I was at the gym last week and met up with a friend who was commiserating about missing a few cardio classes over the holidays. For a fleeting moment, she admitted, she had been thinking about taking TWO classes that day, to make it up. But what stopped her, she told me, was the feeling that if she did that, she would be “upping the ante”.
I asked her what she meant. She said if she went twice in one day, then the next time she only went once, she’d feel like a slacker.
Is this really what we do to ourselves?
Consider if you will the current slate of reality shows – The Last 10 Pounds Boot Camp, What Not To Wear, Bulging Brides, Extreme Makeovers, Plastic Makes Perfect – yes basically I’d say that the message is whatever you’re doing, its not quite enough, so push harder, push faster, and push stronger. While that’s a terrific motto for the Olympics, I’m not sure it’s something I want to apply to my day to day life. Yet, as women, and especially as Moms, this is the mantra we hear in the back of our heads all the time. Or maybe it’s more like: Thinner. Younger. Funner.
We live in a world of “what have you done for me lately”, and nowhere is this more magnified than when we consider our bodies, and when our children consider us. They are both constantly making demands on us, and the second we do something for them, it’s forgotten and we’re being pressured to do the next good thing.
Take the kids: Minutes after I’ve arrived home from the indoor playground, complete with a stop at the fast food place of their choice, buying them a small treat from the dollar store because they didn’t fight with their sister for six whole minutes, they’re screaming at me “I never get anything! You’re the meanest Mom! Why can’t I have the last scoop of the Ben & Jerry’s?”
Because Mommy needs the Ben & Jerry’s, that’s why. Because I’ve just spent the afternoon at the indoor playground, the McDonalds and the Anything-For-A-Buck-As-Long-As-It’s-Crap-And-10-Minutes-Later-We-Will-Be-Throwing-It-Out-While-You-Cry-That-It’s-Not-Really-Broken-Store, that’s why. Likewise with the requests to “Play with me!” just after I get back from the public swimming pool where clearly the overhead lighting is a much better reflector for the spots the razor missed, and I just know that liquid I stepped in beside the change room wasn’t of the chlorinated type. Mommy needs some decompressing time!
But as soon as I indulge in that Heavenly Hash, my thighs explode and my guilt implodes as I frantically plan my next visit to the gym Because when’s the last time I was there… lately? And I know that pool awaits me next week. Whatever happened to Less IS More? Slower. Calmer. Nicer.
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