Monday 28 May 2012

No more body image issue!

Through my growing years, I was almost always the tallest girl. And I wasn't the skinny type of tall girl. And my closest girlfriends are all small and thin. In short, I have body image issues.

But now that I'm at my heaviest - a good 10kg over my usual weight, thanks to baby - I find that I'm loving my body very very much! In fact, I think I've never looked better!

Ok, maybe my wedding day. The makeup helped. The cut of the gown helped.

Anyway, I'm feeling very good about myself now. I was at first worried that I would balloon - I mean, I've seen Mother's pre-pregnancy photos... But I guess I must have inherited something good from my paternal grandmother after all - she's super skinny. No, I'm not skinny of course but the 10kg I've gained are mostly around my belly. My limbs are largely unaffected. My face is a little rounder but with makeup, I still look pretty! :)

And I love my belly. It's somewhat pointy from the side and round from the front. When I look down, it's mostly round but sometimes it can become forward pointy too! I've received compliments from even complete strangers about how pretty my belly is. I put it down to years of holding in my tummy to maintain a flat appearance - the muscles must be working to keep my pregnant belly tight and nice! I've taken to gazing at my belly when I massage it at night, wondering about the little life within :)

There are some recent setbacks though.. First, my pi zai. It got shallower since February. And suddenly it got flat in the past month or so. Now, there's now a mini bulge over my clothes *.* Will it pop? Will it not? We shall see...

The other setback is water retention. Now my legs are swollen from knee down. Given my size and height, the swollen calves are not very noticeable. But the feet! They are comically swollen, especially the left one. It hurts a little when I massage them at night. It hurts more when I'm out cos my slippers are too snug over the swollen foot, causing two nice blisters. I've been sleeping with my feet up but it doesn't help very much :( I guess I'll just have to live with it until mid July...

But oh well, who looks so carefully at my legs besides me?! Not even Sito haha! Oh, anyway, he has a swollen right foot so I'm accompanying him :) Reverse sympathy pain? :p

Despite feeling good about myself now, I've decided that I need to do certain things to ensure I shrink back after pregnancy.

I'm shopping around for postnatal jamu massage by trying out prenatal massages - chance to pamper my pregnant body :p Had my first prenatal massage last Monday. The lady spent time on my aches and pains. She even pushed baby up a bit - she thought I was carrying too low at 32 weeks - so that I could sit more comfortably after that. My pelvic pain also disappeared for four days after the massage. Tried another one today. I prefer her strength and structure of the massage, just that she doesn't touch the belly for prenatal. Both offer the same price for postnatal but the latter uses her own massage bed and towels! Probably going to use her - will decide by next week.

Also did a free trial pilates session this morning. During that hour, I got very, very sore. Why oh why did I have to punish myself like that?! But after the session, I felt so good! Love that feeling! So I bought 10 classes! I had a really cute instructor but I think I prefer to have a lady instructor. Strange hur, since my gynae is male... Anyway, prenatal pilates is to help with delivery. But this place offers postnatal pilates as well and my package can be used for that, which is good. I want to get back into shape of course but I also want to use pilates to correct my posture now and after giving birth; I think my posture is out of whack now with my belly sticking out in front!

Finally, we bought the Move accessories for our PS3! :)

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