I’ve had some bazaar conversations lately and I need to record some of them for my future self or maybe for my daughters when they grow up.  This post is about body image.

I hesitate to talk about these conversations, because it’s a very REAL possibility that these people read this blog without my knowledge.  However, what I am saying is that ALL these people are beautiful and look PERFECT to me.  So, in my mind this is a compliment.  I think the message is important enough that I am just going to take the risk and say it anyway.

A few months ago I had an after-class conversation with one of my fitness instructors.  I needed tech advice about using my heart rate monitor correctly.  I was telling her that I had a naturally slow heart rate and as a result believed that my metabolism was on the slow side.  I cracked some offhanded joke about how even though I might live longer, I couldn’t eat as much food as I wanted without gaining weight.  I was joking, but she took me seriously and told me that perhaps I wasn’t eating enough.  I laughed that off quickly, because not eating enough has NEVER been my problem. Case in point; I ate nine Samoa Girl Scout Cookies the other day.  Nine! That’s most the box folks (darn those Girl Scouts and their cookies).

Then she started telling me how discouraged SHE was with her own body.  I stood there in shock.  Total shock.  This is my fitness instructor who by all accounts has a PERFECT, lean, tiny body. She looks like a muscle covered in skin.  I mean…she MIGHT weigh 90 pounds soaking wet while holding two dumbbells.  She is seriously THAT small.

She went on for a minute giving me the details about why she was so unhappy and discouraged about her body, and how her husband tried to comfort her and tell her that she needs to find a way to be content.  I also tried to comfort her; and by “comforting her” I mean I told her she was INSANE if she had a problem with her perfect body. Very comforting, I’m sure.

A few weeks prior to this conversation, I overheard two tall, slender ladies talking about how working out regularly made them feel great and how their clothes were fitting better. BUT (oh there’s always a BUT) they just WEREN’T seeing the results they wanted on the scale.  My eyes almost BUGGED out of my head when I overheard this.  I couldn’t believe they were trying to lose weight.  Where would they possibly lose any weight from?  Their bodies were rock hard.  They were both totally svelte.

I had yet another interaction with some other women a few weeks later.  These two are fixtures in the one of the classes I attend.  As far as I can tell, they’ve never missed class.  I assumed they were on the path to becoming instructors themselves.  They are some of the smallest, strongest, fittest, most beautiful people I have ever met, yet they were talking about their dissatisfaction with their bodies.  One of them even mentioned that she’d joined Weight Watchers.  Are you kidding me?  How do you plan to lose weight? Will you be cutting off a limb? I know from experience that Weight Watchers discourages this.

Listening to all these conversations made me wonder if I am too easy on myself?  I know my bod isn’t perfect and I do worry about it, but I feel pretty good that I’ve come a long way.  Is everyone concerned with body perfection?  I wish these people with superior bodies could enjoy them more.

To be continued. . .on Friday.  (Sorry this post was way too long to post in one day)

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