Post Image Sunday was spent on a private Beach of my dear friend Gwen whom is is always generous with her Beach house and welcomes her friends there as much and as frequently as they can make the trip. I love it there, and it is less than an hour from my house, and whenever I get there I always think, why am I not coming more frequently. I went this time with another close friend, and we all are mutual friends of Gwen we met some of Gwen's other friends as well.
It was a great day and one of those days where I was reflective and did a lot more listening than I did talking. We were a pretty diverse group of women, four of us were friends that had met in the last four years at a place of employment, and that was where I fit in. Four of the other women were friends of Gwen's and they were from different areas of her life.
It struck me how quick women's conversation goes to our bodies and are issues with them! A few of us were overweight and a few of us very thin and maybe even underweight, but all of us, had something to share about what were trying to work on.
Gwen herself is on a program that is 16 weeks of cardio/weight training and a very rigid plan of eating. No alcohol for the first 16 weeks and slowly introducing some foods and alcohol back in. She has lost 14 pounds and she looks good, I was admittedly jealous at first as I have lost 33 and felt that it was not as apparent. I put myself in check by reminding myself that I am starting at a higher weight, but even more importantly I am doing great and feeling good that I can eat anything I want and that I am in charge of that. I have tried diets where I am dictated as to what is ok and not ( who of us has not) and they do not work in the long run for me. Not to mention 16 Weeks of this program is $1000.00! To me that is way out of budget, maybe not to Gwen and I am glad that for her it is working but in my heart of hearts I can not justify that. Point is though no matter what the economical bracket or age or cultural background, this issue of our weight and body image is always there. While listening and taking it all in, I heard everything from, " I work at it daily to stay the way I am " to " I have given up, after spending years restricting what I eat" to " I will go to my grave, wanting to weigh less". It struck me that I am very lucky to be at a place right now where I am 90% happy with how I am eating, and feeling and looking. The remaining 10% is what I am working on, it is the little jealous feeling I get when I think someone else has lost quicker or is having better results with their efforts than I am mine, and I recover quick from those thoughts and I think that is due to my blogging as well as the support that is found in this online community. I will reach my goal of weight loss and more importantly maintaining the weight loss without feeling like I am a slave to a diet or exercise regime.
Thats it, Thats all..............