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Jun 1
Pants with Buttons. Who Knew?
That's right.Buttons.
And zippers.
I haven't needed the use of these pesky tools for quite some time. I gave birth 5.5 months ago, but I enjoyed the use of my maternity jeans up until yesterday. You see, maternity jeans have this wicked awesome elastic technology that expands as your belly grows, but also accommodates a post baby belly in a slimming fashion. To complement the jeans, I bought a few pairs of slacks, a few sizes up. I'm happy to report that those slacks are now too big and I squeezed into one of my pre baby jeans this morning.
I gave myself the goal of June 1. No more maternity jeans.
Moms out there know what it feels like to finally be out of your tank tops and yoga pants stage. This is when you're ready to bring back your tank tops, tight jeans and sassy outfits. Then your physical self catches up with your mental self - nothing fits. Not only that, but you don't want to buy yet another wardrobe for your new body (I realize my hips won't be the same). Workouts are hard to get in, your metabolism is slower and the weight you dropped breast feeding seems to have plateaued. Fabulous.
I adore my little girl and I marvel at how my body produced this amazing little creature. I also believe that my body is my temple. I allowed myself the time to psychologically get back in tune with who I am and where I want to be. As much as I'd love to get my booty back in fighting shape, I'm more about the energy I need to keep trucking after a full day of work. I'm thinking about the core muscles I need to improve - especially when lifting Lily. I think about the elasticity of my skin and the flexibility of my hamstrings.
Getting back to the gym when I can, in addition to my healthy eating habits are slowly paying off. Keyword 'slowly'. As the process continues, it's a welcome reminder that I may be a mama, but I shouldn't forget about taking care of little ole' me - which includes working towards fitting into a few body hugging dresses for summertime.
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May 13
When I Was Seven, I Danced - My Hips Didn't Do 360 Degree Thrusts.
What in the world is going on?
(the video in question is below)
I come home to a husband telling me about a crazy dance video, featuring seven year old little girls. The performance they gave was more than typical. These gals enter a dancing competition, scantily clothed, dancing to the tune of Beyonce's 'Put a Ring On It'. I sat on our couch, holding Liljana with one hand, while clicking YouTube on my iPhone with the other. What I saw made my jaw drop. Tears followed. Then anger.
For those of you that don't know, I danced quite a bit back in the day. I wasn't professionally trained, but my hobby was dance. I entered dance competitions in high school, choreographed routines and lived in hip hop eight counts. When you pick up a new routine, there may be steps or movements that are completely new to you - this is normal. It takes your body a while to understand a new pivot, beat or complicated maneuver (I once had the balls to bounce myself off of my hands by throwing myself forward and using nothing but my wrists to get me back up. Our dance crew won that year). Once you get that step down, it becomes part of your dance lexicon for a long period of time - it almost rolls off of you everywhere you go.
I decided to take a closer look at this horrible video and see how the girls reacted to certain dance steps, along with lyrics in the song.
At :24, you see the girls shake the tatas they don't have
At :26, you see one of the girls thrust herself out in a New Dance show style of pumping. Note: in 'dance battles', this move is sometimes done to 'show up' your competition in a circle.
At :31, the rest of the crew gets in a line and continues the pumping
More gyrating ensues, with a few leg kicks here and there for the next frames
At 1:38, the girls form a row and bend down in a seductive S-curve
At 1:44, a pyramid is formed and the front girl leads the thrusting charge and has a look on her face of 'work' and determination. These facial features are TAUGHT. A seven year old does not inherently think they should be making this face. Is it because they saw Beyonce do this? Or, did their dance teacher give them the direction of, 'Show that angry face, girl. Work it!' Does the little girl know what she's working for?
At 1:47, this gets scary. The entire crew completes full hip gyrations down to the floor, all while posing with some come hither looks on their faces.
Why did I break down this video? Because I wanted to get a clear sense of how things girls were taught. It is apparent that their moves and facial expressions were NOT NATURAL. Whether they watched too many music videos (which I did, sure, but I was in my teens) or were coached by some adult that wanted a trophy in their dance showcase, this performance was far from 'dance'. The only real dancing included a few spins, random jazz hands and some actual eight counts.
Shame on the parents for letting their girls do this.
Oh, for the record. When I was freshman, I wore biker shorts and a shiny top. The next year, I wore jeans overalls and a bikini top underneath. My overalls were spray painted with a light bulb and the formula, E=mc2. I was the 'nerd' in the group.
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