Losing the "Mummy Tummy"

Thanks very much for the feedback on my first post! It's very encouraging. :)

So, the first thing I wanted to tackle was my abdominal muscles. Oh what a mess my tummy is! I couldn't do a sit up worth a darn in high school....then 3 pregnancies....then an umbilical hernia....then a Total Abdominal Hysterectomy....followed by a surgery to repair a hernia 6 months later. Let's face it my abdominal muscles have been through a lot!

So what to do???

Well, if you like to research like I do, you hit Google. LOL I didn't know whether doing simple sit-ups would work. I wanted to see if there was something else that could be done. I'm glad I did this research, though, because it answered a lot of questions.

During my first pregnancy, I noticed that my abdomen had a strange lopsided bulge. At the time, I thought it was my baby perhaps sticking his behind up, or pushing his knees against the uterus. But after he was born, the bulge remained. It came up again with my two other pregnancies....there was a lot of speculation. It was attributed to large uterine fibroid tumors at one time, but that turned out to be the case. So what was it? No one seemed to know. So my GYN sent me to a surgical specialist. I was given a diagnosis of "diastasis recti".

So what is Diastasis Recti? Basically it is a separation of the abdominal muscles on the left and right sides. You can see an illustration of it HERE.

Great, I thought. Now we have a diagnosis, what can we do about it? The answer my Dr. gave me was - nothing.:( According to the Dr. there was no real exercise or physical therapy options to help close the separation. He said we could do surgery, and then he recommended I get a CT scan to see if there was something else going on. I never followed up. The idea of surgery scared me, so I just dropped it.

That was about 3 years ago. I had long forgotten my visit with the Dr. and even forgot the term of "diastasis recti". But then my Google search brought me to a site called Maternal Fitness. And lo and behold, there was that term again!

Wow! Could it be true? Could there be an exercise program to help? The answer is - YES!

The exercise program was created by Julie Tupler, RN. It works on healing the diastasis using simple exercises and the use of an abdominal splint. There are a lot of encouraging before and after pictures on her website and a great deal of information on her website page devoted to her program "Diastasis Recti" HERE.

I've decided I'm going to budget to purchase her $85 package, which includes the DVD, splint, guidebook and dyna band. I'm also going to budget for getting a second splint so I can alternate wearing one and having one in the wash.

So the goal is to close the diastasis recti and have a flatter tummy. I will be taking initial measurements and post them on the side of my blog to keep up on my progress.

Next up - better eating habits!

Welcome! I'm glad you stopped by to see my first blog post.:)

I've never been one to be in any great physical shape. Gym class was not fun for me in high school. I've joined gyms and went a couple of times, and then, like a majority of those who join, my determination fizzled out.

As the years went by, new physical challenges presented themselves. Three pregnancies brought me three beautiful children, but also took their toll on my already weak abdominal muscles. Weight was also gained and not lost. My posture slowly went downhill. A walk up the neighbor's hill across the street to take the kids to the pool left me huffing and puffing and out of breath....and it was not even a steep hill!

It was at this time as well, that I started to witness my mother's decline in health.  She is a very strong woman with a great amount of determination and spunk, but the pain of arthritis and problems with her spine has really wreaked havoc with her. She now has to walk with a walker and is in a lot of pain. :(

In seeing my mother's health issues, I began to realize that I may be following down the same path....and I did not like that prospect!

So what could I do about it???

I decided that I wanted to push back against any health issues that may come my way. The only way to do this, is to get myself into the best physical shape possible so I could give myself a fighting chance against arthritis, muscle loss, spine problems, etc. So I decided that my main goal will be to be more physically fit when I am 50 than when I was 20. (Hence, the title of my blog LOL). I just turned 44 the other day, so I have some time, but I'm not going to drag this out.

I then decided that I would document my progress in a blog, to not only keep myself accountable but to help others make the decision to get in shape. This blog is not going to be all roses and sunshine....this is going to be an uphill battle....but I'm going to document the good and bad!

In the next few days I'm going to post what my goals are and what plans I'll be using to get in shape.

Stay tuned! :)