Sharing an email I received from a fantastic woman.  Hip, cool, smart, fit, fierce! I asked her if I could post her message and she said that I could, if I believe her ramblings would mean anything to any of us.  (Hmmm...Rowe's Room is all about ramblings anyway, isn't it?)  I wanted to post it because, first and foremost, I would never have thought she would relate to the challenge I'm facing.  She surfs, she cycles, she swims, she is the epitome of athleticism (and being skinny)! Not that my misery loves company (okay, sometimes it does), but just shows us all that we all have our own little (and not so little) battles with ourselves.  Might not be about trimming down (big example - Miche's battles with his hardship on bulking up), might not be about eating less (there are those lucky ppl out there who "just can't seem to put on weight"), might be about wanting more "me" time, or more "together" time - we all have something that just displeases us about our lifestyles, our habits, okay, our bodies (or faces).  We all have something.  It is just a relief and nice reminder that even the people we view as "ideal" have their "stuff" to rant about.  And, it's great to collectively be able to joke about them or ramble on about them every so often!

How to age gracefully, my friend "M" says below.  I think the first step has been made - let's laugh along the way!!  That's more attractive and graceful than frowning and fretting.  Besides, I don't want to spend my $700 win on botox!  (Okay, that's another blog posting waiting to happen.)  Just sayin!

Perhaps,  the reason  why I've fallen in love with Zumba more than I expected to do so is because of the fact that it brings so much "gracefulness" to working out and to fitness.  I don't mean it in such a way that we are all so super graceful dancers at Zumba!  From what I've seen, experienced for myself is that there is a side of me that Zumba just brings out even for the one hour I'm doing it.  That side of me that is free, young, fun and yes, happy! For one hour, I have permission and reason to just dance in reckless abandon.  That one hour when I am not "mamma" nor "asst to the chairman" nor 47 years old.  We all know that our surroundings/environment/roles in life dictate and shape how we behave and carry ourselves.  But at Zumba, I have every reason to! No one is there to judge, and we take on the attitude of "there is no wrong way, just "your way."  If that is not "grace" then I don't know what is! 

So, M...thank you for letting me post your message.  Please keep reading and maybe your next comment will be directly on this page!  I'd love that.

(On the $700 bet front - today has been a good no-snacking on bad stuff day! Woo-hoo!)
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"hi rowe... hey gorgeous momma, how are you?

i took a look at your blog...and i will say, it hits so close to home in so many ways.  you are a gal after my own heart...athletic, smart, fitness minded....everything is good until perio-menopause steps in...what????  i am young and invincible, right?  um, but my body is not syncing up with my mind the way it did when i was in my 20's....suddenly, i find myself hit with a bod that is not the one that i was so well acquainted with in my 20's and 30's....really???  everything s-l-o-w-s down and does not recover the same as it once did in my teens, 20's, 30's and (god bless you, all the way to my early 40's)...i am not happy (at all!!) about it, but our bodies do change as we reach perio menopause and beyond....

that is the blog i want to follow....the one for women like us, that take care of our bodies above and beyond, and yet where o where is that range to age gracefully?  we need a forum for when our bodies begin that foreign (and most heinous) stretch of change....how do we move gracefully through this time???  

m. "