Mar 06 2008
Ideal Body :)
I often admire middle-aged people—especially women, moreover women who have delivered babies—who still have “ideal” body. As one ‘victim’ of beauty-is-slim ideology, of course I refer “ideal body” here to slim body, without much fat around their body. (I hate to say this, and admitting that I am a victim of beauty-is-slim ideology makes me feel like someone who runs away from the fact that I cannot conquer this stupid ideology. I am really not responsible and blame the ideology to hide my weakness to attack those ridiculous ads back.)
Why do I focus on women? It is because I am a woman, not because I give in the old-fashioned opinion that no matter what women must look their best while men can look ugly. (I am one supporter of metrosexual men.)
Why do I focus on women who have delivered babies? This is based on my own experience, after delivering my Lovely Star in 1991. We have to admit that during pregnancy, some ‘areas’ in women’s bodies become larger, let’s say belly, waist, and buttocks. After they deliver the baby, those parts of the bodies can still be large, especially belly where behind it, womb is located.
To make the belly smaller again, just like before getting pregnant, women must do several things. First, they can put a corset around their belly for several months after delivering the baby. For Javanese women—or maybe Indonesian women—they can put a ‘stagen’ (a very long cloth, around 10cm wide) around their belly closely. Second, they rub special concocted herbs on their belly before it is covered by the ‘stagen’. The negative thing from doing this of course is it makes women difficult to take a breath. However, the result of doing this activity is it will make women’s belly smaller again.
After several months, to keep the belly slim, women have to do exercises regularly. They are not to eat before sleeping because it will ruin the previous effort easily. It means women need strong will and discipline.
My own experience after delivering my baby in 1991, my belly became slim again because I diligently wrap my belly with stagen for several weeks. However, I didn’t continue it by doing exercises. The temptation to sleep after lulling Angie while breastfeeding her made my body big easily. The ‘rumour’ saying that consuming birth control medicine will make women’s bodies larger made me consider it as something natural to see my body bigger.
To slim down my baby, I needed to combine some steps. The first is to do exercise regularly, let’s say five times a week, around one until two hours each. Being discipline to be on diet was the second step. ‘On diet” here means to eat carbohydrate in a small amount; to eat vegetables and fruit for lunch; and nothing for dinner.
After succeeding to slim down the body, keep being discipline to do the two things: to combine exercise with diet. My experience to resume my study where I had to work hard to do all assignments left me no time to do exercise. Worried that I would get sick if I kept being on a diet, I forgot my being discipline to arrange my food intake. The result? My body turned to be big again gradually.
After finishing my study (thank God I get a very intellectual scapegoat LOL), I resumed to do exercise regularly again. However, this time I found it hard to be on a discipline diet. As a scapegoat for my failure to slim down my body again this time? “I already reach middle age, an age where women commonly turn to have big body.” Hahahaha ..
Therefore, I always love to see women in their ideal body. It shows that they are disciplined.
LL 16.09 01030
