A GUEST BLOG BY ERICA WILLICK
With all the fashion trends of the summer showcasing midriff baring outfits or peak-a-boo cutouts in clothes, the innie/outtie belly button is getting more of a spotlight.
More than once I have received a message from a woman asking about whether I have an innie or an outtie belly button. You may think that's odd, but it's actually worth a short blog post. You see, I used to have a cute little innie belly button and now it's more of an outtie.
What happened?
That. Twice.
Two pregnancies. Two huge bellies. And so an innie now sort-of an outtie belly button.
Don't worry. I know I have a flat tummy & it looks good. I don't think my belly button is deformed & I'm not fishing for compliments here. Let's stay focussed on belly buttons for a second. It's to make a point.
Our bodies after our babies are simply never (ever) the same.
Whether we have stretch marks, saggy boobs from nursing, pee when sneezing (though that can be helped), or a different shaped navel - getting into "pre-baby" shape or "body back" after kids is just a stupid talk. We moms are always post-partum. Get with the program stupid-talking-fitness-programs! (OK...rant ended to be more productive for rest of post).
So get this...I fitness model (Read: take a vacation day from my real job to get my hair & make-up done & have my picture taken while working out...fun!), and in one issue of an internationally popular print magazine my mommy-belly-button was air-brushed to a perfect innie....
WTF.
Yeah. That actually happened.
Was my sorta innie-storta-outtie mommy belly button so deformed that it needed digital help??? Does an out-of-shape belly button warrant an airbrush bootcamp? To the graphic artist on that spread it did. Mercy.
Ironically this same magazine didn't airbrush my belly button in most of my spreads with them. I appreciate that (I guess). Even in this same issue I was in a different workout spread and the graphic artist was either different (and that one appreciated a droopy navel), or was the same one but just too worn out from airbrushing my belly button throughout the other spread. Haha. :)
Nonetheless, I adore my now mostly outtie belly button. I see it as a badge of hard-earned honor. My only concern these days is whether I'm too old to follow those midriff baring fashion trends >> Me in Urban Outfitters yesterday "Do I look like a mid-thirties woman trying to be a young twenty-something in this outfit?"
Oh well...I'll just take a selfie in my new Urban Outfitters flowy tee + peak-a-boo bra...along with the laugh lines around my eyes & a baby-making outtie belly button ;) #sorrynotsorry #fitmomsrock
