Just finished a combination set of chest press, chest flys and headbangers when a random guy makes the motion that he wants me to take out my ear buds so he can ask me something.

Now I’m usually very aware of all that goes on around me, so I had already noticed that he had walked in with a female. They were also very loud so they were hard to ignore.

But of course, I oblige out of curiosity and he seemed very intent on speaking to me. When I pull out my headphones, he asks me quite directly “As a woman if you do chest press will it make you lose your boobs… because my girlfriend is scared to do it because she is afraid she will lose what little she has.”

This is not the first time I have been asked this question and until I had done the work and experienced this myself I went through a similar fear.

It began when I first lost the weight and I noticed my boobs were shrinking. I panicked a bit. My boobs had been amazing, and I’m not embellishing they were plump and perky, someone actually described them as “firm yet supple” (yeah…. I’m not going any further with that one so don’t ask lol). But now they were… deflating.

I really had to have a long conversation with myself and decide right then and there if all of what I was doing was worth losing my boobs. The sad part is I had let myself be defined by boobs for such a long time that this was actually going to deter me from going after my goal.

But I decided to push on knowing that in changing my body I don’t have full control of what it does. It’s going to shape into its best form. And I had to accept that I would lose some boobage.

They shrank and lost their perk, but I noticed there wasn’t much of a change in my bra size, because as with the rest of the body, I was replacing the fat that makes up the breasts with muscle. And though muscle does weigh more than fat, it takes up less space and that’s how we look leaner and fitter.

I also noticed that they were sagging more because my skin was still in the stretched state, so they weren’t cupping the leftover fat as well. But guess what! My skin tightened up. I can’t tell you how long it took or when it happened because I actually stopped caring or worrying about it and just accepted it as my body. But my skin tightened up and my boobs lifted again. Yes, they were a little bit smaller but not a huge amount.

On a similar topic, I have trained a lot of women of all ages, sizes and activity levels. The one area that almost every one of them has asked me is; “How do I get rid of these chicken wing/flab flaps?” The area they are pointing to is the fat and extra skin around your triceps.

I have been able to help a lot of them reduce it and work on it, but here’s the thing, there are very few people who don’t have arm fat. I have thin muscular arms, but if I laterally lift my arm up without flexing it and wiggle it back and forth you will see my chicken wings/flab flaps. So I ask you, who told you that this wasn’t normal and that you need to get rid of them completely?

Yes, you can reduce them by building your biceps and toning your triceps through weight training and cardiovascular exercise, but please stop thinking they are just going to disappear.

Some areas of our bodies hold a little more fat for a reason.

In addition to tricep extensions, Bicep curls and push-ups try adding these two exercises to your routine to help you burn fat and tone.

Arm circles – 50 forward and 50 backward

Speed bag - Keep your arms up above eye level – try to do this for 1 minute.

Drinking water with healthy eating and exercise to tone your body will improve your skin. Your skin is going to respond to a healthily hydrated sweat. Look at dancers. Dancers have some the most toned bodies, whether they are doing tap, ballet, hip-hop or soca. Most of the dancers I know don’t lift weights. The flexibility training for their movements, the cardio of rehearsals and lifting their own body weight strengthens them, and of course, they SWEAT! Which as I’ve already said, tightens the skin so it grips their muscles so you can see each and every one of them!

So please drink lots of water and sweat it out. This will help your skin tighten as you tone your muscles and lose fat and will also give it a lovely health glow.

And for all you ladies worried about your hair…. STOP IT! Get your sweat on!