Help! I Have Bloggers Butt….

You’ve heard of the “Freshman 15.”
You’ve heard of the “Spare Tire.”

But have you heard of “Bloggers Butt?”

Well, I am here today to tell you it does exist. And I have the blown out pants to prove it.

Many bloggers out there have been able to work hard at fighting this phenomenon while sadly I have not. I hope to change that though, with hopefully your help.

So first off I want to tell you my Story 

I used to be skinny. Oh yes, back in high school. I was one of the kids that could eat ANYTHING and stay the same weight. I could eat junk food, no problem. Fries, hamburgers…the more the merrier. Life was good. (Note: I wasn’t super skinny or anything…I have always been average – I was 5.5 inches and weighed around 125-130. I was in good shape though and did all kinds of sports so some of that was muscle).

Then came marriage, and after a few years pregnancy occurred. Something changed in me during that 9 months…my metabolism stopped working. I ate the same foods I always ate but gained 70 lbs when I delivered at 32 weeks (I had twins who came early. ) The sad thing is that the twins together didn’t even weigh 8 lbs…so, yeah I was a gainer.  It took a good 6 months, but I was back to where I was before weight wise. However as anyone that’s had a baby knows…your body is never quite the same as before.   Hello stretch marks, extra tummy skin and saggy boobs!!

Then 5 years later (yes…having twins scared me to have more kids) we decided to have another baby.  This time I knew what my body does to me when I am pregnant with my metabolism, however I still didn’t control what I ate. So I gained 50 lbs this time with just one baby inside. It took another 6 months, but got almost back down to my weight – just 5 lbs over. Then a few years later I had my 4th baby – and another 5lbs decided to stick around on my body.

I then decided to work at it a bit to lose those pounds, and so I tried some diets including Body for Life, and exercising at the gym. The exercise did change my body shape which made me really happy.  But as for the diet…I tried and failed.  I did 2.5 weeks on the Body For Life diet (without cheating). When I stepped on the scale after that 17 days and saw that I hadn’t lost one pound I was so irritated!!  I gave up, went out and had me some fast food and the next day I had lost 3 lbs! I tell you…its all mental for me or something. I am fairly sure dieting makes my body release something that causes me to hold onto the weight – or that is what I tell myself. So anyways, whenever I work out my body shape does change, but since I don’t last long on diets it would also come right back when I stopped working out.

Fast forward to then starting my blog around 3 years ago. I was looking GOOOOD people…good!!

I mean look at me – here I am when my son turned 1 – pre-blog days. I look at me wearing my favorite jeans that I grew too fat for. *Sigh* By the way, I still have those jeans hanging in my closet – even though its been like 3 years now that I haven’t fit into them. But I hold onto them thinking and hoping that my body will magically lose weight and I will fit them again. The dream is still alive….

Then I began blogging. I slowly added more and more time online. 1 hour a day to 2 -3 hours. And as my blog has grown I find I spend more hours than that even sometimes. Not to mention I LOVE to EAT! Ack. Long story short – I have allowed my body to gain 15-20 lbs in the past 3 years! And at least 5lbs have gone to my butt for sure…..thus the jeans with the torn out bum.

After the first year of blogging I did try to fight my weight gain – and for about 4 months I trained to do a 5k race. I hated running, but I loved the feeling when I was done. I lost probably 5-9 lbs and felt like I had a lot of energy.

Me finishing up my first and only 5k.

After that race I felt really accomplished, however I pretty much never ran again. Or exercised for that matter.  I think I just reached a “level of maturity” where I don’t really care what anyone thinks about my body – and I like me for me, no matter what size. But the problem is that I never seem to FEEL good, and when I exercise I remember feeling good. And when I eat healthy I FEEL good as well, instead of all the bad stuff. I would like to fit into those jeans as well.

So…my dear lovely readers – here is where I am hoping you can offer your advice to me. I know there have got to be some of you out there that have successfully lost weight. I need your HELP deciding what would be a great way for me to lose weight and melt away my bloggers butt.

I am letting you all decide what I should do!

Please help me!! I am going to compile your responses here and on facebook and the #1 talked about thing I should do I am going to do it and keep you all posted with any or all results.

Here are some of the popular ideas I have been thinking about:

• Start running 3x a week and training for a race again
• Start Jillians 30 day shred
• Go Vegan (Vegetarian)
• Hire a personal trainer
• Advocare
• Do P90X
• Join a Gym and do Zumba or other classes
• Do nothing * I have been leaning a lot towards this one…ha ha…
• Drink protein shakes 2x a day and eat a healthy small dinner
• Weight Watchers
• Other diets – just anything but that lemonade cleanse diet (shudder).. I can’t stand cayenne pepper and gagged it down for a few days before quitting. Please don’t make me do this one..

So….let me know what you think I should do! Please leave a comment below or on my facebook page and I will compile the results in the next couple of days and let you know your most popular choice for me.

If you share your vote as to what I should do…I might just share my “before” picture with you. And I cannot think of anything worse than sharing a before picture. Your eyes…your poor poor eyes. The picture may or may not cause some damage. 😉