Mirror,Mirror On The Wall

I was talking to a friend of mine last night who had read my last blog entry about NOT turning forty. She said the funniest thing that was so true....She said that she feels twenty-five all day until she gets out of the shower naked and looks in the mirror! How true is that?!

Why is it so hard for woman to accept their bodies? Im supposed to be teaching my daughters to love theirs, to respect them....but Im constantly trying to change mine. I think we grow up thinking that we have to fit into a certain mold. I really dont think that the media influenced my thinking this way. I think it got passed down through the generations. How many of your mothers were on the cabbage soup diet?

I remember my mother trying every diet out there. I remember her looking "smokin" at my wedding after she had taken off what she thought was extra weight. I remember her going to the gym after work with her friends, she was always trying, always battleing.

Nothings changed. I see woman who dont need to lose a pound at the gym sweating away...(when I go...thats another story) I see woman picking over salads who need to eat a few cupcakes. Is there ever an ideal weight in our own eyes? I mean a realistic one? Id love to lose 20 pounds. Ive did this a few times. How did I get to the twenty pound number? well....that would put me at where I was at when I got married.

Ok, common sense says...youve had three children, your not twenty years old anymore...I know that. I think that weight represents a time where I was really happy with myself. I felt attractive to my husband, I felt young and full of energy.
Who wouldnt want that back.

I know that even if I do manage to get the twenty pounds off, I am probably not going to feel like Im twenty inside again. When I get out of the shower things are still not going to look like they did back then...

Maybe we should all go on a brain diet. Lose the crap is our heads that tells us we are not beautiful. Lose the image off ourselves at twenty, and just try to become the best person we can be at the age we are. Stop mentally kicking ourselves for eating a cookie and having a beer. Learn to burn calories with laughter. Somehow I think that would be healthier for alot of people. Diet your brain first, then the outside. Whos going to remember what size of jeans you wore when you die? No, they'll remember what made you, you. Was it a funny joke? They way you laughed? How much you cared for others? Or was is that you weighed as much as you did on your wedding day?

I know this is easier said then done. I myself am a work in progress. Trying to set a good example for three girls...Thats tough in itself.

I think I have three beautiful daughters inside and out (given the day! ha ha) I wish I could shake them and tell them that one day they will dream they still had the bodies they have now. I want to tell them to focus on the inside a little more then the outside, because that it what is important in the long run. But they are teenagers....so Im not sure what part of that will sink in.

Im sure many more teens will learn the recipe to The Cabbage Soup Diet over the years, Im sure many more will ponder in the mirror about what they want to change...
I just hope when we ALL grow up we can look in the mirror and hopefully say that our hearts are good, our spirit is good, our love is good...and realize that the people we love and who love us unconditionally dont care what our outside package looks like..because if they do..care THAT much about it.....they arent the type of people you should want around anyway.