Day 16: I think I lost my abs.

No, these are not my abs....I wish!

Yep.  I can’t find my abdominal muscles.  I think I must have misplaced them.  Oh yeah, I had a huge belly [thanks to my wonderful 9 lb 2 oz Ellis] for oh, around 9 months.  I guess they may have gotten stretched to smithereens. 

How did I find this out?  I can thank Mr. Tony Horton of P90X for that.  While doing one of the DVDs on yesterday morning, I found an exercise that was just ridiculously hard [ok, most are hard, but this one was whooooooa hard].  It’s called the Dreya Roll.  Here is how to do it:

1.       Stand up straight with your hands stretched above your head

2.       Bend and crouch down and put your butt on the floor

3.       Roll backwards onto your back and throw your legs straight into the air above you while lifting your butt and back off the ground

Oh, no, it gets harder than that.

4.       Roll yourself back upright

5.       Spring to your feet and stand up throwing your arms straight into the air above your head

And then if you REALLY want to go all Tony Horton on it

6.       Jump up

7.       Repeat.

Yeah, and they did something like 25 in the span of one minute!  Whoa.  I tried to do these.  I could do the first part, but when I tried to jump/stand up, I looked like an 80 year old trying to get up.  Jumping was totally out of the question.  My ab muscles are sooo weak!

When you are pregnant, the baby grows and shoves everything inside [like your organs] to the side.  This also elongates the abdominal muscles and can even make them separate!  Then, when you have the baby, your muscles don’t actually snap back into place like a rubber band, you have to work on them to become strong again.  I thought I was doing this but I guess I was wrong.  It took Tony and his evil Dreya Roll to point it out.

Oh to be 29 again, and be able to complete these kinds of exercises! 

I think I am going to have to get back into doing P90X’s Ab Ripper.  Yes, it is as scary as it sounds.  That’s 15 minutes of nothing but ab exercises…25 reps each.  Ouch!  I need this to get back to where I was though.  

Yikes!

I’ll leave you with one idea today.  Try to keep your abdominal muscles pulled in all day.  Or even for a few minutes at a time.  I’m doing it now actually! [Squeeeeeeze]  Maybe say you will keep them tight when you do your emails, or watch TV, or driveing home from work, or folding laundry.  [Squeeeeeeze]  This is helping to tighten and strengthen your abs.  It helps!  [Squeeeeeeeeze]  And hold your belly in too!

[Squeeeeeze]