Skin, Skin, Skin

I keep talking about it...

The thing that drives me CRAZY about my body...

So in being honest and putting it ALL out there with this blog, I am going to put "Before" pictures of my stomach on here. I don't know why I didn't think of doing this back on Dec. 27th to get the best "before" but better late than never.

I took the pictures this morning and will post them below.

I have mentioned ways to tighten the belly area- Eating Clean, RPM classes, ab exercises, etc and those are all well and good. They strengthen the muscles, but what about the SKIN????

So I went back to the web to do some research and I found some tips to help tighten skin. These tips would work for women that just had a baby too.

The website I am referencing from is: AllWomenstalk but most of the sites I found say the same thing.

12 ways to tighten skin after weight loss (they actually have 15 way listed):

1. Dont lose weight too quickly- *well for me this is too little to late sort of thing. I am past this point.

2. Use moisturizer Each day- Moisturizer will add up to 70% of moisture to your skin. It helps to maintain the elasticity as your body is shrinking. Cover your body HEAVILY in moisturizer each night before bed.

3. Moisturize your body before bed each night- when you put the moisturizer on at night, you may want to wear long sleeves and pants to keep it from coming off on your sheets. Doing this will also help hold in the moisture as you sleep at night.

4. Use a loofah and body scrub that really works- it says to use this twice a day. I think that is excessive. Once a day is good. I would just do it when you shower.

5. Scrub your skin at least 3x a week- when you scrub away that surface, you will help the skin underneath to regenerate quicker. I think this differs from #4 because she means to actually SCRUB where as #4 is basically a way to clean yourself daily.

6. Drink A LOT of water- this helps keep moisture in the skin and flush the toxins out. It also will give your skin a healthy feel and look.

7. Lift weights- self explanatory

8. Exercise as much as possible- You would think this goes with number seven, but when we talk about exercise, we are talking about sit ups, push-ups, running and anything else you can think of. When you are exercising, you will be building those muscles up. This will plump up your skin from the inside and give it that tighter appearance. When you exercise, you will be making sure you will not gain all the weight back that you just tried so hard to lose.

9. Massage your skin- massaging the skin will help build elasticity back up. You can use mustard oil to get the best results. Mustard oil will also help you have healthy glowing skin.

10. Do stomach crunches- duh!

11. Take up Yoga- they didn't really have a why here...but yoga is awesome.

12. Apply Preparation H- Many individuals who are looking to tone up their skin actually apply preparation-H to their skin as it will help to tighten it up. It contains lanolin in it, which will penetrate the skin.

13. Tighten your stomach muscles throughout the day- ok.

14. Start using collagen cream- Apply it 3x a day. Give it enough time to soak into your skin. I have St. Ives lotion that is collagen elastin enhanced. I had it in my bathroom cabinet so I started using it again because what the heck- I already had it!

15. Dont eat sweets or products that have Fructose syrup in them- they dont give a reason here, but this tip goes with my whole Eating Clean diet.

Ok... here it goes....

My current stomach pictures:

I have a lot of stretch marks from pregnancy AND being overweight so I have no idea how realistic it is to get a flat stomach without surgery.