I knew it, I had lost about 25#, had pretty new walls and ended up at my lowest weight since being a teenager. (Maybe even younger, I clearly remember putting 113 on my driver’s license and knowing it was a lie!) And I've kept it off for about a year now. So with the fat gone I started to work on the core. Amazingly I could finally do a "roll-up". (Before, in pilates class, I just convinced myself that I must be broken when I couldn't do one of those darned moves.) I do push ups (the flaps are smaller) and crunches and planking and roll-ups and a bunch of other core exercises. But alas my stomach still looks like road kill. Well actually it looks like a cat attacked me. Saggy and stretch marked and overall gross. Plus I still have this chunk of fat on my upper abs. Yuk. Don't even ask about my deflated ass. That's a whole other story!

See the bad thing about getting older is you can diet and work-out and eat right and take vitamins but your still getting older. Yes, losing weight is great. It could just kick myself for waiting so long to finally do it! If I had done this work in my 20s or even early 30s I would have been one hot babe. But now losing weight just makes me look older and saggier. Saggy boobs, saggy ass, saggy belly. Even my knees and elbows are saggy. And losing weight in your face makes you look older too! It really is a rip off. You spend your best years having your children. And then when you finally have time to concentrate on yourself, well there’s only so much you can do.

Now maybe if I lived in Canada or some other arctic climate I could live with the sagginess. After all, it doesn’t really show when I’m in jeans and a sweater. But I live in Florida; land of shorts, tank tops, and bathing suits 9 mnths of the year. I FEEL about 30 but there’s no denying I’m pushing 40 when I slide on the bathing suit top. I tried the gel inserts for some volume, but when one floated away during a pool party, I knew it was time for a more permanent solution.

But thanks to the magic of plastic surgery, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. And wshen my husband came home with a great end of year bonus, suddenly it was Happy Early 40th to me. Hello new boobs, bye-bye old belly! I’m nervous and I’m guilt ridden but mostly I’m excited and determined to go through with it. Reading these blogs has really helped me to remember why I’m doing this and not feel bad about it. Yes, it’s a lot of money that I probably should save for my kid’s future. But I do believe that ultimately having a mom with more confidence in herself will be good for them too. And even if it isn’t, mom here already spends 90% of her time and energy and brain power on her brood. Surely she can take a little time for herself?!? ?