Since, I'm on a break from NBE right now, I thought I'd at least update you ladies on my corsetting. I hate to admit it, but I've been really, really inconsistent and haven't made any progress. Part of the reason is that I'm just plain lazy and a I'm a big baby when it comes dealing with any kind of long term discomfort, but I do have two slightly more "legitimate" reasons for being so inconsistent.
One big reason is that this particular corset looks extremely weird under almost every kind of clothing. Even if I were comfortable with the idea of every random stranger knowing that I'm wearing unusual lingerie (which I'm not ok with), it just looks flat out ugly under normal modern clothing. Apparently most corsets don't work with pants, especially jeans, but usually you can wear them with a relatively slinky dress and not look strange. My corset, however, probably won't work with anything short of a full on Victorian ball gown. Doll if you're reading this, you are super lucky for finding corset that's so easy to hide. Also, you are kicking my butt with you're dedication to waist training
The other reason that I can't wear my corset during the day is that I have a long history of stomach pain issues. My stomach usually hurts after at least one of my three meals, every single day, and the pressure from the corset just intensifies it. If I wear my corset to bed, I can make sure most of my food has left my stomach before lacing up.
Enough with excuses
I've decided I'm finally going to start following the roller coaster training method from Romantasy. I'll try to explain how it works. Basically, you start off with a 2 inch reduction and then follow a two week cycle, starting with only 2 hours per day, and finishing with 8 hours per day. You even get to take one day off per week. After that, you only reduce by 1/2" per 2 week cycle. For beginning waist trainers, it supposedly gives the same amount of reduction you would get by doing 23/7 training (about 1" per month for the first few months), but it's much easier and more convenient. Here's 3 weeks worth of a sample training plan for a 28" waist copy/pasted from Romantasy's site:
Week 1-Mon.,Tues.,Weds. - Measure over corset 26 inches and wear for two hours; Thurs.,Fri.,Sat. - Measure over corset 26 inches and wear for four hours
Week 2-Mon.,Tues.,Weds. - Measure over corset 26 inches and wear for six hours; Thurs.,Fri.,Sat. - Measure over corset 26 inches and wear for eight hours
Week 3-Mon.,Tues.,Weds. - Measure over corset 25.5 inches and wear for two hours; Thurs.,Fri.,Sat. - Measure over corset 25.5 inches and wear for four hours
Romantasy says that the roller coaster method doesn't work for more advanced waist trainers who have already reached a fairly large reduction. That means that I'll eventually have to switch to a 23/7 schedule. For that I'll probably need to switch to some kind of waspie (a narrow corset that's still wider than a corset "belt") because it can be easier to hide under clothes and allows much more freedom of movement. At the same time, it can't be too narrow or it'll apparently have all the same issues that a long-line corset has under clothing (odd shape, tummy bulge), plus the additional problem of the pain from too much pressure distributed over a smaller area. I hope I hit the sweet spot next time I buy a corset. I can't wear a waspie yet because even though I'm not that fat, I'm too weak and soft like a marshmallow, and my flesh will just squeeze out like tooth paste along the top and bottom edge
I've been working on finally getting fit. Let's just hope I stay committed and don't embarrass myself. Next year, that waspie will be my reward to myself, hopefully along with a much bigger new bra