I have a confession to make: I'll be 40 in less than two years. Can we say "mid-life?" Forty is a milestone where you start to think more about what your life is like, what you thought it would be like, and what you want it to be like. I'm happy with most areas of my life these days, and have met a lot of personal goals, but I do have one physical fitness goal that I haven't reached yet.....I'm still not satisfied with how I look in a swimsuit.
After three kids, I feel that I'll never wear a bikini in public again. No matter how much body fat I lose, bodies are very different after having several kids. Enough said. To push me toward my "look smokin' hot in a swimsuit" goal, I went and tried on a bikini today just for the heck of it for my eyes only. Trying on a swimsuit in the store has always been a reality check for me, and can be for anyone. It's usually produced a reaction of disgust at myself when the style I want doesn't fit quite right or things are bulging out. It's hard to hide much in a swimsuit! In fact, I've been trying to hide in swimsuits that have shorts on the bottom for about 20 years now. (If you'll remember from my earliest posts, I had been "skinny fat" since I was a teen!) When I'm at the pool or beach, I walk around with a towel around my waist because I want to shield those "trouble spots" from the world.
Well, guess what?! I put that bikini on today and I didn't feel disgust. For once in my adult life, I looked at myself, twirled around a few times, and thought, "Well, besides needing a tan and a wax, I'm ALMOST there!" I'm almost stride-across-the-beach-without-a-towel-around-my-waist shape! Instead of disgust, I felt happy that after all of my YEARS of hard work, I was almost swimsuit-ready in my eyes. Not too shabby for a mid-life mom of three kids.
What does this mean for all of you? No matter how old you are or how many kids you've had, you can still reach your physical fitness goals. Yours doesn't have to be a swimsuit, it could be that pair of pants waiting in your closet. Keep going toward it, be patient, and work hard. Go get it!
