Good Monday morning. Is there such a thing? New week, new expectations--at least I hope so. I spent a beautiful weekend at the beach. The weather was spectacular. Much warmer than my weather.com ap reported. It's these warm days in spring that remind me of the dreaded horror of not being able to throw on a jacket to cover the winter's eating binges. When the weather warms, the layers come-off.
As I was sitting on the beach, soaking-up the sun and lazily watching my 10 year old dive into the waves, I thought about the pressure to look good on the beach. I'm not talking about looking perfectly coifed and styled, in fact if you are wearing clothes, you can look as sloppy as you please. Nobody will take a second glance. I'm talking about wearing a swimsuit.
In California, the pressure to look "healthy" in a swimsuit is palatable. By healthy, I mean toned, slim, little or no cellulite, no spare tires. Why this pressure? (I don't think men feel it. Maybe some do. This is primarily a female thing). It begins when you're a teenager. As a teenager you're a freak it you don't wear a swimsuit at the beach and you're considered an even bigger whale if you don't fit the above healthy definition.
This is not universal. On other beaches around the world, yes even in the U.S., this standard doesn't seem to hold. You see women in all shapes and sizes and levels of fitness, frolicking in the waves and having a grand time.
As I was lounging in my beach chair, Sapporo in-hand (we figure we'd support the Japanese recovery--every bit helps) a couple in their 70's, well if they were life-time sun worshipers--they could've been in their 40's, started putting-on wetsuits. The woman was about 50lbs overweight and had visible cellulite all over her arms and legs. Her grey shoulder-length hair was billowing around her face. She struggled into her suit, grabbed her boogie board and merrily followed her husband into the icy waters of the Pacific.
My first thought? They must be European. Why? Because Europeans don't have the body hang-ups we have.
My second thought? Good for her! I admired her willingness choose the experience of having fun, over the fear of looking literally like a chubby seal. She obviously never saw Jaws, which haunts me to this day. I have to admit that when I do get in the water, especially while wearing a wetsuit, in the back of my mind I am afraid of getting bitten by a great white shark. People say that we don't have the right amount of bodyfat for sharks to mistake us for seals. That's exactly my fear, what if I do?
I do have a wetsuit, but it takes me about an hour to get into it. When I was buying it, it took forever to put it on. As I struggled in the dressing room, I asked the salesman for a larger size and he assured me it was supposed to be that tight. I bet every time I put it on, I burn 1,000 calories. Hey--maybe I just discovered my new work-out?
Weigh in Day 9 no change, damn Sapporos!
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