Tag Archives: pre pregnancy body

HOTPANTS™: An update

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Okay, so as some of you will know, I have taken up the challenge to lose some if not all (ahem, maybe ambitious) of my baby weight by sweating it out in HOTPANTS™.  For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, have a quick read of this… okay, all done? now we’re all up to speed.

So, I haven’t actually made room in my life for proper exercise.  In between looking after baby, looking after the cat, looking after the house, looking after the husband, and kind of looking after me (pretty much in that order), popping off to the gym or having a run around the park is laughably unrealistic.  Hence, I have had to make do with wearing my HOTPANTS™ just during everyday whizzing about and sometimes in bed, asleep.

Last week, the first week of my challenge, I wore them every single day for somewhere in between 4 and 8 hours a day.  A couple of nights I wore them to bed and slept in them (Richmond Daddy was not overly impressed by this, but regardless I persevered).  While I wasn’t attending spinning classes or zumba-ing and the like, I did try to power-walk everywhere I went and run up and down the stairs and reach and stretch that extra bit when busying around the house doing chores etc.

I think having the HOTPANTS™ on did also make me think twice about scoffing chocolate hob nobs and drinking wine, so I probably ate more healthily overall: although at the weekend I did scoff a few cakes at the Richmond NCT Cheeky Monkeys Tea Party, but that was for charity, so it doesn’t count.  Ahem.

In case you’re wondering, the HOTPANTS™ are actually pretty comfy and easy to wear under your normal clothes.  Even on the really hot days we had last week I was able to wear them and march about in them without passing out in the heat.  I didn’t feel sweaty in them but when I peeled them off I realised I was pretty sweaty (ugh, sorry, bit gross, but I want to give an honest account of my experience!).  I also found that when wearing them I drank a lot more water as I felt a lot thirstier than usual and consequently went to the loo more frequently!

Right, so the update you’ve all been waiting for, one week on and what are the results?!?

1) I appear to have lost 1lb.  Not exactly setting the world on fire, but it’s a loss none the less and given that I haven’t really drastically changed my diet or exercise routine, I probably couldn’t really expect miracles.

2) My stomach definitely appears to be flatter than it was.  I didn’t take my measurements at the start so can’t compare them before/after, but I do feel that my tummy is more streamlined that it was a week ago and I’m able to get into my pre pregnancy trousers with a lot more ease than previously, which is great.

3) My skin on tummy/bum/thighs feels amazingly smooth and soft.  I can’t entirely understand why this may be as a result of the HOTPANTS™ but I have read reports from other bloggers that they are experiencing the same thing.  Either way, this is a positive!

All in all, while I would have liked to have seen more weight loss, at least I am heading in the right direction.  After not wearing them at all yesterday (because I was a bit cross about not really having lost anything majorly of note), I did wear them overnight last night and for most of today and I’m going to keep at it to see what results a second week of wear may bring.

In the meantime, if you fancy giving them a go, you can purchase a pair direct from this website for £44.99 and if you use my unique voucher code – BIANCACOX – you’ll get 10% off at checkout (and I will get £4 for every pair sold).

HOTPANTS™: The Challenge Begins

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It’s been a very long time since I wore hot pants, I remember having a particularly gorgeous pair when I was about 17 years old and a size 8 (how I sigh at the memory…) and they were lime green (ahem, yes lime green), from Benetton, and were the kind of thing I will not be letting my daughter go out in when she’s a teenager. Actually, I won’t be letting my daughter go out at all when she’s a teenager, far too risky, so the issue of what she might wear won’t be a problem. Ahem.

Anyway, thankfully my new mission to lose weight and tone up post pregnancy does not involve trying to squeeze my way back into said lime green hot pants, frankly that would be a mission impossible that not even Tom Cruise could take on. No, this mission will be facilitated by HotPants™, the brainchild of one Dessi Bell who developed the product after researching the technology that could help her maximise the effect of her workout during her limited time schedule.

I received my free pair to trial last week. They basically look like a pair of cycling shorts made from what feels like wetsuit material. Interesting. Since the postie dropped them off, they’ve sat on the dining room table untouched except by the cat, who found them rather cosy to sleep on… Anyway, brushing the cat hairs off this morning, I am ready to begin the trial and thus my new weight-loss and tone-up challenge.

