I have been struggling with my *** and thighs for quite a while now. Ok, struggling is maybe a bit strong word for it, but I have always had this huge bottom and have always wanted to make it smaller. The problem is my laziness and lack of discipline. I sit on my butt and eat all day long. It's quite sad. I exersize two-three days a week, like doing callanetics and now running too (I don't run when it's cold outside). My goal is to lose 13 pounds and get really fit. My challenge is not training - I love running and will probably do it every other day without a problem, but I have difficulties with daily eating routine. I eat almost all the time! I have also a problem with motivation - I don't know how to motivate myself to become this hottie I dream of becoming.... Please don't judge, here are the pictures of me front/back
I hope to get some critique or advice on how to get on track with eating in order to get to my goal.
I know you asked not to be judged, but I'm going to anyhow. Truthfully, without sounding all pervy, I think you have a rocking body. Seriously. I know "society" says fat is icky... but I prefer my women with some, what I'll refer to as, feminine fat.
Granted, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And what you deem beautiful or hot or whatever may be at the polar opposite end of the spectrum from what I deem as beautiful.
So I digress...
Just make sure you're not stressing out over some idealistic mold that's shoved down our throats each and everyday in our media. More often than not, that mold they're selling isn't even realistic for a lot of folks. It only stands to cause lots of stress, unrealistic expectations, and body image issues.
Motivation can be tough for some people. If you're not uncomfortable enough or dissatisfied enough, no motivation in the world is likely to carry you towards your goal. I mean, in a way, motivation is a temporary phenomenon and the motions that build and maintain a goal physique are forever. Those two variables don't exactly mesh.
In addition, if you don't believe in the possibility of attaining your goal or if it's really not as meaningful as you like to think it is... you're likely not going to attain it.
We're products of our daily choices and those choices are predicated, by and large, on the ideas of avoiding pain and gaining pleasure. What that means is, if you don't have things framed right in your mind.... if staying where you are isn't painful enough.... if missing out on the body you want isn't painful enough.... if attaining your goal isn't pleasurable enough.... and if leaving your current body in the dust isn't pleasurable enough....
Well, you're going to do a lot of wheel-spinning more than likely.
The answer? Heck, if I knew that I'd be a rich man. I know one thing... a quick fix doesn't exist. I think it starts with some daily accounting of your thoughts and goals. How are you perceiving certain things and what does your goal mean to you? Get detailed here.
Beyond that, it's very individual. Some of my clients are very competitive. They're ex-athletes or current athletes. For them, it can be about highlighting personal performance records - essentially competing with themselves.
For others it's about monthly assessments to highlight improvements in whatever metrics you're trying to improve. It can be small things like posture or big things like body composition or whatever. But seeing progress tends to breed motivation. Of course the progress needs to be there in the first place, and that opens up a whole other can of worms about people expecting way too much and/or not responding to a lack of progress correctly. I won't go down that path today... I'll just say a) don't be married to an approach - if it's not yielding the results you had hoped for, experiment with something else and b) you don't fail until you quit - I find so many people drop off the wagon because things didn't go as planned this month or whatever.
Ultimately though... you GOTTA WANNA. That's at the center of all this. Again, you can get all riled up here and there about wanting something... but that's not the same as building a mindset that breeds success. You generally can't hype yourself up by watching some motivational video or whatever to a point where it generates the energy required to attain such a long term thing as a body composition goal.
If you're not consistently refocusing on the "prize" and if you're not consistently evaluating your perceptions through a lens of truth... well, it's going to be tough going in my opinion.
You might also start by identifying your biggest hurdles as well as coming up with potential ways of lowering them a bit.
For instance, you mention that you eat all day long. Well, eating all day long typically isn't conducive to controlling calories. And controlling calories is ultimately a catalyst to losing fat. But you don't want to stop eating all day long, you say? Well for starters, part of this journey is about sacrifice. Ultimately you have to give up some things to gain some others.
But compromise can also be a part of this journey. If you want to keep nibbling throughout the day, fine. Then replace a lot of those nibbles with low energy density foods. If you google energy density and food, you'll get all sorts of information. Things like fibrous veggies and fruits do wonders.
You might also find ways to fill yourself up better, thus reducing the volume of consumption throughout the day. This ties in with eating low energy density foods from above.... but there are other ways. Eating adequate amounts of protein for example, will do wonders for hunger regulation. Protein is the most satiating nutrient out of the bunch.
It sounds like you don't have a problem with exercise... but I'll say this. Make sure your types and dosages of exercise match your goal. Our bodies adapt in very specific ways to various types of exercise. Put differently, not all exercise is created equally in terms of what it'll do to your physique. For example, if your goal is to be lean but you're not doing any resistance training while dieting... you likely should change your course a bit.
I've likely already rambled on too much... sorry about that.
Best!
Last edited by Steve Troutman; 03-30-2012 at 08:58 AM.
Ditto to what Steve said about really liking how you look right now. You are seriously curvy in a very good way! You look soft, but very feminine. Nothing is "bulging" or "lumpy". You are pretty dang lucky!
That being said, if you want to get leaner, I do really believe it is about what you eat, b/c that helps get rid of some of the fat layer on the outside, showcasing your muscles.
You have a great natural shape - you're lucky! I noticed running regularly makes my butt/legs shrink, but I'm shaped very differently to you. Also, lifting/weight training can reshape your body.
