FBW: Naked

FBW stands for Featured Blogger of the Week. Each week we will feature one of our calendar ladies or gentleman. Mondays will be a post written by the FBW and Wednesdays will be an interview of the FBW. If you want to know how you can be a part of the Blogger Body Calendar project, please click here.

Naked

At age 41, 180 pounds and a size 14 (on a good day), no one should be looking at me naked. Hell, I don’t even let my HUSBAND see me naked- it’s lights out before booty calls at casa marymac, folks. It’s not that I am ashamed, exactly, about my appearance- it’s more that… when I married him I was 135 (which I believe became 150 during our honeymoon because I was licking the butter out of the plastic cups they came in with my lobster, after a long 9 month diet…), so I feel badly that I’m not some hot young chica anymore- if I ever was. I know he loves me the way I am, and believe me, I thank the eight pound six ounce newborn baby Jesus for that. He knows the 30 pounds of ‘padding’ is a result of my giving birth to our four kids (and losing three more to miscarriage)- and I think of the stretch marks on my body as the Tattoos of Motherhood.

Posing nude is not something I ever in my lifetime would have told you I’d be doing. I went to Catholic School, for nuns’ sake. But this calendar that I’ve been blessed to become a part of is benefiting a charity that is very close to my home and heart. I invite you to stop by my blog Pajamas and Coffee for a post I wrote today about my journey with the eating disorder of someone very, very close to me- my own daughter.

Raising awareness and money for the National Eating Disorder Association and potentially being able to help even one mother out there who has a child experiencing this soul-sucking disorder is why I am posing nude. For me, the ‘getting naked’ is more psychological than physical, because it’s the first time I’ve shared the story about what I went through when an eating disorder brought its evil cloud to my home and almost took my 12 year old child with it.

I’m hopeful that for one photo shoot day, the very talented photographer I’m working with will work her magic and make all my padding and stretch marks and wrinkles somehow, for even just a tiny moment, be pretty. Because every person deserves to feel good about his or her body. Forget the media and the magazines and the celebrities- our bodies are beautiful- no matter what.

Mary at Pajamas and Coffee is our FBW and Ms. October. Stay tuned for her interview on Wednesday!