Good job!

Secondly, what an adorable little boy! Such a charmer.

And last, you look great and are an inspiration. No, not everyone can look like you after three months. Some people’s bodies respond better to exercise than others. You look like you were an athlete in school.

I’ve been struggling with the “loose arm” issue for years. Is there a particular workout that seemed to work for you in that area?

Thanks again for sharing your pictures!

Firstly, cheers on your success.

Secondly, I’m sitting here fighting the tears because despite over three months (damn, try three years now) of strictly watching portion sizes and exercizing regularly and often and intensely and varied, I am not much smaller than when I started. I had an initial success wherein I lost 60-ish lbs, and then gained 20 back. I have been fighting that 20 lbs for 2.5 years now with absolutely no success.

I recently decided to train for a medium distance run, and it has now been, as you say, three months of dedicated, hardcore focus on becoming even stronger, even more diligent, more focused on keeping good care of myself.

And before I start sobbing, let me please say- it does NOT just take three months and some dedication. The perpetuation of the myth that “if you would just TRY, you could do it, too!” is so hurtful.

I can tell by the tone of this piece that your intent is NOT to hurt anyone’s feelings, but damn if it didn’t smart anyway. I think I can tell that your intent here was to share your success and to perhaps inspire others to give it a try, too. And that’s great. But to be perfectly honest, it perpetuates the myth that those that are overweight simply haven’t tried hard enough yet (it only takes three months, right?). And that is patently not true.

[...] Moving on, I have a little plot twist for you: I have become besotted with exercise. I’ll bet you didn’t see that one coming. I certainly didn’t, but its true, and it has even rejuvenated my healthy eating campaign. I had fallen off the WeightWatchers wagon hard enough to leave an Alexa-shaped hole in the dirt—dirt which may or may not have been made of chocolate—but oddly, once I was exercising and my body felt stronger and more energetic, the siren song of truffles became quieter and I wanted to do other nice things for my body, things like feed it peas. My muscles still get sore, but now it is the vaguely pleasurable Soreness of Virtue rather than the crippling Soreness of Disuse. Believe it or not, the time I take to exercise is now one of the best parts of my day. The key, for me, has been my own forgetfulness. I have a whole passel of different workouts to choose from, and I do one on Monday and then the next day, rather than forcing my aching limbs to do the same thing again, I do something different, and eventually I forget how difficult Monday’s workout was and choose it again, in a sort of avoidant rotation. I call it The Forgetful Dilettante’s Fitness Program. I have some yoga workouts, T-Tapp, and this DVD of three intense ten-minute routines. Knowing the routine is only ten minutes long gets you through any rough spots, and though I was only planning on doing one at a time, I ended up doing all three back to back, and afterwards was fairly certain I could have lifted a horse over my head, Pippi Longstocking style. The first of the three is cardio/weights, the second Pilates, and the third is kickboxing—which makes me feel pleasantly hardcore, and when I get behind the music I just bop around punching things until I catch up. On days when the Soreness of Virtue is particularly strong, like today, I pop Simone in a sling and we go for a walk. The hardest part of exercise is remembering how good you will feel afterward, and convincing yourself to walk ALL THE WAY to the closet for the yoga mat and then ALL THE WAY back to the living room again. For this I generally rely upon reading something like this by Linda, who has managed to turn herself into one of those supernaturally fit women who always seem to be trying on jeans in front of the three-way-mirror directly outside my dressing room door just as I step out wearing a milk-stained t-shirt and the same jeans eleventy sizes larger, also known as size HOW ABOUT A MUUMUU? That’s all for now. I’ll be back tomorrow. By Alexa | Posted in Ceci N’est Pas Une Ecrivaine | [...]

PS. Came here from whoorl.

[...] After seeing this post a year ago and this recent one, I decided I just HAD to buy this exercise DVD. (How could I not? DID YOU SEE LINDA’S ARMS? Good God.) [...]

[...] I finished off my day with a good, productive meeting with Boss, and even made it to the gym. After reading Linda’s blog about how she transformed herself in Three Months and then WHAM! Pregnant, I’m getting on board. [...]

Stop deleting those pictures!!! Later on you (and Riley) will just wish you had pictures. I have to say… I would be thrilled to look like your before pictures!