Excerpt from Chapter 2: Facing Fear

Body Issues

Earlier I shared that twenty-one percent of the participants
expressed fears about physical deterioration that comes with age. I
also asked them if they had concerns about their bodies other than
aging. Sixty-eight percent of the participants said they did have issues
with their bodies. We live in a weight obsessed culture. You can’t
turn on the news without some story about obesity in adults or children.
Additionally there have been a recent rash of reality show about
how parents are making their kids fat or people are competing to lose
weight. How is anyone supposed to feel comfortable in their own skin
with all this negative imagery?

Tara explained, “Of course I have issues with my weight, with
current society and anorexic supermodels, self assurance about weight
is down. But I’ve decided I’m not gonna make myself miserable to
be a size ten or whatever, I’d rather be fat and happy. Notice how all
those sayings are fat and sassy not thin and sassy?”17 While I love her
attitude and can agree most of the time, body confidence is still a problem
I struggle with. There was a time when I was one of the skinniest
kids in school. I was also one of the smallest at 5’2”. I never thought
about weight until I was about twenty-five when my body morphed
into something I didn’t recognize.

Women’s bodies curve; there is no way to avoid it. It happens at
different ages for each woman. For some pregnancy brings on voluptuousness,
for others time is the culprit.