Actually talking about the course! - Part 5 of That Tummy Topic

There are other rambly parts to this story :)
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

So, after finding out that I had a diastasis.  I was determined to fix it!   I read all the information I could find on the Fit2B and Tummy Team websites.  I read testimonials and reviews, I marveled at before and after pictures, and I read all about splinting and the magical transverse abdominus (happy anatomy flashbacks, I loved  anatomy and histology). 

I got a membership for the Fit2B site, and I ordered a splint that I thought looked the most comfortable to me.    The Tummy Team course was out.    I really wanted it, but it just wasn't in the budget.    Then.... there was a sale!   And we somehow ended up with a little bit more money than expected (gotta love when that happens) and I was able to put the course into our budget.

I started in early December.   Olive was 7 months old.   I still looked pregnant.   My diastasis was somewhere around 4 fingers at the belly button,  a little less on the top and bottom, but I'm not very good at checking.   It was deep though, and just squishy underneath.  I could just feel the sides with nothing at all below and I could feel a pulse when I pushed down.

I'd been doing Weight Watchers online at the same time, and just before Christmas I hit 20lbs lost.   The belly wasn't budging though, still all pregnant looking.    I have before pictures.   I did actually take them as suggested in the course.   So I'll just post them below for you.... HAAAHHAAHAHA!  Umm...no.  no I won't.    I will find photos, but they won't be bare belly photos.    Actually, right now, as I'm writing this I just looked back at those belly photos.   I haven't taken new ones,  I haven't lost anymore weight, but wow, the difference is pretty crazy.  I think I will go ahead and take after photos too, so I can really compare for myself.   I really wish I had the courage to show you the pictures, because it's really a bigger difference than I even realized.  I'm a little blown away right now. 

Here are two pictures of me from just after I started the course.  I started the course on Dec 6th. these are from Dec 11&12. The clothes don't help, and there is no side view, but, you get the idea.    Sorry, I'm just not tough enough to show my bare belly online :)

still looking kinda preggers

So, I started the Core Foundations program.   I watched the intro videos and felt like Kelly was talking specifically about me.   I was sitting in bed watching them on my iPad with my headphones before bed and I had to stop myself from shouting "YES!"  every time she said something.   You know some days you go to church and it's like the pastor wrote the sermon specifically to you.   Well, that's how I felt when I was watching the intro videos from the Core Foundations course.   Kelly was talking about ME!  She was describing MY body, and all the broken things that it did, or didn't do.   It was uncanny!

The first day I had so much trouble doing the exercises.   I couldn't do it.   I really couldn't do it at all.   Every time I tried to activate my transverse I just squeezed something else.   Every. Single. Time.    I am too far gone, I thought.   I'm in worse shape than those other people.   I can't do this.    I can't be helped.  I'm never going to get it.    Whine, whine, whine.   Wow, talk about easily discouraged!    I just kept trying, but I was so afraid of compensating, because you must avoid compensating, that I felt like I'd never get there.   I couldn't do anything without compensating, and I was having trouble and struggling with the fear that because I'd be compensating that I'd actually be making things worse instead of better.   

I just kept trying, and whenever I felt the compensating, I stopped.   I tried again later, I could do a hold for a couple of seconds maybe by the end of the first day, maybe it was the end of the first few days.   I'm not sure exactly when it started working but when I was finally able to engage my transverse it was seriously only for a couple of seconds at a time before I had to release and wait again till later.    I just kept doing it, all day long, over and over.   My checklists on the course sheet were not filled out because I didn't feel like I could actually properly check off any of those things.   

It was probably about day 4 before I felt like I could do a hold.    Still shorter than they're supposed to be, but the improvement was so fast!   I went from not being able to do even one hold for one second, to 4 days later being able to do real holds!   After waking up to that feeling and being able to do a hold it was all so much easier from there.  

I realized that without even thinking about it I was sitting properly at the dinner table, and in the car.   I started to actually feel more comfortable sitting properly.    I suddenly noticed that I looked a whole lot different in pants.  Yes, that's really what I meant to write.    Suddenly every time I walked into the bathroom the first thing that I saw was a difference in my belly.   A really big difference.   So quickly?!?!  How can this be possible!  My belly looks so much flatter.   I have still got a fair bit of extra weight on me, but I look very different.   The low roll was being pulled up, and in, and that looks a lot better.  That part that I've loathed, and that has made me feel like a failure, or lazy, or undisciplined, it was half gone. 

The pictures below are taken about 1 week after the pictures above.  These are from Dec 18 & 19.   The clothes help...yes they do.  I was trying to defrumpify, but it's still obvious I think how different I look.    There is only about 2 pounds difference in the first set of photos to these ones.  I think it looks more like there is 20 lbs difference.  Really...just 2. 

Apologies for my picture placements... I can't figure out how to properly format them.