Wow. You just hit on something that's been nagging at the back of my mind but I couldn't--didn't--realize enough to put into words. I usually see pretty/thin/whatever women and feel like shit about myself. That's why I don't read 'women's magazines' (except for the cooking ones!) as a rule. And what little I saw in the early days of the Olympics were photos of beach volleyball players' butts. Which is troublesome (the women's 'uniforms' vs the men's, etc.). BUT as I've finally got TV after the move and have been tuning in each night for the games, I've been seeing these women kicking ass and haven't once felt crappy about myself. These women are using their bodies the way they're meant to be used. To an extreme most of us will never need, of course, but they're lifting and running and jumping and fighting, not being propped up against a pretty background and told to suck in their gut and push out the boobs, pout, look sexy, look skinny, look impossibly perfect without ever being shown to lift a finger to attain that state.

Sure, I've gained back weight I lost over a year ago, but I'm getting older. I'm still out there running a few times a week and doing what I can to maintain the weight I'm at now. I'll never be a marathoner or a sprinter, but I'm ok with that. And, I think the women athletes would be, too. Whereas the women (models and others) who buy into the idea of 'perfection' wouldn't. They would judge me because they are so busy judging themselves. Maybe part of it is the fact that the athletes are so focused on faster, stronger, higher, better, they're not so much focused (as far as our perspective) on weight, boob size, hip size, whatever size. If their bodies work at whatever shape or weight, they work. And as long as mine does, too, grand :)