I bet that title made you look. My post today is about stomachs, mainly because mine has been center-stage recently. I’m working to reduce the size of it. (on the outside) So, what is a stomach?
1. The stomach is a muscular organ. It can change its shape depending on the amount of food in it.
2. When you eat, food from your mouth goes down a tube called the esophagus into your stomach, where it is stored temporarily, then later digested. As the food arrives, the stomach wall starts its glands working. One type of gland gives off a mucus that lubricates the food. Other glands give off acids which kill any bacteria in the food; while still others give off special chemicals, called enzymes, to break down the food into tiny particles. (which sort of takes the shine off eating a chocolate bar!)
3. Tall, thin people usually have long, narrow stomachs, while short, stocky people have short, wide stomachs.
4. Most adults’ stomachs hold about one quart of liquid and food.
5. Once a female is past her teens, the stomach is naturally rounded.
6. Once you are an adult, your stomach pretty much remains the same size — unless you have surgery to intentionally make it smaller. Eating less won’t shrink your stomach. (I’m thinking that’s inside your body because outside you could lose some of the fat off it, right?)
7. I consulted my favorite characterization book, Building Believable Characters by Marc McCutcheon for some stomach descriptors. There are flabby stomachs, spare tire stomachs, love-handles.
8. beer-bellied stomachs
9. flat stomachs
10. middle-age spread stomachs
11. pendulous stomachs
12. toned stomachs
13. And my favorite – washboard stomachs.
14. Oh, and pregnant tummies. 
What do you think of stomachs? If you’re a writer what sort of stomachs do you give your heroes and heroines, your secondary characters? Do you like your stomach?
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!
View More Thursday Thirteen Participants
Related posts:
October 30th, 2008 at 4:05 am · Link
Umm… Let’s not get into what sort of stomach I have, okay? Let’s just say it’s…sufficient.
Fun and informative TT, btw. :)
Ciao!
October 30th, 2008 at 4:30 am · Link
Good blog, Shel. I always fall back on flat abs.
October 30th, 2008 at 5:44 am · Link
Umm, interesting facts LOL I love where your mind goes at times ! As for my own stomach…. I am so not going there.
Happy Halloween!
October 30th, 2008 at 6:22 am · Link
When it comes to stomachs, (at least how they LOOK) I’m in denial. That’s a better place for me to be.
October 30th, 2008 at 7:50 am · Link
Yeah, the title made me look twice. I’m working on making my fleshy bag smaller too. Not sure how much muscle is involved.
October 30th, 2008 at 8:29 am · Link
You always give me something to think about! Great post…
October 30th, 2008 at 8:38 am · Link
Lots of interesting facts there, Shelley! Happy Halloween! *hugs*
October 30th, 2008 at 11:47 am · Link
LOL! Interesting TT!
*hugs*
Paige
My TT is at http://tinyurl.com/4zejcp
October 30th, 2008 at 11:55 am · Link
Í’m liking my stomach much better these days. It’s unique since it has a scar from an accident when I was 21. I’m stuck with the scar so I’ve come to live with it.
October 30th, 2008 at 11:57 am · Link
The places your mind goes boggles me sometimes. LOL Thank you for not sharing any truly disgusting facts as you surely could have with such a topic.
October 30th, 2008 at 1:59 pm · Link
Would you believe I’ve actually considered this for most of the cast at my place?
I’m either thorough or mentally deranged. I’d prefer the former…
October 30th, 2008 at 3:50 pm · Link
LOL! What a great, original post! That’s my least favorite body part, but I loathe sit ups and like cookies way too much!
October 30th, 2008 at 3:56 pm · Link
Hi Shelley!
I am roughly 58 inches tall… 
Bye bye nice tummy 
I love pregnant tummies too. hehe Sadly, mine was 51 inches around with both pregnancies.
Very interesting topic!
October 30th, 2008 at 5:54 pm · Link
Interesting post. We don’t really acknowledge all that our stomach does… not unless it’s a sore spot, then we focus on it quite a bit. lol
October 30th, 2008 at 5:54 pm · Link
Heather – LOL – I didn’t want to put myself off dinner so I kept things fairly clean!
Susan – nah, never deranged!!
Nancy – I thought it was an orginal topic. No one else ever blogs about stomachs…
Colleen – Yep, tummies aren’t the same with a pregnancy.