On Body Image

To say that I have body image issues would be a gross understatement. Sometimes I think I felt better about my body when I weighed 300 pounds, than I do now. I am not sure why that is the case, because since my gastric bypass surgery (6 years ago) I have gone from skinny size 10 (on my 5'10" body), to normal size 12, to a few pounds more. All in all, I am still 130 pounds thinner than I was when I began. This fact alone should be enough to keep me confident with my figure, yet it eludes me on so many levels.

Nothing epitomizes this issue more than my daily visits to the local YMCA. Upon entering the woman’s locker room and chatting with the older patrons, I often say to myself, “I want to be THEM someday.” These women seem to have little issue with body image. It isn't that they don’t have perfect bodies—far from it. They have lumps and bumps; gravity has certainly taken its toll, but they strut around the locker room as if they were Heidi Klum walking the Fashion Week runway. I, in contrast, am in the corner of the locker room in a feeble attempt to cover my body with a hand towel; the twenty pounds I have gained since my hysterectomy hanging like a ball and chain while these older women, totally naked, stop to chat. It is an enigma to me. How do you get to the point where you are comfortable with your body AS IT IS?

As if I needed any more validation, I stumbled across Lifetime’s “How to Look Good Naked”. This is not your run of the mill “makeover” show. Instead Carson Kressley attempts to assist a woman who is dissatisfied with her “less than perfect” body. He then endeavors to create in her an acceptance of who she is. The first thing Carson has the woman do is stand in front of a mirror in only her bra and panties, which of course, she has difficulty doing, but seems to humor him just the same.

One of the most interesting experiments occurs when Carson brings several women out in their underwear and the subject is to choose which ones are bigger and which are smaller than she. She appoints all the women larger, when in fact; they are ALL smaller than she. Chronicling the transformation of the woman from self-conscious to self-confident during one 60-minute television show, is quite astounding. Just being privy to the change in the way she carries herself is astonishing. No liposuction, no “nip-tuck”, no drastic makeup or extreme hair makeover is performed; the subject simply begins to accept her body--even appreciate it.

Why is it that women have such a hard time when it comes to their bodies? The men in our lives love them, why can’t we? Shouldn’t we afford ourselves the same admiration as those in our lives who love us? Even when I was obese by children would say, “Mom, you are not fat.” I would dismiss such comments as silly, when I should have embraced them as genuineness.

In this episode of “How to Look Good Naked” the subject’s most significant "aha moment" comes with her words, “I feel liberated.” That’s what loving your body can do. It can make you not only confident, but liberated as well. So, take off your clothes and take a good look…liberate yourself---and---look good naked!

This is an original post to 50-Something Moms Blog. Marsha is a 25 year educator who also blogs at Breathings of the Heart.