Are you happy in your own skin?

I must say that I`m not happy in my skin at all, so maybe I should do something about it, but I just can`t face not being able to eat my favourite things, and having to maybe eat things that I don`t like because they`re "non-fattening and good for me". I don`t eat excessively, honestly, just probably not sensibly. When I was a teenager I ate a lot more than I do now, and was always slim, but I put on weight after each of my 5 babies, and have been on an upward climb ever since! I think that now I`ve reached the age that I am, it`s too late to worry about my figure anyway, I just try and ignore the mirror!

Yes – in the context of where this conversation is going, I'm happy in my own skin. I don't know what I weigh, I don't care what I weigh. If I found that my size – whether a bit heavy or a bit light – was beginning to make it difficult for me to do the things I like/need to do, I'd do something about it. Otherwise, I don't care.

I was 6 stone 10 pounds when I started work, 7 stone when I got married but went up to 9 stone after second baby. A bout of pleurisy when my youngest was a toddler knocked me back to 7 stone. When I did start putting weight on it stayed there and refuses to let go of it. I don't let it worry me.

crimson couldn't agree more - and young women who wish to change their body image are getting younger by the day. It's all very sad. I, like you, cracked the problem of burning the calories with jogging and such...until my hip gave up and had to be replaced. Now the other one needs fixing. I've just happened on a humorous quote - 'Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside'. Mark Twain

Someone once said to me "When you start dieting you are dieting for life". It is better to eat healthily and not counting points all the time. I have a weekness for sweet things so if I feel my clothes getting tight I just don't buy any biscuits or cakes. My DH is diabetic so he should keep off the sweet things but he is as bad as me.

I can't believe the size of clothes I wore in my youth. I was never thin enough for my husband [ex] and was probably borderline anorexic [again the word didn't exist then]. Spent most of my life trying to be less than 8st when in fact my ideal weight was 9st [that was the weight at which it took a while for me to go above if I didn't diet like mad..like some sort of latent heat of vaporisation...?].Being pear shaped, I was in my late forties/early fifties when I realised that a combination of jogging and drinking lots of water shifted the cellulite..however,just as I'd cracked it my knees gave out, so the jogging had to stop. Do feel sorry for young women now under so much pressure to look 'perfect' ie thin as a rake and with a boob job. So much for liberation....

For much of my life I was over-concerned with my weight. About 35 years ago, when very unhappy, I suffered from anorexia ['though I didn't know the meaning of the word at that time] I thought that I looked gorgeous...gaunt and just skin and bone, whereas of course I looked hideous. As my life became happier and my confidence grew, I began to worry less and less about remaining a size 8. As I near my 70th birthday I am, I believe, a pleasantly rounded size 14 [on top] and 12 [below] and have no objection to being so. I enjoy my food and have learned to wear garments that disguise the odd wee bulge. My husband and family like me as I am and I seem to fit very nicely into my own skin

I think you're right there, Joan! I'm a size 16 too, and I'm 5'10". I was ill with a bad bout of pneumonia one winter a few years ago and think that if I hadn't had that wee bit of extra cladding, I may have 'popped my clogs'! I think I must have been a size 12 when I got married at 17, but have struggled with weight gain from when my last baby was born. I've done all the diet clubs that showed up along the way. I also did very well with the Rosemary Conley Hip and Thigh Diet - eating hardly any fat at all. The weight came off steadily, but then, like with all the rest, and as Nannyliz remarked, the weight-loss was hard to maintain. No... I think if I got too thin, my laughter-lines would become deep wrinkles, then I'd have no reason to laugh at all - and that would be unforgivable!

I was size 12 when I married in 1967. I'm now size 16, after having had three babies. I think this us natural - so many of us get fatter in middle age, and it usually sticks. I believe the extra weight protects us if we get ill. I remember having a dreadful bout of flu at 17, and I went so skinny I had to borrow clothes from a skinny friend. If that happened at 66, I could die without a bit of weight to lose.

Anyway, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

greenmossgiel, I too have struggled with my weight ever since I had my first child at 18 years old. I've been on countless diets, lost weight, put it back on, and so it went on. I did join WW and lost 3 stone going from a size 16 to a size 12 and I really got into the habit of eating healthily.
I found it hard to maintain the weight loss and am now ten and a half stone and a size 14. I decided over a year ago to stop dieting and just try to eat healthily, and guess what, I have stayed the same weight. I still have the food that I love but in smaller portions and limit myself to treats like cake and chocolate at the weekend. So, yes, I do feel happy in my own size 14 skin, but it's taken me a long time to get here.

greenmossgiel....I have written a great long reply to this..and then deleted it..but basically I very much understand what you are saying. I dont really think one can honestly really be happy knowing they carry extra weight and have always done so. Its been the bane of my life - I've tried many times but know that my nature leans a little towards being just a bit lazy and just a bit keen on that second slice of cake.