Overall, I am not the kind of person who pays much mind to my personal appearance.
I have some standards, although just barely. I do not wear my pajama pants out in public (and I don't count walking out to my mailbox to retrieve the newspaper at 7:30 a.m. as going out in public).
I keep my hair short because it looks best on me. I do not wear makeup because it makes my face itch. I wear clothes that are comfortable. That is my personal appearance philosophy in a nutshell.
In general, I think I am pretty fit. It has been almost 2 years since I have been working out with a trainer in a group fitness "bootcamp" at a friend's house. I started it when M was about 6 months old. In the early days, Eric, the trainer, had us squat up against the wall and hold the pose. OMG! It just about killed me.....my thighs would shake and daggers of pain would shoot up to my hip. I had to pant to get through planks. I was on the thin side but extremely out of shape.
At first I could only commit to 1 day a week for a half-hour. Now I go 2 times a week, for an hour each time. My goal for 2012 is to add another day of exercise in.....30-45 minutes on the treadmill, probably on a weekend day when D is at home and can keep the kids from bugging me. While I would love to commit to more, the truth is that I am still woken up during the night at least once every single night and G usually has me up for the day at 6:00 a.m. Once M is in preschool and I am getting consistently restful sleep I can do more......but not until then.
I am proud of being able to do as much as I do.
But even though my arms and legs are more cut and my A1C level has gone down, my abdomen bugs the absolute SHIT out of me. And I hate it that I allow my mid-section to bug me.
I know why my mid-section bulges---the 3 babies who grew there, the uterus that still lives there, and my poor posture. If my breasts were bigger, I don't think I'd pay much attention to my abdomen. But with my breasts being naturally small and now terribly saggy, they don't stick out enough for me to think my mid-section looks small in comparison.
Even though I'd like for my abs to look better, I am not willing to starve myself or do cardio 7 days a week (for the aforementioned reasons). When I get all hung-up about how thin people look in magazines, I have to remind myself that I would look amazing too if my livelihood depended on me looking hot and having an awesome body and if I were airbrushed and Photoshopped to within an inch of my life.
I recognize that is is pretty stupid to focus on one part of my body that I don't think looks so great when 90% of me looks pretty darn good.....at least when compared to the general population.
My mom, who will be 74 this spring, said she has finally reached the age where she just doesn't care anymore, and that is nice to know. It is nice to know there will come a time when I just won't care. I won't focus on any part of my body and what it looks like because it will all look old.
Ok, now I'm not depressed about my abs. Just the prospect of aging and death.
I have some standards, although just barely. I do not wear my pajama pants out in public (and I don't count walking out to my mailbox to retrieve the newspaper at 7:30 a.m. as going out in public).
I keep my hair short because it looks best on me. I do not wear makeup because it makes my face itch. I wear clothes that are comfortable. That is my personal appearance philosophy in a nutshell.
In general, I think I am pretty fit. It has been almost 2 years since I have been working out with a trainer in a group fitness "bootcamp" at a friend's house. I started it when M was about 6 months old. In the early days, Eric, the trainer, had us squat up against the wall and hold the pose. OMG! It just about killed me.....my thighs would shake and daggers of pain would shoot up to my hip. I had to pant to get through planks. I was on the thin side but extremely out of shape.
At first I could only commit to 1 day a week for a half-hour. Now I go 2 times a week, for an hour each time. My goal for 2012 is to add another day of exercise in.....30-45 minutes on the treadmill, probably on a weekend day when D is at home and can keep the kids from bugging me. While I would love to commit to more, the truth is that I am still woken up during the night at least once every single night and G usually has me up for the day at 6:00 a.m. Once M is in preschool and I am getting consistently restful sleep I can do more......but not until then.
I am proud of being able to do as much as I do.
But even though my arms and legs are more cut and my A1C level has gone down, my abdomen bugs the absolute SHIT out of me. And I hate it that I allow my mid-section to bug me.
I know why my mid-section bulges---the 3 babies who grew there, the uterus that still lives there, and my poor posture. If my breasts were bigger, I don't think I'd pay much attention to my abdomen. But with my breasts being naturally small and now terribly saggy, they don't stick out enough for me to think my mid-section looks small in comparison.
Even though I'd like for my abs to look better, I am not willing to starve myself or do cardio 7 days a week (for the aforementioned reasons). When I get all hung-up about how thin people look in magazines, I have to remind myself that I would look amazing too if my livelihood depended on me looking hot and having an awesome body and if I were airbrushed and Photoshopped to within an inch of my life.
I recognize that is is pretty stupid to focus on one part of my body that I don't think looks so great when 90% of me looks pretty darn good.....at least when compared to the general population.
My mom, who will be 74 this spring, said she has finally reached the age where she just doesn't care anymore, and that is nice to know. It is nice to know there will come a time when I just won't care. I won't focus on any part of my body and what it looks like because it will all look old.
Ok, now I'm not depressed about my abs. Just the prospect of aging and death.
1 comment:
I think it's great that you've made gradual changes and improvements in your level of fitness. Isn't that what the experts say is the best way to go about it?
I have the same train of thought when I see the amazing bodies of celebrities. I'm always relieved, at the end of that train, when I realize that my livelihood does NOT depend on my maintaining a super hot body. Although I wouldn't mind some family photos of me being airbrushed a little bit....
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