Body

The other night, looking in the mirror, I had a revelation:
Yes, I may be heavier than the societally accepted ideal, but I'm lucky to be an hourglass shape with awesome curves. I'm happy with my body.
Then the following morning, faced with a closer inspection of dry skin etc., I decided I needed renovating from the ground up.

My body image, as I'm sure a lot of you will relate to, is like using a trampoline that is also a functional set of scales: I'm up and down way too often to get an accurate reading. Some days I feel like this:

Did somebody order a Manic Pixie Dream Girl?

And others, I feel like this:

Did somebody say fudge cake?

And that, as near as I can tell, is totally normal.

 The thing is, beauty comes from healthiness and happiness. If you've got both of those, the rest is just taking care of yourself... I've been realising more and more lately that the 'healthiness' side of my life needs a lot of work. All pizza and no exercise makes Jack a fat boy. And Anna a lazy girl.

I don't want to be the slovenly kind of person who never does anything because it's too difficult.

Anyway, I've finally liberated my poor bike, which hasn't been ridden in a year and a half. It's been to Punk Bikes for some TLC, so I just need to get on that, in every sense! At least if I'm actually doing something, whatever shape and size I am, I won't have shame about it. Being ashamed of your body is ten times worse than having a few extra pounds.

Red-faced

I don't sweat.

Not like normal people, anyway. I've been out in the blazing sun all day, cycling up hills and through traffic, and I'm just not sweating.

I decided to ask my body why this is.

"Sweat?" she gasped, clearly appalled at the suggestion. "Everybody sweats, how frightfully common. No, I think my system is much better."

Ah yes, her system. Because when a body gets hot, it has to cool off one way or another; and when mine gets hot, I end up looking like a socially-conscious tomato that's just farted.

Thanks, body. Thanks a lot.

In other news, the photo course is going very well, and I'm still taking hundreds of fire photos. Because these guys are awesome, and crazy talented. I found out that Gav can do staff-twirling too the other day, he's been keeping that one quiet!

As always, the photos can be viewed large on my Flickr page.