Positive Body Image/At the Local Pool

The other night we were at a restaurant where there was a life-size figure of a woman in a bikini--a beer ad.  I took the opportunity to talk to Valerie about how people look in media images, and how they look in real life--how the images are Photoshopped to make the models look thinner, etc.  I had recently read an article online about Photoshopped celebrities, which included this image.  I don't know how much impact what I said had on Valerie, but at least the conversation is started.

We never talk about being fat.  We talk about exercising and eating good food to be healthy--and so I can fit into my clothes better.  I never complain about my figure in the mirror.  I make sure my kids hear me say things like, "I like the way I look in this."

I stopped my subscription to Vogue magazine (which I had been reading for about twenty years) when I got pregnant with Valerie.  Hubby and I decided we did not need images of uber-thin models around the house all the time.

Then there's the pool.  The kids take swim lessons at a local indoor pool frequented by people of all ages.  You get to see a very diverse range of bodies in swim suits there!  It takes me back to my life drawing days in college.  What I love most, I think, are the really old ladies--probably in their eighties and nineties even--who come to the water aerobics classes and the warm therapy pool.  Some of them might be hobbling to the pool steps, cane in hand, but there they are in their bathing suits taking care of their bodies.  Those are the role models I like my daughter (and I) to have.

I am celebrating getting back into my smaller belt today--albeit using the very last possible notch!  I am also celebrating that even though I may never want to wear a bikini (gotta love the invention of the tankini, right?), I am at a place where I am taking care of my body.  I aspire to be one of the seniors taking aqua aerobics at the pool one day.

P.S.  We also saw a figure of "The Most Interesting Man in the World" at the restaurant, hawking beer.  Valerie and I both agreed, that's just weird.