Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Nan Tepper's avatar

LOVE this. Yeah, we sure are hard on ourselves, right? I was born and bred by two parents who were both fashion designers. Image and appearance were everything to them, and is everything to my mother who's still here. She's 86 years old, and frets constantly about every pound, and every morsel of food that she chooses to put into her body. The trouble I had with my folks, of course, was that everything looked good on the outside, but beneath the surface, nothing was good. And I picked up a reliable friend, my eating disorder from the time I was a very young child. And now, at 63, my mother and I still engage in conflict. She can't stand that I'm fat now, not the former 20s anorexic that she envied. It's hard. At this point in my life, I'm dealing the disordered eating, and learning to love myself just the way I am. I'm focusing on eating a healthy, balanced diet, and am good with letting nature take it's course. As long as I can honestly say I'm doing the right thing when it comes to food choices, physical movement, proper rest, I'm going to turn the rest over to my body, and she wants to shed some pounds, that's terrific. I haven't given up at all. My focus has shifted. Let the jiggling jiggle! xo

PS. I know you read a couple of my essays recently, so I'm going to be bold and share this link with you. It's a story about my eating disorder. No pressure to read though. I thought you might like it. https://nantepper.substack.com/p/less-than-zero

Expand full comment
Joy Johnson's avatar

I turned 70 this year & it's taken me this long to feel comfortable wearing a sleeveless blouse in public. And FINALLY I'm wearing ubiquitous open sandals that cannot hide my deformed toes and bunions. They're so comfy!

Yesterday I took a photo of myself in a new sleeveless jumpsuit, no makeup. POSTED IT ON SOCIAL!

Not beause I'm "gorgeous" but because at 70 years old I'm finally a grown up. 🤣😅😂

Expand full comment
184 more comments...

No posts