I WAS amazed to read that most adults hate their physical shape. A survey by Travelodge found that 80% of women thought their lives would improve if they had a better body.
No less than 75% of folk complained they had a spare tyre. A spare tyre? I know blokes with a full set of spare tyres. They seem happy enough with the way they look as long as it doesn’t stop them getting to the bar. And, built like that, nothing stops them getting to the bar.
I have to confess that when I was a teenager I was not exactly happy with my shape.
This was probably a combination of me having the upper body strength of a hairpin and growing up in Manchester where L S Lowry was the revered local artist. Complete strangers thought I'd been the inspiration of his matchstick men.
“Excuse me. Haven’t you been hung in Manchester Art Gallery?”
My legs were muscular but my torso was lacking. There was, as they say, more fat on a chip, which made me self conscious about taking my shirt off in public.
This soon passed, until I was sufficiently brimming with confidence to throw my shirt out of the car window on a memorable night in Blackpool in my 20s. In fact, I threw all my clothes out of the window. What's good enough for Prince Harry in Vegas was good enough for me in Blackpool. And, no, I wasn't driving.
The older you get, I think, the more comfortable you become in your skin. Which is as it should be. It's the best made-to-measure outfit you'll ever have and fits perfectly into every nook and cranny.
The people who did the survey said: “We're living in a celebrity obsessed culture where image is everything.”
Perhaps there is a hint of truth in that among the young, but maturity brings acceptance that you will never look like Posh and Becks or anyone famous.
Unless it's a matchstick man in a Lowry painting.
