Warped Perspective

Before I get to what I'm thinking about today, I just want to point you toward a couple of writing contests that have upcoming deadlines. You can find them in my sidebar to the left.

I also put up a new Quote of the Week, this one  from Marie Curie. I love it when someone who isn't a writer says something that sounds like it's intended to inspire writers!

Okay, so the other day I was going through my Box 'O Stuff, and came across a photograph of myself, in a bikini on a beach in Anguilla. I would have been about 35 years old, so that was 20 years ago. My waist was tiny, my stomach flat, and even my thighs, with which I have been at war my whole life, looked slim. So, yeah, I know, we all looked better 20 years ago, unless you're only 30, in which case you might have had braces and frizzy hair back then. But the thing is, back when that picture was taken, I worried all the time that I looked fat. All the time, like a drumbeat in my brain was my mantra: fat, fat, fat.

There is more of me now than there was then.  But somewhere in the last few years, I either became more accepting of myself or more delusional in the opposite direction, because I have been thinking I look pretty good. I know I'm in good shape - strong, flexible, fit. It's the yoga. But I also know my thighs are chubbier and I have this belly fat that I never, ever had. I don't like it.

I know that I can't get back to that 35-year-old body. Or, maybe I could, but it wouldn't be worth it. I like to eat, good food is part of the joy of life. And, at 55, if you get too skinny, you get all wrinkly and then there is that neck thing that happens. BUT! I do think that I should lose about 12 pounds.

Anybody in my age group or older knows that this over-50 chubby belly problem is a real thing that is definitely NOT caused by eating like a pig. So, it's harder to lose weight. It really is. You don't understand until you get there and it's your darn belly that's gone all blubby on you.

So! I've joined this small women-only fitness center right across from the yoga studio, and I've been walking/jogging on the treadmill and using the ellyptical, interspersed with core work and weights. And you know what? It feels really, really good. I thought I was over that stuff, but it turns out my body really likes it. It feels happy afterward. :-) I still take two yoga classes a week, plus my own individual practice, which is pretty much: Do SomeYoga Every Day.

Anyway, I'm on a mission, and when a Scorpio gets on a mission, look out! I am down 1.5 pounds so far. But actually it's not even about the pounds - it's about that smoosh in the belly. I wish I could invent a cream that you could rub over that area and watch it disappear. I'd call it "SmooshBeGone!"

Wish me luck!