By: Ashley M. Otero
I hate these, I really do. I hate working out and thoroughly believe anyone who claims otherwise is lying. I am what the Showtime series Weeds (@SHO_weeds) has once referred to as ‘skinny fat’. Skinny fat is when you are thin but flabby or not toned, I am thin so people assume I’m healthy however, I of course have my problem areas and I do not take care of them. My issue with exercise being, I think exercise is too time consuming and I really have no idea what I’m doing. I can watch Netflix for hours but 100 crunches… have you lost your mind? I tried to start yesterday and I got through maybe 25 crunches before I thought “why don’t I just flex my abs instead?” Then while I was laying there I thought “I need wine.” Then I quickly devolved into laying there, drinking wine and watching tv, it all went downhill very quickly. I also decided to time myself while I planked and I got through not even 10 seconds before I caved. All of this got me to thinking, perhaps I am trying to go from 0 to 60 too quickly, even the fastest car needs a little warm up. So I jumped on Pinterest (where all good things come from) and started searching various 30-day AB specific challenges. This is the one that stuck out to me probably because day one looks like nothing:
However, you will note that it increases fairly rapidly and looks pretty beast at the end which will ideally work in my favor to tone me up in my ‘problem area’.
To begin July, which happens to be my birthday month, I will commit to doing this Ab challenge and invite anyone else out there with some extra tummy to join in as well.
I have to give a major shout out here to a good friend of mine who recently caught himself out of breath while climbing up a set of stairs and decided right then and there to make a change, my dear friend Joey Nowlin! Inspiration to all who know him as we saw the progress being made first hand and he succeeded by himself with nothing but dedication and hard work. (Jose.Rollins on IG). Joey dropped over 40 pounds and is now not just in shape but super hot!!
Here is my current tummy situation:
(Apologies for the massive zoom on that untanned tummy.)
And here I was about 4 years ago when I was obsessed with Kayaking::
I will post an update at the half way mark and I invite anyone else to post some good before and after’s of their own previous progress or current progress for extra motivation! Hopefully by the end of July I will have something a little sexier for you all to gawk at! #SkinnyFat
Also here is some extra work for all you over achievers out there: