I’m sad that I lost my flat stomach, but I’m happy that I know exactly how to get it back.

A few months ago my appendix almost ruptured and I had to have it removed. Since then, I’ve been sick with something else that has prevented me from being very active. At first, I thought I was recovering slowly from my appendectomy, but now I’m sure it’s something unrelated and it was just coincidence that it started right after I had appendicitis.

Anyway, I’m on all kinds of medication and waiting to see a specialist. In the meantime, I’ve been extremely bloated and after feeling my stomach, my doctor said my insides are all swollen. Thus, no flat stomach. However, I do have good days when I’m not feeling any bloating or pain, but my stomach is still flabby and yucky.

Obviously this is because I haven’t been getting any exercise. It just hurts too much.

Before this all started however, I wasn’t exercising much then either. At least, not in the form of going to the gym or running on the treadmill for hours at a time. Instead, I was dancing around the house like an idiot all day to my cranked music.

Sometimes I was just making my kids laugh with some goofy moves, but mostly it was belly dancing. My mom teaches belly dance and she taught me a few moves, so I would sometimes spend an hour or more doing them each day.

Talk about a great way to strengthen your core muscles!

Note: Focusing on exercising your abdominal muscles alone will not get you a flat stomach. You also need to burn the fat on top of those muscles with cardiovascular activity and keep it off by eating a healthy diet.

Thankfully, belly dancing strengthens muscles AND burns calories. Not only that, but it makes you happier. Since I haven’t been able to dance around my house like a fool, I’ve been depressed and unhappy. On the few good days I have, I turn up my music really loud and bust out the moves ’til I drop and I feel great!

So if you’re looking for a fun way to exercise (especially strengthening your core muscles) then look no further than your living room floor. Any kind of dancing is beneficial, but belly dancing is one of my favourites. YouTube has lots of belly dancing videos that teach you how to do the moves properly - and that’s the key. Doing these moves the right way means getting more out of your belly dancing workout.

Note: A lot of these videos don’t teach the techniques completely and leave out a lot of important information like proper posture and positioning. Here’s an example of a good one.

Guys, don’t think this is just for the ladies. There are male belly dancers as well. Try it out, it’s really fun. And if you can get to this point, let me know!