Balance your life

I have started taking Pilates classes at the Body Design in Abdoun, and since I am doing it with a few friends it kind of forces me to go which is really very good. I am quite happy that I have started these classes, everyone who has done them says that pilates are the best way to get a toned body. I mean look at Madonna, she is in her 50's bas her body looks like a 20 year olds.
But-and I am sure you all knew that there was a but-while in class yesterday, I looked around and saw the level of concentration that the women in class had on their faces, and I realised that we were in a self induces torture. Why do we do it to ourselves? Well there are several reasons, and low and behold today in the Guardian there was an article that dealt with one such reason. Lets force celebs to look like normal people, starts with this quote: Every woman I know, myself included, keeps a mental list of all the things she hates about her body, an idiosyncratic taxonomy of self-loathing that frequently makes her sob into her pillow, alternately refuse and binge on biscuits and hide in corners at parties, if she can find one big enough to fit the perceived epic dimensions of her thighs. I for one know that there are certain parts of my body that I despise, that makes me just want to crawl into a hole and never come out. Now that summer is just around the corner, and the dread-and I guarantee that a lot of women are DREADING- of the swimsuit issue has started to surface. The thought of walking around in public with our bodies so exposed when they are not perfect-whatever that means-is well scary and if not then at least daunting. How shite that men can walk around with beer belles, hairy shoulders and no one gives them a second glance, bas a woman walking around with a bit of excess fat, or a hair not shaved off, and the whole beach starts staring and talking-ok exaggeration bas you get my drift.
Bas back to Pilates, so I am enjoying what I am doing, and after only two classes, I do feel better, not so unhealthy. But I also know that my muscles are aching, and that I am having trouble walking up and down the stair today-and yesterday the teacher was really in a mood to cause us as much pain as she could-and we like the herd that we are, just went along on this hour of trauma!!!!