So, how do they work you ask? – well, apparently they are embedded with Celu-Lite™ technology and they “work hard to reflect your natural body heat to promote deeper warming of your tissue leading to up to 80% more perspiration”. The claim is that by wearing them when working out, or even just when going about your daily business, they help flush out the toxins and fat cells that contribute to the appearance of cellulite. Sounds très bon, no? And get this, you can even wear them while you sleep! – sounds like my kinda way to lose weight… brings new meaning to the term “you snooze you lose” eh?!

I have high hopes that the HOTPANTS™ will work, not least because (a) I’m lazy when it comes to exercise, (b) I have no will power when it comes to food, and (c) it’s tough to really find time to dedicate to working-out when you have a 20 week old baby to care for and a house that frequently looks like a bomb’s hit it unless I tidy up daily (and being a Virgo, I can’t NOT tidy up daily… OCD, moi?! maybe a bit). And so, today, on a Monday morning – well, you’ve got to start at the beginning of a week on these things right? – exactly 20 weeks post Richmond Baby’s arrival in the world (20 weeks?!?! where does the time go?!), I am going to begin.

I have weighed myself this morning. I am going to declare here and now that I am coming in at 11stone 4lbs: ouch. Not good. So, ultimately I want to lose a stone (would be good to lose more but let’s start with smaller achievable goals eh?!), but it would be great to lose 5lbs in the first few weeks at least so I can dip down below the 11stone mark and not feel quite so much like a lard ass.

I will be blogging about my progress and experiences of using/wearing HOTPANTS™ – so if you’re in any way interested, then swing by and take a look. In the meantime….

If you’re keen to get your hands on a pair of HOTPANTS™ and see if they can work their magic for you, they retail at £44.99 and you can purchase from www.zaggora.com And here’s the good news, you can get 10% off if you use my unique voucher code – BIANCACOX – at checkout (and Zaggora will pay me £4 for every pair sold using my code, which is great given that statutory maternity pay doesn’t exactly set the world on fire…!)

Right, so first opportunity to wear them is on my weekly powerwalk to Gymboree – here’s hoping I don’t arrive a sweaty mess… I’ll be weighing myself this time next week to see what a difference a week in HOTPANTS™ has made, so… watch this space.

PS. in case you need further convincing to buy a pair, let me tell you that they donate a % of all their earnings to Cancer Research, bravo.

You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone…

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My body:  discuss.  Sigh… Pre pregnancy I used to moan at myself and long-suffering Richmond Daddy that being a size 12 was not where I wanted to be in life.  I was still living with the memory of my super-skinny could eat anything I want and not put on weight self that I was in my teenage years.  Given I’m now in my mid 30s I clearly needed to wise up.  What I wanted were lithe, toned arms like Jennifer Aniston, a firm butt like Kylie, a toned tummy a la Cheryl Cole and what did I do about it? – nothing but sit on my a**e eating cupcakes and wishing that exercise and a sensible diet weren’t the primary requirements of an A-list bod.  But, by and large, I kind of got away with it.

Well, now I realise I never had it so good.

This week I have been undertaking the tedious task of packing away my maternity clothes (particularly glad to see the back of non-underwired bras, Gok would not approve of what they do to your bangers), which are by and large too big for me now, and unpacking and reinstating my pre-pregnancy clothes; which are frankly miniscule despite the size 12/M label and god knows how I’ll ever fit into them again!?!

I appreciate that I am only 10 weeks post birth, but patience is not one of my virtues.  Okay so I had an excuse for the first 6-weeks having had a c-section and all that, but now, I know, deep down, that if I didn’t keep “treating” myself to hob nobs and catching up on all the wine drinking I missed out on over the past 9-months, I might now be in better shape all-together.  Sigh.

In my head I think I’m doing okay.  Then I see photographic evidence to the contrary.  More sighs.  And then I look at pre pregnancy photos, which once I would have despaired at, now I look at with longing in the hope I might one day be vaguely that size again.  Actually I’d like to be smaller than that size but let’s be realistic here…

So, positive action is needed.  Exercise is a must.  And so is going cold turkey on hob nobs.  I have a wedding to attend on the 4 June and I at least want to have lost a few pounds by then (if not least to counteract the pounds the camera puts on).  So this week am going to kick-start phase one of a new me fitness regime that will involve lots of buggy-pushing long walks around Richmond (not stopping frequently to peruse and purchase cute baby clothes in the shops); am going to start doing Power Plate classes again; and am also going to sign up for a mother and baby yoga course.  That’ll do for now… maybe giving up hob nobs can be phase two….