Almost every woman gets to a point in her life when she sees her body shape as something unbearable. Some of us meet this moment – hard to understand – during adolescence, some, naturally, after giving birth to their children. The originally tough and flexible body starts to change its shape, some muscles seem to loose if not entirely vanish. Even those mums who do not spend time in front of a mirror and weighing themselves every day come to that moment. So it happened to me.
How come that we are such a civilisation which do not adore women with motherlike shapes? Can you remeber the Venus of Vestonice? How beautiful she was to her fellows? A woman who gave birth to many children, a woman with „body as a proof“. A healthy fat mum. In book Tears of the Giraffe the main character, an African traditionally -built woman, states that „From being a fat person who was comfortably placed in the shade of a tree, a poor person would become a thin person, with not much of a bottom to sit upon.“ How true! Why are we pushed to look like a childless seventeen even in our late thirties? Does it make us happier? Healthier? Or are we just better percieved by our too much of a modern civilisation? Why aren´t we proud of our ability to give birth?
I do not think a strict diet can help. Your body needs a balanced diet, fats of good quality are importatnt as well as minerals and vitamins. Of course there are things which might be better in your nutrition – just count the vegetable and fruit portions you eat every day. Does it make five? So what am I going to do when my belly is magnified and drooping?
When hurrying past the notice-board in our town I quickly glanced at the new notice which appeared there. Fitness and exercise for women. I finally came to a decision. I was going to leave the poor children to my husband and start doing something for my health, positive self esteem, weakened belly muscles and my husbands´ eyes. So I took some drink, a towel and put on some sports wear and set off to the school gym.
The gym was full of women of different ages. The most of us were mothers. As we were the last group occupying the gym, it was already airless. Though we opened the windows the air remained stuffy. The instructor turned on the music so I couldn´t hear her properly. We were skipping there to warm our body (the rythm of the components rotation remained hidden to me) then we started to work out on our muscles. Sweat was running down my temples and back. I looked round to see all the others exercising with an expression of a suffering animal. My legs were trembling. What does make us torture ourselves? I wonder.
Our civilised world make us eat prefabricated food full of additives and chemicals, pharmaceutical companies feed us with useless medicine, but we must look fit. So good looks to you, my civilised fellows, and stay fit.
Andrea Leskotová
