How freaking rude! Man, those women who have the ideal body type just don't get that some of us will always be shaped differently. I'm 5'2" and 180...definitely overweight and much of it is flab from 7 years of being the babymaker and sit-on-my-butt-at-home mommy. HOWEVER, pre-kids I was FIT and athletic. I was the endurance chick LOL Once I found my groove I could go all day, in biking, swimming, and hiking. Never been fast, I never won a race, but it takes fitness to have endurance, ya know? But even in the best shape of my life, I had a tummy pooch, thighs that rubbed together, and this huge annoying rack. I definitely didn't LOOK like an athelete, at least not the typical tall skinny perfectly toned kind And, if it wasn't the flabby parts of me, it was the muscles. The tall scrawny types don't seem to get the big muscles like I seem to. Not that I'm a bulging mass of muscle, but they always seem to get bigger than I expect without me trying to develop them. Isnt' there a word for that? Something-morph? Anyway...

Right now I've got a way to go before I get back to, or anywhere NEAR, that level of fitness, but I've lost about 25 pounds already, and while I still could stand to drop about 40 more, I'm already much more well-proportioned (with the exeption of the aforementioned huge annoying rack!), I'm seeing my muscles toning up and getting bigger, and after just a few months back in the saddle, I feel like the endurance chick again. It's not as easy to find my groove as it once was, but once I find it, I can ride (or swim, or hike) all day and feel great about it. Do I look like I'm in shape? NO WAY! But even if I get there, I'll never look like a skinny bikin' chick. If that gets me the cold shoulder if I try to join a club, so be it. I have other superfit biking and triathlete friends who will gladly ride with me, who know how far I can go, big butt and all.

I guess the point of that whole rant, is don't let that woman get you down. There are plenty of us in the non-scrawny athletic category to support you.

Oh, I saw someone say something about the bike clothes. ARGH! Don't EVEN get me started!! I just gave up and started sewing my own because there isn't a ready made jersey out there that'll fit me right. If it fits my torso, it's way too tight around the boobs. If it fits the boobs, it flaps in the breeze around the rest of me. Shorts? Well that's a tad easier, but I'm short, so they're always a little longer than ideal. Still, I make my own now. I do have to buy kid sizes in some things. Socks, my swim goggles, I imagine if I ever buy arm warmers I'll have to find some stubby size. I'm not even going to bother trying on anyone else's tights...it's pretty much a given that they'll be too long. sigh...

Oh the woes of not being the perfect woman.

Jessie