I recently lost 35 pounds.( Sept. 18- Jan. 1) My goal is to lose a total of 50 lbs. by May 1, 2008. I' m working hard to get down to my fighting weight for the pageant. Everyone says I look fabulous right now. I agree. However, I am a competitor in a competition. In order for me to feel confident that I am competitive, I need to get these last 25 pounds off. When I strut my 47 year old stuff on the same stage as women half my age, believe you me, I will be at the pinnacle of my game.

Which brings me to the subject of the dreaded arch enemy of woman kind everywhere, cellulite. I hate cellulite! How do you even pronounce it? Is it sell-yoo-leet, or sell-yoo-lite? Cellulite is as hard to get rid of as it is to pronounce.  It' s another name for horrible fat, which is easy enough to pronounce. And easy to get rid of. Cellulite is another kind of alien fat. Make no mistake. I was told by an expert in anti-aging medicine that cellulite is a kind of trapped, encapsulated fat. Ugghh! That sounds like it looks bad. I have an unmovable mound of this nasty fat at the top of my right thigh. No matter how much weight I lose. No matter how many hundreds of thousands of miles I log spinning. No matter how many weighted squats I do, it stays there, glaring at me in the mirror. I am tired of seeing it so I got some professional advice on how to loose it' s vise-like grip and be ready for the swimsuit competition by May 17.

As you know I' m not a fan of lipo suction or surgery. This means I have to try a non-invasive, more holistic technique. Enter vibra massage and Curves Thigh Trimmers. Dr. Jackie' s erstwhile massage therapist,  Jowali, informed me that the main non-surgical treatment for cellulite is massage. She explained that you have to loosen up and break up the trapped fat in order to have a smoother appearance. She advised me to massage the areas daily. This caused me to think way back  to the Elancyl method. All it was was a plastic nubby mitt that you used with a gel in the shower. But hey, it worked along with my diet and exercise routine to lessen the appearance of the cellulite on my thighs. So, I am taking this expert advice and massaging my thighs with a vibrating massager. 10 minutes a day on each thigh. I have also purchased Curves Thigh Trimmers. They are the same ones that you use to make your waist sweat only a little smaller. I used them today and my thighs did sweat more. They also seemed to support my legs during the many tortuous squats and lunges of the PowerFlex class this morning. I guess if I really want to be scientific about this I could measure my thighs and keep track of my inch loss over the next month. Or I can take before and after pictures. etc. I don' t know if I want to be that scientific though.

This goes back to the basic premise of all my beauty articles. If you feel like you' re doing something, you' re doing something. If I focus on reducing my cellulite, it will appear reduced. If you feel beautiful, you are beautiful. Perception is everything. Today, I wanted to share a common experience and my approach to dealing with it. There are many, many more advanced approaches to cellulite reduction and even eradication. I' m on a budget though. So call me Beauty on a Budget. I' ll let you know how my thighs look in about a month. Stay tuned!

Update- 3-18-08

Low and behold the treatment seems to be working! I massage my upper thighs for 15 minutes a piece with the large massager (stop that snickering!) and wear the thigh trimmwers while working out. My upper thighs look a lot better.