Legs

[OakLeaf]

Sounds like we're built pretty similarly. I try not to mind... but there are certain things, like short skirts, that I just. won't. wear.

If you can stick to it, a good diet with most of your calories from vegetables is really healthy for your skin... and taking good care of your connective tissue with a lot of foam roller work might be helpful too. But I think there's a lot that we just can't change - some genetic, some having to do with nutrition at puberty.

Take care of yourself. Self-esteem is hard.

[moonfroggy]

i am also 4'10 and i have short stubby muscular legs with a longish torso and broad shoulders. right now i weight 120. i used to weight a lot more. when my son was 3 months old i read a book called eat to live by dr furhman and i started eating a lot less starchy foods and a lot more veggies and fruits and i lost a lot of weight then when my son was a year and a half i started riding my bike again. the combination of eating healthier and bike riding have helped how my legs look they are still short and stubby though and i think my knees look funny.

also my weight seems stuck at 120 but i keep getting thinner and more muscular and going down in clothing sizes. maybe that's because muscle weights more than fat?

[michelem]

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but my bodyfat was hydrostatically tested at 10% and I too have the same "droopy" saddlebag area of which you complain. I've gained some muscle weight doing P90X and weigh about 100 pounds at 5'2". I can pick up the elephant skin area and pull it up and have even daydreamed about having it removed . . . but then I think of the horror stories surrounding cosmetic surgery gone wrong. Yikes! Learning to love my aging 40+ self and thanking God for Spanx. I am grateful that my body allows me to cycle, run, dance, hug my DH, walk and pet my doggies, etc.

Don't mean to hijack this thread, so feel free to not respond if you feel it is off-topic, but I am curious if any of you have the same trouble I do with reconciling your aging self with your inner self-concept? Not sure that makes sense . . . what I mean is that, I still feel at least 10 years younger than my chronological age and have to remind myself that I am 40+. I look in the mirror and see these changes (wrinkles, sagging, etc. -- only the stray gray once in a while though) and the reflection I see does not jive with how I feel! It really hit me this weekend when I saw some "old" friends who have gotten quite gray and I thought, how the heck did we get this old? I don't feel this old!

[KnottedYet]

I don't think of 40 as "old" or "aging."

Don't die before you're dead.

[Veronica]

I'll say something about being old to my students and they tell me I'm not old. I know I am older than many of their parents, whom they think are old. I think exercise keeps you feeling young. I did start going gray at 19 and apparently I'd be quite gray now if I let be that way. I love my hair stylist.

Veronica

[indysteel]

I don't think of 40 as "old" or "aging."

Don't die before you're dead.

If you're referring to my own reference to being 40, I didn't suggest that I was old, aging or dead.

But I have aged. I won't go into all the details about how I've aged, nor will I assume all of us are aging at the same rate. My 40 may be another person's 50 or 30. I'm also not suggesting that aging is necessarily a negative. Like most things in life, there are pros and cons to it. I don't want to be 20 again, that much I know, but I wouldn't mind a few extra years of fertility. It probably goes without saying, but that's a biggie.

[moderncyclista]

Learn to love yourself. Love where you are at and aspire for greater. That's what is really the hardest for everyone, including myself. S'okay - we all age. I plan to do it gracefully if I can pull it off. We'll see. We'll see.

[malaholic]

Katluvr, I can definitely empathize with you on this one. For me losing weight helps a wee bit with the appearance, but in my case not dramatically. Even at a perfectly healthy and normal weight, my body just seems to want to store some of its fat there. I just have to accept it. I do find that with cycling even though I still tend to store fat in my legs, my calf & quad muscles are getting a lot more definition so that makes me feel good about them anyway.

Now, all that said, while we can't change our genetics, we can definitely try to do the best we can with what we've got. I think someone mentioned Spanx tights in an earlier thread - I love those for use with a skirt if my knees will be showing. The compression effect feels good on my legs and makes them look a bit more streamlined. Also, if I'm wearing shorts or a skirt and get to feeling self-conscious, I'll try not to stand with my knees locked straight. Bending ever so slightly at the knee sends my kneecap out a bit to where it doesn't look like it's getting "sagged over" quite as much. Those are about the only cosmetic tricks I've figured out so far.

[KnottedYet]

If you're referring to my own reference to being 40, I didn't suggest that I was old, aging or dead.

Nope, I was referring to the question MichelleM asked in her second paragraph.

[michelem]

Nope, I was referring to the question MichelleM asked in her second paragraph.

Doesn't help that everyone else in my office is at least 10 years younger. I know 40 isn't really "old" . . . it's reading that 40 is "middle aged," and listening to these younger folks that reminds me I am no longer just-graduated-from-college-aged.