I’m always amazed how often I am talking about food with my clients. We talk about everything. I mean EVERYTHING. But almost always it gets back to the subject of food. “What’s for dinner tonight?” I almost always ask all of my clients. Ok, if it’s early in the day I might ask, “what’s for lunch?” I am always interested in learning new and different recipes or different ways to cook the same thing, but a in a different way.
I should say that most of my life food was never really of any interest to me. Wait a minute, that’s not right. I would watch my mother, and her mother, or cousins, or aunts and so on, cooking all the time while I was growing up. I was fascinated with cooking and baking and acquired a true talent and joy in doing it also. I was just never a big fan of eating it. I spent years trying to gain weight and try to look like other boys or men my age. I would drink 2000 calorie supplement drinks between meals. When I worked at a salon in my early 20’s that was near a Carvel I had a malt or shake with lunch. In school I kept getting taller and thinner when all I wanted was to stay the same height and get thicker and more muscular. Needless to say people would always tell me how lucky I was and that it would catch up with me and stop complaining. But I stayed in a size 30 waist pant well into my late 30’s.
I used to live in a pretty popular neighborhood in Manhattan called Chelsea. I joke with people that when I lived there I belonged to a gym because it was the law. Thankfully the gym was located next to a Krispy Kreme bakery so after a nice workout, I would go down and get 1 fresh, warm, sugar glaze covered donut. Yumm. I wasn’t working out to lose weight rather than trying to build up my upper body. My stomach was always flat.
Why this stroll down flat stomach lane you ask? Because when 40 came, or there about, I started discovering the beautiful and tasty enjoyment of eating. I not only ate my 3 meals a day, but all of the sudden my appetite grew more and more. I would eat a normal portion and when normally I would be full and satisfied, I now can keep eating. I sit and wonder (while chewing), why am I still hungry? I was never able to eat an appetizer, entree, and dessert. EVER! Now I can do it all and then some. Still, the point of this story? Those people were right! The ones that said stop complaining and enjoy it. “Eat whatever you want because someday you’ll have to watch like the rest of us!” I’m now the rest of us. Granted, I type this drinking my Earl Grey tea and eating a home baked cranberry oatmeal cookie.
The best part though? It’s normal. I see it with most of my clients and friends. It’s pretty much impossible for most to stay the size we were in our 20’s, yet as we “fill out” and grow older, I am happy to say that we get more beautiful all the time. Like watching the effects that come with finding love, or having children, or buying a new car or home. It’s like a rite of passage. Of course there’s the other end of too much, or excess when it comes to over indulging, but that’s not what I am talking about.
I’m of course am more critical with myself and my own appearance than I am with the people around me, but am happy to see the people that I’m growing older with, changing and almost “morphing” into their adult selves. There are times when I get super strict and can get down to a size 31 waist again, but it’s honestly torturous and I’m not fun to be around. I’m the first to admit it. Personally, when I look in the mirror I like my face fuller, my arms look almost like I’ve been working out, and my ass is back. I like having an ass. It’s fun and more comfortable when I sit. Granted I have a belly, but that’s sort of along for the ride. Luckily in clothes I can still pull it off and a lot of people that don’t know me too well would call me thin, or fit. I call myself “skinny with a belly.” I wear it with pride. Do I and most of my clients complain about our bellies? Yes! But I’m happy to say that I had a flat stomach for the first 40 years of my life, so the next 40, is cake!