No body's perfect

On Sundays that I actually have to myself, I enjoy strolling around the District, perusing closed stores and restaurant menus, and surveying Barnes & Noble or Borders for anything and everything that appears interesting to me on that particular day. As an avid Health, Fitness, Shape, Self, and Women's Health reader, I immediately gravitate toward the "Health/Fitness" section of the books and/or magazines. I picked up a supplement from a periodical that shall remain nameless because I was intrigued by a subhead on the cover: "Get a PERFECT body!" Well, if this little booklet can promise me that, I must investigate, I thought, so I headed upstairs with my stack of self-deprecating literature.

The Table of Contents listed many ways I could obtain this fabled "perfect" body, yet I hesitated to even flip through the pages. The idea of such a goal seemed impossible to me. Some women want bigger boobs, some want smallers waists; some may want the same things, but not all women would benefit from these portioned meal plans or tailored workouts. Some other publications I frequently read offer fitness plans for women of all shapes and sizes who have different goals. While this is much more realistic, it still seems wasteful. How can women believe that a single plan will help them lose their love handles or shape their stomachs? Hopefully the haze of this idea lifts from Americans' sight and we are able to see that our healthiest bodies allow us to live to the fullest potential and feel alive. Whether this results in our "perfect body" should be considered obselete.