Beauty and Body Image

Val Asks You: Body Image

Oprah.com | From the June 2007 issue of O, The Oprah Magazine

Do you think your body image mirrors what others think of you? How do you feel about your body?

Your responses poured in…here are a few of our favorites!

A Good Attitude
While visiting Greece for the summer, I was hopping from one friend's place to the next (no one knew what the next plan was), I had been out in the hot sun all day and needed a shower and some clothes to go out on the town that night. My friend's fiancée, a very thin girl (what I considered bone thin), lent me some clothes and insisted they would fit me. At the time, I considered myself a little heavier than normal. Well, they fit with room to spare. A few weeks ago, though, I had the opposite experience. This past year I have gained at least 20 pounds. As a cousin and I sat at the kitchen table, I saw my mother wearing a pair of old pants of mine which no longer fit me. I announced that those were my old pants, but the cousin responded, "That's impossible. I've never seen you that thin." I hadn't felt that bad about all the weight gain until that moment. But as a good friend of mine said when I announced my weight gain, "So, life goes on." And that is what we should all focus on.
— Sia Kafiris, Athens, Greece

Shrinking and Satisfied?
I will be 62 years old this year. I work in the office of a fitness center and I work out and lift weights on a regular basis. In my 30s, after having two children and a partial hysterectomy, I wore a size 14. At the time I wasn't wild about that size, but it was not that big a deal. We moved to Missouri, and I started walking and got down to a size 12. Then, over the years I got down to a 10 and now I am a size 8 and sometimes a 6. The problem is, now even at an 8 or 6 in today's world I see myself as "full bodied"! Good grief! What is wrong with me? People are starving and we are all hung up on body image! Get a grip!
— Rita Shelton, Nixa, Missouri

Fifty and Fabulous
I am 55 years old, and for the last few years I have looked at myself in the mirror and thought, "Oh my God." One night I was going out and wanted a new pair of jeans, but it was too late to shop. The son's girlfriend offered me a pair and I thought, ''Yeah, right,'' but I tried them on, and guess what!? They fit. Hard to believe for me since when I look at her she has the most lovely figure. I was delighted to have even gotten into them and I had the best night out ever!
— Denise Maxwell, Derry, Ireland

Printed from Oprah.com on Wednesday, June 19, 2013