oh the places I can reach....

As anyone who has ever been as...ummm...voluminous...yeah, voluminous...as I have been knows - sometimes reaching things - especially on your own body - can be difficult. I could barely put my arms down at my sides - they were at constant 45 degree angles from my body because of my fluff!You can't bend your arms or legs as far as you need to for certain things. Try scratching your back, bending over to tie your shoes or pick up your golf ball - when you're absolutely rotund! Forget about it. It is nearly impossible. Picking things up off the floor would often require an all out body bobbing motion, where I'd just pray I grabbed the thing on my first try.

As large and in charge people, we have more creases and folds on your body to get to! It is an issue in a million different ways - getting dressed, scratching an itch and even cleaning yourself. When I was at my biggest, there were just so many places it was difficult to get to. There were times when getting showered felt like I'd just had a workout with all of the strenuous stretching. Let's face it - there is nothing worse than a person that smells, and the bigger you are the harder it is to get everything scrubbed up. (here I go again with the over-sharing) An itch on my back would require me to go into Ed-Mode (my grandpa) and find a good corner to scratch it on. It is ridiculous, but there were just a lot of spots on my body that I couldn't see, or easily reach.

But I noticed something the other day. I can reach places on my body that I couldn't before. (get your mind out of the gutter =)) I can actually reach the majority of my back. I first noticed it when I was trying to put my sports bra on too soon after my shower, and it was rolled up into a tube at my shoulder blades (ladies...you've probably been there...is there anything worse?). Typically I would have to take the bra off, and start over again - which is no easy feat itself. But I noticed that I could bend my arm in such a way that I could actually reach it behind my back and pull it down. I don't remember that last time I could do that. Seriously. When I started FC I could barely hook my fingers behind my back to stretch. Now I can reach up to my shoulder blades? Amazing.

There are so many times where I don't feel like I'm noticeably smaller. Where I don't really feel like I've changed much physically. And then I have moments where I realize I can do things I couldn't before. And it is usually something that so many people take for granted - like being able to reach the middle of your back. Things that are nothing most people would never even consider as an issue are the moments I realize how far I've come. It's nice to have little reminders every once in a while.

I think maybe it is my body's way of telling me to get my ass back to the gym. It knows there are a ton of cool things coming our way, and would like to get there sooner or later. My body gets pretty impatient sometimes.