Through My Lens: Teresa's Adventure - The Power of a Really Cute Bathing Suit

In 30 days I will be 57 years old.. sheesh I remember when almost 60 was sooooo old.. Well not anymore folks. This gal does not feel old. Fairly decent/healthy living has helped, especially these last 10 years.. early on, perhaps not so much.. but hey young and carefree so what did it matter?

As much as vanity has dropped down on the scale of importance, I'd be lying if I said when I look in the mirror I am completely unaffected by the reflection looking back at me. While I know I am not defined by my appearance, human nature seems to help us zero in on those less than perfect body parts... and we have a conversation with ourselves, hopefully a very positive one!

I've talked about this a lot lately and I am going to continue to talk about it because women, of all ages, are so impacted by the opinions of others when it comes to their own beauty and self worth. It seems that these concerns grow with age as we face ever changing body shapes and sizes and fight off weight gain. I shared my picture yesterday in honor of International Yoga day and do you know what I saw first, for a moment only, but I did see it, the little "tummy bulge". WTF?

Growing up I never had a weight problem. Up until I got pregnant with my first son, I was small and weighed somewhere between 98 - 105 lbs... my shape or lack there of was... well lets just say I was rooting for Baby because I identified with the girl with an average body who gets the guy over the tall, shapely, blond beauty.

As I've grown older and perhaps the birth of my sons has provided slightly more of a figure but other than the fact that I have gained some weight, my body still is very similar to my days of youth. Except now I am so much stronger than I had ever been as a care free teen who didn't care if her belly jiggled a little when she ran down the beach or jumped the waves in a bikini.

Anyway.. summer is here officially and that means bathing suit weather and while I find myself a few pounds heavier than I had hoped to be, I am not going to stress myself out and "plan to lose x amount of weight" by my birthday. After all what's a few pounds between friends... So I am going to keep on keeping on, embracing the girl of my youth who was confident in every inch of her skin and loved a tan belly. I still do! It makes me crazy to have this gorgeous color (heavily sunscreened I promise) and then I have this white midsection.. It is so bizarre and totally ruins my whole overall feeling healthy glow. So I will be wearing my two piece bathing suits down the shore and in my pool; but I have found this really cute one piece bathing suit that I will wear if I attend a backyard pool party. I wore it last week and my friend loved it so much she ordered one and share it with another friend who ordered it and she loves it too.

Ladies, be proud, walk tall, wear the bathing suit, do the things. If the world doesn't like it, that's their issue.. be you, love you. I don't know about you, but I've yet to meet that perfect person without one single flaw who has a right to sit back and look upon me and make decisions on how I should feel about myself!

And to quote the lyrics from my favorite Bob Seger song... Oh they do respect her but, they love to watch her strut. Now go and strut your stuff!

Be Kind. Be proud. Be fearless. Namaste.