My Before and After Pictures

Okay, so go back and watch this video that I posted the other day, otherwise none of this is going to make any sense to you. To recap, the video was showing how some of those "BEFORE" and "AFTER" photos that people do are actually created within a span of a few hours (with the "AFTER" shot taken first, and the "BEFORE" shot taken afterward). So I set out to do it for myself (and for the entertainment of all of you).

I went to Body Pump at the YMCA in the morning, and then came home and had my 8-year-old daughter take the "AFTER" picture. A couple hours later, I realized I hadn't greased up for the picture, like I had wanted to do. I decided not to go back and re-do it, because it took several shots to get one that I was happy with. And, really, how many times can I say to my daughter, "Here, take some more pictures of Mommy flexing." (Do you think any other mother in the universe is having their daughter take over 20 pictures of them flexing? My kids are SO lucky!)

Okay, so then later I went to Mom's Night Out, where there was a wide array of food that I ate throughout the night (chips and dips, cheese, egg rolls, s'more cupcakes, cookies, salad, a carbonated pink lemonade drink, chocolate, mini carrot cake cupcakes, popcorn, etc.). Then I came home, woke my husband up at 1:30 in the morning, and had him take the "BEFORE" picture. (Do you think any other husband in the universe is being woken up at 1:30 in the morning to take pictures of his wife and her bloated belly? He is SO lucky!)

So, without further ado, here it is:

Some tidbits about the photos:

1) Yes, I am sucking my gut in, in the "AFTER" picture (or, as I like to call it, flexing my ab muscles).
2) I think I might look more "pregnant" than "fat" in the "BEFORE" picture.
3) I didn't bother photoshopping anything in the "AFTER" photo. Or tanning. Too lazy.
4) I didn't purposely eat more than I normally eat at a Mom's Night Out because I knew I was doing this photo thing. That is just how I normally eat at a Mom's Night Out (which means that I look like this AT LEAST once a month, people! AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH!)

So, this just goes to show that image means nothing. We are all much more than our outside appearances.

Or, in the wise words of the wonderful Justine Bateman, "You look how you look, and you look (bleep)ing great."