Impossible? Emma Thompson did it at age 62 on camera in the film “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” which I wrote about in this blog post a couple years ago. I bet you can do it privately. I promise I won’t watch.
I did this recently and felt a combination of shame, pride, disgust, and courage. I’ve gained twenty pounds in the past twenty years, but most of this gain has been since going on hormone depletion therapy early last year. And, it feels like all of them are in my belly and love handles. I’ve become a chunky monkey and prone to wearing untucked shirts.
My thighs have a little heft to them, my neck is starting to resemble a vagina, and – due to suppression of my testosterone – my muscles are atrophying. I played tag at the playground as a kid and, now, I play skin tag at the dermatologist as a modern elder. Thank God, I’m in a relationship as this wouldn’t be a great personal ad for Match.com.
In reality, research shows that we start cutting our body some emotional slack starting around 60 as we learn to accept that our body doesn’t define us. We learn to accept gravity and geometry (in the form of curves). Our peak body acceptance age is 70. Who knew?
All I know is right after staring at my naked body for a minute, I tried to put on some of my past Burning Man costumes and I inadvertently ripped open one of my skimpy, sexy shirts. That’s about as “ripped” as I’ll ever be the rest of my life. LOL.
-Chip