Nothing will get you into Weight Watchers faster than seeing a picture taken at your high school reunion. The mirror will lie to you in the right light. You can tell yourself that you look much younger than your years and actually believe it. That new outfit is very chic! You haven't changed a bit. Like a mother gazing adoringly into the bassinet of the ugliest baby in the world, you see what you want to see and "oooh" and "aaah" with the best of them. Facebook has popped that bubble forever. Not only are you confronted with the ugly truth (really, kid, 40 years later and you think it doesn't show that you've had kids and vacationed in Florida every winter?) but EVERYONE gets to see it, too. Gone are the days when an "unfortunate" photograph could be tucked away or shredded. Whether you like it or not (and most of us do not) it is on display for the world to see.
I have often wished there were an "approve" button on pictures so that if someone tried to post one of you that was really heinous you could say "uh uh". Many pictures of me dancing across the internet have been posted by people who love me and thought I looked great and were glad I was wherever it was I was. It is a rare day when I agree. If I stop to think about it, I always think that everyone else looks great except me. They look the way I see them in real life and I see them with loving eyes. They look "actual size". So why does the internet take the one spot on the photo where my image is and distort it so? It doesn't take long to figure out the nasty truth. Time marches on...and stomps on my face and inflates my waist in the process. We are all in the same pickle to one degree or another, although it's certainly possible to make healthier choices and slow down the rock slide.
Maybe it's not such a bad thing that I look as though I've been around long enough to learn a trick or two. I've seen the face lifts that make people look constantly surprised and unable to smile. That doesn't look like any fun either. So I'll kick up the exercise routine a notch or two and go back to tracking each morsel that enters my mouth (well, for as long as that resolution lasts) and be happy that I'm still out and about. Because there is something to be said for the wisdom that comes by dint of hanging around long enough. Eventually it dawns on us what is really important, and it's not wearing a size 2 or having the perfectly unlined face. It's respecting that person we see in the mirror, being kind, having people in our lives to love us and to love, and being aware of the beauty in every day. But I'm still going to look up the Points Plus Value of the pumpkin coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.
I have often wished there were an "approve" button on pictures so that if someone tried to post one of you that was really heinous you could say "uh uh". Many pictures of me dancing across the internet have been posted by people who love me and thought I looked great and were glad I was wherever it was I was. It is a rare day when I agree. If I stop to think about it, I always think that everyone else looks great except me. They look the way I see them in real life and I see them with loving eyes. They look "actual size". So why does the internet take the one spot on the photo where my image is and distort it so? It doesn't take long to figure out the nasty truth. Time marches on...and stomps on my face and inflates my waist in the process. We are all in the same pickle to one degree or another, although it's certainly possible to make healthier choices and slow down the rock slide.
Maybe it's not such a bad thing that I look as though I've been around long enough to learn a trick or two. I've seen the face lifts that make people look constantly surprised and unable to smile. That doesn't look like any fun either. So I'll kick up the exercise routine a notch or two and go back to tracking each morsel that enters my mouth (well, for as long as that resolution lasts) and be happy that I'm still out and about. Because there is something to be said for the wisdom that comes by dint of hanging around long enough. Eventually it dawns on us what is really important, and it's not wearing a size 2 or having the perfectly unlined face. It's respecting that person we see in the mirror, being kind, having people in our lives to love us and to love, and being aware of the beauty in every day. But I'm still going to look up the Points Plus Value of the pumpkin coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.
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