I'm just a Renaissance woman living in a carb counting world

In the world that was gaga over Twiggy in the 60s, the acceptance of curves has been slow in catching on.  Beyonce is helping.  JLo's bum is accepted.  I've even seen some positive press about putting pounds back on to stay healthy.  Of course, those encouragements were for Laura Thin Boyle at 88 lbs and Mary Kate Olsen coming in a close second.  Does someone have to get skeletal to be encouraged to put meat on their bones? 

Do you sense I am struggling with my diet and looking for encouragement?  Can you tell I have accepted a date for tonight and want to lose 20 lbs by 7 PM?  (I actually want/need to lose more but I am trying to remain realistic in my expectations.)

I've grown up with such mixed signals.  Buxom Jane Russell, Jane Mansfield and sexpot Marilyn Monroe would be targets in the tabloids of the 21st century for tipping the scales. 

I remember seeing Karen Carpenter in concert when I was in college in the early 70s.  Karen was dressed in a 50s Doo Wop poodle skirt and wore a leather bikers' jacket.  She took them off after the opening songs and there was another outfit under it.  Cute.  She and Richard sang a couple more songs.  Again, she shed an outfit onstage and the crowd cheered its approval.  How cool was that?  She had on three outfits and still looked small to "normal" in all three.  There was no way she could have on any more layers.  She was so little.  But we were wrong.  A short time later, Karen disrobed again and this time she was down to a little leather mini-skirt and a tiny shirt.  The crowd was shocked.  Even though she got wild applause for having fooled us, yet again, you could see from the faces of everyone looking at one another, something just wasn't right. 

In circa 1973, no one had talked about anorexia.  My friends and I did not have name for what we were witnessing but we knew Karen had reached a point that made us uncomfortable.  It turned us off.  Obviously, whoever choreographed The Carpenters events at that time felt they were giving the audience what they wanted.  I'm sorry it cost a wonderful singer her life. 

I had seen too thin and I did not want to go there.  But why did I turn and race, run, walk and then waddle my way in the other direction?!  I could point at a myriad of reasons I want to blame for my added girth.  Hormones, getting on the pill, getting off the pill, getting pregnant, another baby, grazing as a SAHM, a divorce, a move, a change in jobs, complacency, lack of control .... Heck, I've even undermined past diets by convincing myself I would lose my well earned cleavage!  I have to stop this madness! 

Here sits a woman who knows what constitutes a healthy diet, a well-balanced meal and the risks of excess poundage.  Eureka!  I think I found the culprit.  In the first two words of this paragraph. 

H-E-R-E  S-I-T-S

I'm getting up and getting out!  It is no longer 104 degrees here like last week.  The weather has a crisp, Fall feel and I'm going to take a walk. 

I wonder how far I can go before 7 o'clock tonight?

Ciao!

 

(I started to go find graphics to illustrate this entry but realized it was yet another excuse to stay seated.  I'll come back later and edit.  Wow!  I actually have will power?!)