HELLOwaist: Carli and Ally on their second week of waist-training

Week two of Kim Kardashian-style waist-training led to some shocking discoveries. 1) Sugar can be a waist-trainer’s best friends... and heady addiction. 2) Wearing your corset upside down can really slow your progress. Keep up-to-date on our journey by following the #HELLOwaist hashtag on Beelike.com.

Carli Whitwell, Senior Writer, @carliwhitwell:

I have a confession to make… and it’s an embarrassing one. Turns out, I was wearing my waist trainer upside down for the first 10 days of this challenge.
Here’s how I found out. It was about 3:30 pm on a Friday and we were eating cake at the Hello! Canada offices. (Sadly, this isn’t a regular occurrence; it was senior editor Michael Killingsworth’s birthday.) I had completed my eight-hour stretch of training, so took off my corset and was demonstrating to a friend how to button it up.
That’s when Ally noticed my mistake. “That’s how you’ve been wearing it? That’s upside down!”
I’m left-handed, so the only explanation I can think of is that I found it easier to clasp the hooks on the corset when it was upside down. Also, for some reason I thought the tag should be at the bottom. (To my credit, I was in a sinus cold-induced haze at the time.) Thanks to my waist-training partner-in-crime Ally for pointing out my gaffe and only teasing me about it a little. :)

Now that I’m waist training the right way, I’m noticing a huge difference. There are two settings on every corset and this past weekend I cinched it to the tighter setting. And, just yesterday, Ally and I decided we are going to go down to a size smaller for the second half of this month-long experiment. (Scarlett O’Hara, he we come!)
I’ve been keeping up my four-days-a-week fitness regimen but, to be honest, have yet to wear my corset during my sweatfests. I’m a little nervous that I may pass out. So, I’m going to keep it on for my weekly “Muscle Up” class this Thursday and will keep you posted.
The good news is, even without wearing it during exercise, I can say that my waist trainer has upped my abs game, which has always been the Jan Brady of my fitness routine. Instead of lying on the couch watching Bloodline after work, I’ve been pulling out my yoga mat and doing crunches and sit-ups… while watching Bloodline after work!

It’s been said it takes 21 days to break a habit, but maybe it takes 21 days to make one, too. I think my body is slowly becoming used to wearing a corset. I know this because previously – and perhaps because it was upside-down – I used to watch the clock until I could unbutton my waist trainer.
Today, I just realized it’s about half-an-hour past the time I’m “allowed” to remove it and I feel like I can keep going. And that, my friends, is progress!

Ally Dean, Fashion & Beauty Editor, @allyedean:

Here is the thing about waist training: overall you’re less hungry. But, I’ve found myself eating much more bad-for-you food than I would without my midsection on lockdown. You know the kind of food that get’s a “Stop” sign on the poster at your dentist’s office (think cakes, cookies, chips and candy). It seems my corset creates a mental free pass to indulge – a dangerous past time when you work in an office inundated with treats. Forget a sizeable kale and quinoa salad, I’ve no room for that. But a handful of leftover Easter chocolates? Yes please. I shall eat one fist full ever hour, on the hour.
This high-calorie reward system is my version of the mental ‘pat on the back’ athletes give themselves after a sweat session. Some may honour an hour on a Pilates reformer with a carb-laden dinner but, for me, I applaud my 8+ hours of being strapped into my waist-trainer by elbowing colleagues away from a plate of homemade brownies stuffed with Cadbury cream egg. (Yes, that was a real delicacy crafted by our Editorial Assistant, Nicole Carrington).

The takeaway is that my corset is turning me into a sugar-wired, nutrition-deficient monster. My focus now isn’t just on strapping into my corset, but on strapping into my corset and veering away from all sweets, treats and generally unhealthy food options (after I polish off this delivery of macarons, naturally).
Despite my newfound sugar addiction, the waist trainer still seems to shrink my waistline. In fact, as this week comes to an end I had to call up my friends at Hourglass Angel and ask them to send another, smaller corset!
With a sugar ban and smaller cincher on the horizon, here’s hoping I don’t fall into a sugar-deficient, perma-bad mood next week.