WHAT HAPPENED TO MY BODY?

It'll Be OK.

Oh boy, I was shocked when I first noticed my once flat teenage stomach starting to  look like a football,  then a full-blown matt ball.  When I began shopping for larger sizes along with wearing my shirts untucked, my daughter reassured me I had small legs. I didn’t find it funny back then that I looked like a Tootsie Pop.

So, I tried bargaining with God: “I promise, God, I’ll work out and watch my diet if You help me  look younger.”  In the beginning I loved going up to TALK to Melissa at US Fitness;  but when she insisted we do aerobics, I  had a hard time  getting both of my feet going in the same direction.  When I almost decapitated a guy with one of those big exercise balls,  I called it quits. (I have to say the Advocare Cleanse really did help --  until I started sneaky sips  of Pepsi when I thought God wasn’t  looking.)

Timing must be everything – because it took me  less than a  week at the beach this year to realize that  JOYFUL, beautiful people come in all different shapes and sizes. 

~ There was the biggest man I’ve ever seen trying to fit under a beach umbrella as his wife emptied a whole can of suntan spray on him.  He grinned ear to ear as a tattooed lady happily gyrated on his bisceps.

~ I was really afraid an osprey would swoop down & mistake the  tiny old lady wearing a droopy bathing suit and a mammoth hat for a tasty morsel  -- after she crouched down to look at seashells.  When she stood back up holding a beautiful Lace Murex in her wrinkled hand,  I noticed her eyes were sparkling.

~ And you could actually  feel the excitement coming from the guy wearing a safari hat, dressed in camouflage, when he was looking through binoculars at the dolphins jumping in the wake of the Sanibel Thriller.  He was definitely ready to capture life in the camera hanging around his pencil-like neck and in the shell bag resting on his protruding hip.

Grief is such a powerful emotional and physical reaction to the loss of someone or something.  Often people don’t even realize they are grieving when  they have loss something like a job, their faith or a friendship. In  our  body-obsessed society  many of us have to grieve  the loss of our youthful appearance.  But once we go through the  stages of grief, we can accept our aging bodies  as the imperfect, but wonderful vessels that hold WHO WE REALLY ARE.

Thankfully, the day  has finally come for me -- I’m  never buying  another woman’s magazine with a cover that says “9-Week Plan to a Strong,  Sexy You,” and I can  proudly dance along the  shoreline  to my new anthem “This Is Me”  from “The Greatest Showman.”

When my daughter reassured me  that I looked  cute in my new beach hat -- like the old lady  from  the movie  “Fried Green Tomatoes” -- I just laughed because I could  still remember Evelyn yelling at the two young chicks trying to take  her parking space, “I’m older and I have more insurance.”

Acceptance can be  a wonderful thing.

“For all the young people getting tattoos: Be careful!  A butterfly on the back becomes a buzzard in the crack when you get older.”  ~ Pinterest

IS THERE SOMETHING YOU’VE HAD TO ACCEPT AS YOU’VE AGED?

Beautiful Curves