I have become one of many women over 50 who have discovered that the buddha belly is really a pre-determined feature of a woman’s aging body. Truth be told, it is a physical feature of most, in not all, aging bodies.

I used to wonder about the number of stocky middle-aged women I saw on an everyday basis, until I became one. Lived experience is interesting in that way.  I still recall the moment when I realized that regardless of how much I pumped away on the elliptical machine at the gym that my body was thickening.  I was healthy and physically fit and Interestingly I was growing into a more powerful body.  The skinny teenager who had grown into the slightly curvy but still slim woman in my end twenties was now somehow solidifying and becoming more formidable.  My once skinny, slim body could no longer contain all of me and my life experiences. Consequently, it needed to expand.  I like this theory.

I especially like it these days. In a culture of unrealistic and often unhealthy perma-thin looking women I am amazed at how feeling healthy looks in my body.  When I look at my body I marvel at my cellulite.  I’d been one of the fortunate few who didn’t have it until my weight yo-yoed from 138 lbs to 155 lbs in eighteen months and then from 155 to 115 lbs in the following eighteen months. It was the subsequent quick weight gain (25 lbs in 2 months) that brought cellulite with it. Comfort eating will do that. And yet, these days, even with cellulite, I feel so much healthier.

I am amused that though I am physically strong, my arms and legs have gone from being wiry to softer and my core… what’s the saying? An iron fist in a velvet glove? Both strength and softness.

Sadly, I also discovered that a lot of women’s clothes aren’t designed to flatter this new more powerful yet softer body of mine. Except of course for swishy clothes: they are my new fave. People tell me I look good when I’m wearing a swishy top or swishy pants.  I suspect I do.  I also feel good in my swishy clothes; they flow and move about me as if they themselves are sashaying their way throughout the day. I wish they’d make a whole line of non-clingy yet stylish swishy clothes. Swishy for work, swishy for play, swishy for sleep. Flattering, comfortable and swishy. Every powerful woman’s body deserves no less.

Till next time,

Heike

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