Funny, I was just having similar negative thoughts yesterday. Reading some blogs, I felt like, seriously, is everyone a European model but me? And I have not worked nearly as hard as you have.

But you're so right. I am not willing to do the things I know would get my my card into the waif club. Did it once and was very unhealthy mentally... So now it's just: hide from bread, enjoy good proteins, barre method when my legs don't hurt from work. Thanks for the pep talk (even if it was a pep talk to yourself).

Rae, I find style blogs can be even tougher on the ego than fashion magazines. The idea is that these are women who are not being professionally styled and photographed, not photoshopped within an inch of their life, and that modeling is not their full-time job, so it would *seem* that their looks are attainable. But I look at them and I look at me, and it's like we're from two different species. Well, part of it is that I keep forgetting I'm 20 years older than most of them.

But do I want to starve myself so I can start a style blog and not embarrass myself by being an average-size middle-aged woman? No.

Ok, enough of this -- I'm off to swim some laps and work off the cheeseburger (minus bun) that I ate last night after two days of salad and fruit!

IK - your healthy perspective will be a great inspiration to your daughter

I love this post from you. I've been working out really hard (diet has only been so-so) and whining that I've not seen the progress I expected...but then again, I also want to live a "real" life...I've been on bodybuilding.com - if you haven't been to that site I recommend it. Also, getting a low BF isn't necessarily about "eating almost nothing" - you'd lose muscle if you did that! It's about being really strict about what and when you eat, which is almost as much fun as eating nothing (sarcasm).

Thanks for the reminder. (-: