Now let's talk about another fun topic!

Body image.

Here's another truth for you - no one human being is capable of looking into a mirror and seeing what they really look like. For giggles, try and visualize the details of your own face, or a loved one's face. It's very hard, isn't it? No matter what you do, you can't get the little bits and pieces of your own image to quite line up, right? I don't mean the far away pose your brain memorized after seeing it in a photo...I mean how you really look. Freckles, zits, stray hairs, wrinkles, gray and all.

Yeah, I thought so.

Psychology Today (in conjunction with someone getting their PHD) did a study a few years ago that said that most people see themselves as 20% heavier than they actually are. I certainly remind myself this every time I look in the mirror - I'm at a good weight, I'd like to be thinner, but I know the health complications that occur when I drop below a certain weight, and I'm not going there. But honestly, when I look at myself I really don't see that.
Just like many of us, I have the Words From the Past echoing in my head: your hips are too big, if you had bigger boobs no one would mention your stomach fat, your legs are too scrawny, your nose is too big. We all have this litany, and we use it to beat ourselves up with whenever we feel low or happen to catch an unflattering glimpse of ourselves in the mirror.

We go through phases, I think, depending on what’s happening in our lives. If things are going great, we feel good, and by extension feel good about our bodies, and are inclined to be more accepting. When times are bad, and especially if we feel like things are out of our immediate control – we turn to the one thing that IS in our control – our bodies. Some of us eat for comfort, some of us look at food like it’s Number 1 on the FBI’s Most Wanted List. I started out exercising like a mad woman because I was unhappy; now it’s become a part of me, and has become something that I do because I enjoy the way it makes me feel. Some people run out and try new haircuts, or new clothing styles, or new cars, or take up new hobbies….and none of this matters, and doesn’t do a thing to address how you feel about yourself.

It used to really hurt my feelings when people, either out of ill will or out of a sincerely good intention, would make comments about my body. I’ve been hearing this kind of crap since I the only little girl wearing glasses on the playground. You reach a point where you are sick of it, and you say “I’m not ever going to be a supermodel, but I’ll do the best with what I’ve got”.

So: yeah, my hips are big. They have some padding – I had them bony once, and having that little body fat is bad for my health. But you know, short of getting out a bone sander and filing them down, there ain’t anything I can do about it.

So: yeah, I don’t have a waist. So what? Mr. Manners pointed out a bathing suit model that was built quite a bit like me (although she had smaller, less long hips). Shortwaisted is IN! Go!

And yes, my nose is (I think) a bit big, my chin not prominent enough, my boobs too small…but to this I say so what? What good does it do to chase the unattainable? Isn’t that bowing to some standard set for beauty that is really, completely, absolutely immaterial to the rest of your life?

So embrace who you are, and what you look like! If you are happy, who gives a fiddlers what anyone else thinks?