The Fulmer Stomach

Different people gain weight in different areas.  Some people have hips that get wider as they put on pounds and others put it on in their stomachs.  I am a member of the latter group.  I remember being young and doing lots of physical activities like gymnastics and cheer leading.  I was in fairly good shape and I am almost positive I didn't have any fat or flab on my stomach.  I don't completely remember though, because I never took the time to notice.  Ah, youth and innocence.

As I got into my twenties, I noticed my pants were fitting a little tighter around the waist.  I noticed I was getting a "fat stomach" and I didn't like it.  I talked to my mother.  I talked to my cousin.  We all agreed it was something called "The Fulmer Stomach," named so for our grandparents on my mother's side. 

As I was young, I remember feeling a little sad that I was plagued with this inheritance.  What a shame it was I had this stomach thing going on.  Darn my heritage.  Okay, I'm not sure I was completely throwing fault across the generations, but I wasn't stepping up and claiming full responsibility for the excess mid-section weight alone.  Not if I could blame genetics.  Not if I could keep eating donuts and cake.

Fast forward and eventually I became accepting of the stomach bulge.  I didn't like it, but it was difficult to get rid of.  I heard stories of how once you have the fat cells, they never go away, they just shrink.  Oh dear.  Oh well, I thought.  Eventually I became pregnant and that small bulge was nothing to the burgeoning belly of a pregnant lady.

After the babies and into the exercise phase of my life and I started to see the stomach recede.  I wasn't sure how much would go away though.  Things sure do stretch when you're pregnant.  Did it ever go back to normal?  And then there was the general pudge I'd had for a long time.  Getting fit and losing weight were all well and good, but would it make a difference in the stomach realm?

I hadn't thought about it in a long while because I was focused on weight loss in general, not in a specific area.  Then, I got sidetracked again because wow, I had abdominal muscles.  I am quite certain I had them as a teen but who cared back then, because, hey, BOYS!  So if I had ab muscles, I never noticed.

This morning after our Turkey Day Run I was standing on the scale and I realized I didn't have that "Fulmer Stomach" any more because I didn't have to lean far forward to see the readout.  For the first time in two decades, I don't have the Fulmer Stomach.  As it's Thanksgiving day, it was an unexpected thing to realize, and a definite thing I'm thankful for.

The Big Boy Update:  Hide and seek.  This morning, Nana played hide and seek with him.  He'd never heard of this game before, but children are inherently interested in hiding and being found.  While Nana counted, I helped him hide.  He understood he should stay still and wait to be found.  He loved it when he was found.  Then he and I went to the corner and counted together just like Nana told him to, while she hid.  He and I looked around until he found her.  He had a grin on the whole time.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  "No, really, potty.  I'm serious."  When I found her yesterday at the potty, those are the words I imagined her saying to me.  We've seen her play around the potty before.  We have even speculated that it might mean she needs to go and we've sat her down on it.  And sometimes she's gone then.  Yesterday in the middle of activities happening around the house, I saw her walk into the master for not really any reason.  I followed her in in a minute and found her in the master bathroom standing in the potty, going in her pants.  She went to the potty, but didn't know how to get her clothes off so she got the closest she could.  Note that her eleven-month older brother has not yet shown such incentive.

Fitness Update:  Turkey day run successful.  We had no idea how far we would run when we started.  I really wanted to be done several times early on, but that's how it usually goes.  When it got light we went into the park and made it to the top of half-mile hill as I like to call it since it's a switch-backing half mile ascent.  We made it home at a little over eleven miles.  Bring on the turkey and ham, folks, momma's hungry.

Someone Once Said:   There is nothing wrong with being scared…as long as you don’t let it affect you until the danger is over. Being hysterical is okay, too…afterwards and in private. Tears are not unmanly…in the bathroom with the door locked. The difference between a coward and a brave man is mostly a matter of timing.