Body Image

Every man and woman on the planet has, at some point, assessed their own attractiveness and found themselves less than satisfied. The classic women's woes of big bums, thunder thighs and pot bellies have been self-analysed countless times. Why do we think like that? Why does it matter? Why do some people think they look worse (or, like Samantha Brick, better) than they do? And does it really matter?!

I've never had much of a problem with the way I look. I was always an 'average' size as a teenager, got up to about 14 stone at uni, down to about 8 stone a few years later and now rest at about 10 stone. I'm not fat, I'm not thin. I've thrown the odd wobbly about wobbly bits but, in general, the way I look has never been that much of an issue. I suppose it helps to have a husband who adores me and gives loads of compliments too.

If you've read Jess' blog on the same subject you'll hear a slightly different opinion to mine. Whereas she thinks "Curvy is beautiful, bones are beautiful, muscle is beautiful" I get squeamish and hungry when I see someone skinny and pokey. When I see someone really fat eating a double sausage, egg & bacon bap I want to pass them the celery. It's not to do with the way they look entirely, it just kind of annoys me. You can bet your battered sausage they'll both be complaining about their weight and their body to their friends.

Where Jess and I agree is that being healthy should be most important. If you're someone who really worries about the way you look don't bother with crash diets, you'll only fail and put on all the weight again as soon as you go back to your old ways. Make life changes - regular exercise, a healthy diet with sensible portions, meditation - and you'll soon realise that the way you look just isn't worth worrying about.

My main point on body image would be that no-one's perfect. We all know that magazine pictures are totally faked so ignore them. Finally I just want to share this photo of Jessica Alba before and after photoshop. She's just stunning on the left and looks ridiculous on the right, in my opinion.

After writing this post I watched Shallow Hal. Obviously, it's a ridiculous film BUT the main point, that it's what's inside that counts, is very well made.