Just to be clear, you can't pick and choose where fat leaves the body any more than you can do certain things to lengthen your muscles. This sort of stuff is on the level of genetics and at the end of the day, we have to play the genetic deck of cards that we've been dealt.
Steve and others, thank you very much for your response!
If you're not uncomfortable enough or dissatisfied enough, no motivation in the world is likely to carry you towards your goal.
That's correct. I am not uncomfortable enough in by body - when I am at home and nobody sees me. When I am at work or party or just outside, I am always thinking that I'm not fit enough and get ashamed of myself, that I have been eating so much when at home. So I have loads of motivation when I am with other people, I run faster when it's a competition, but it seems that this motivation vanishes when I'm at home.
if you don't believe in the possibility of attaining your goal or if it's really not as meaningful as you like to think it is... you're likely not going to attain it.
if you don't have things framed right in your mind.... if staying where you are isn't painful enough.... if missing out on the body you want isn't painful enough.... if attaining your goal isn't pleasurable enough.... and if leaving your current body in the dust isn't pleasurable enough....
Maybe because I never have had this super fit body so I don't know how it feels, so I don't know how pleasurable it is to be there... Maybe I should try visualisation?
I think it starts with some daily accounting of your thoughts and goals. How are you perceiving certain things and what does your goal mean to you? Get detailed here.
The goal means:
I have a body I can be proud of and
I can wear all the beautiful clothes I want.
It means more foreplay - better sex.
It means more self-esteem.
More to come...
You look great now, but I know you want suggestions so...
I'd have to echo what others said about weight training. You may not get the perfect body out of it but from my own experiences and from what I've seen with others it's a great confidence booster if nothing else.
My own body is far from perfect--I certainly have my share of scars after losing all of this weight--but being strong and fit leaves me confident in who I am.
I have a very similar shape to yours, pear and fat tends to accumulate in the *** - thights area. Getting down to the 120s did not really change my shape, I am just a smaller version of what I was.
My goal last year was improving my posture. I read a lot about exercises to do and realized I was sticking my *** out when standing in an unnatural way. That is how I came up with exercises on glute activation, there are some videos on youtube about it. These are exercises that focus on use your glutes and hamstrings more as opposed to quads and women tend to be quite quad dominant not using their butts to their full. Basically I try to squeeze my butt for a while after I have spend some time sitting, I try to conciously squeeze my butt while walking, walking upstairs or just standing. I also do glute bridges, leg raises when on my knees, some sort of swimming when laying on the floor. Those exercises have improved my posture a lot.
My goal this year is reshaping my body so i am going the weight lifting route. I have been doing Body Pump on and off for years, and 30 day Shred for periods of time, and though I look quite lean I have not change my pear shape, I know I cannot fight genetics but I still want to try some other methods. And this is where I am now, I have just read New Rules of Lifting for Women, a book that emphasizes the importance of lifting heavy with smaller reps as opposed to lifting low with more reps which is more in the line of Body Pump lessons. I have just started recently, we will see where this brings me.
I also have to say that this process for me is been quite long. I changed my diet slowly giving up foods I consumed daily that I knew I could live without on a daily basis and now my diet is very clean, I cook almost everything from scratch and consume not so on plan foods on social gatherings. I also love exercises, I run, I use my bike or my feet to get to places whenever I can, I do spinning, yoga, belly dancing and I am fairly active during the day. As the other posters have said if you really want to change you have to have a goal in your mind and go for it, but you have to think if the goal is as important to you as to do the efforts needed. I know my fitness is my personal goal now and I am going for it.
I love body pump too! Butt squeezing is a wonderful idea! And so easy to perform!
if you really want to change you have to have a goal in your mind and go for it, but you have to think if the goal is as important to you as to do the efforts needed.
I have been struggling with my *** and thighs for quite a while now. Ok, struggling is maybe a bit strong word for it, but I have always had this huge bottom and have always wanted to make it smaller. The problem is my laziness and lack of discipline. I sit on my butt and eat all day long. It's quite sad. I exersize two-three days a week, like doing callanetics and now running too (I don't run when it's cold outside). My goal is to lose 13 pounds and get really fit. My challenge is not training - I love running and will probably do it every other day without a problem, but I have difficulties with daily eating routine. I eat almost all the time! I have also a problem with motivation - I don't know how to motivate myself to become this hottie I dream of becoming.... Please don't judge, here are the pictures of me front/back
I hope to get some critique or advice on how to get on track with eating in order to get to my goal.
I don't think your butt is huge. It might be larger than your bust, but that's just how your body is built, and you should accept ity as it is. I'm "pear-shaped" as well and have broad hips (and a pretty flat chest), but I accepted the fact that my hips are never going to be boyish, no matter how much weight I'm going to lose.
Besides that - it's much better to have a larger butt than a larger chest: butts don't bounce when the girl is running and don't get saggy when we become older
I think your shape is lovely!! But maybe because that is how I am shaped, and I always get tons of compliments. You look very curvy....lots of ins and outs and roundness. I probably sound weird, but you have the "ideal feminine body". It's not model skinny, or hipster thin. I think there are so many beautiful female body types, but I really am partial to the hourglass, and you've got it! :-)
Advice needed on ***-loss! Photo included.
