Body awareness/consciousness

The physical being physical, in what ways has it brought on body awareness/consciousness? Has stepping on the scale with a witness led to a losing weight effort? Has the slow undressing, knowing that a medical professional will soon be looking made you stop and look at yourself, or really think about your body? Have you felt better or worse about your physical self? Has anything said during a physical exam changed something, a concern, a compliment, a comparison to other patients, to others seen in your age group?

I have always been on the thin side. As a child/teen I was borderline at what might be considered as unhealthy/underweight. I had a decent appetite until I was placed on Ritalin for being ADHD. I stopped eating as much as I really should have and my parents would then get on my case about my eating habits (or lack there of)

I guess at this point in my life I am in good physical condition. I have been running for years and complete 70 push ups and 100 sit ups daily. Repairing jet engines has also developed some much needed upper body strength.

I had my annual physical last week ( I will spare you the details as it has all been said and done before.) and I was in my boxer briefs getting weighed/measured as my doctor sighed and said "Keeripes T, I have to figure out a way to get you into a heart attack mode. Pfizer has a good incentive right now and my son just got accepted at Dartmouth. You look healthy and fit. You are gonna put me out of a job." It was a humorus remark that actually made me feel good about my physical condition.

I don't think my body awareness developed out of experiences receiving physical examinations but the latter certainly did nothing to diminish that awareness! Body image and awareness began as I became a teen and progressed thereafter undoubtedly influenced by culture and media attention. Like most teens I suspect, there comes a time when being undressed at the doctor's registers as extremely personal, which is often the time when one doesn't want a parent present to observe, and you accept being bare or nearly so! The ritual of going tor an exam may for some be matter of fact while for others it will always register with some degree of self consciousness. I guess that's what makes it all so interesting to understand.

Well we do not have these medical examinations in Britain like in America so my body awareness did not come from anything like that. When I was still at school it was seeing my own body get really like my mum's that made me more aware. It was school showers after games at school when I saw the other girls my own age that did make me feel quite good because I was just more developed than them. I think I got confidence from it.

I am very thankful that I've never struggled with body issues and I can't recall a time where I felt embarrassed or unhappy with a part of my body. It does help when I get confirmation each year at my yearly physicals that my weight is ideal for someone my height and that my results from blood work come back entirely normal.

Yes, though not in a terribly positive way. I was overweight through middle and high school and I always got the third degree from my doc about it. I'm the thinnest I've ever been in my adult life (5'9" and 165 lbs, which is still pretty average), but I'm very self conscious and very much get hung up on my waistline and trying to knocking off a few more pounds.

^^^^ 5'9" and 165 pounds is a pretty good build.

I bet you look good.

During my last physical, I mentioned to the doctor that I just sort of felt old. Where I used to have a six pack that rippled like the ocean, there are only slight suggestions of muscle. Same with the pecs - years past they were as hard as rocks - they're kind of "old man tits" now. The doctor (an early thirties lady) very simply replied to me that I feel old because I AM old...

Thinking of changing doctors.....

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Yes, though not in a terribly positive way. I was overweight through middle and high school and I always got the third degree from my doc about it. I'm the thinnest I've ever been in my adult life (5'9" and 165 lbs, which is still pretty average), but I'm very self conscious and very much get hung up on my waistline and trying to knocking off a few more pounds.[/quote

^^^^ 5'9" and 165 pounds is a pretty good build.

I bet you look good.

Agreed. In case you have not heard there is an obesity epidemic in this country...5-9/165 means you are not even remotely qualified. My last weigh in was 5-7 1/4 and 144 lbs. You are not overweight. Many of us could stand to lose a few pounds ( well ok, not me ) but don't beat yourself up.

Sorry you had weight issues back in your teens, it probably was not easy. Your doctor should have been encouraging and motivating you instead of being critical. For what it is worth being a small skinny kid is no picnic either.

The doctor (an early thirties lady) very simply replied to me that I feel old because I AM old...

That is something everyone has to face up to at some point in life. No matter how you feel inside, what you think and dream about, how you conduct your inner monologues and how your memories appear to yourself in your mind, at some point you will indeed look like an old person to other people.

My father would sometimes drive me up the wall when he told me this, back when I was a teenager and he would say that while he looked old, his thoughts and ideas about himself were little different from what he remembered all these years ago when he was at sea during the war or in Korea (and chasing pussy in every port ... ha ha). That last i could laugh at and understand, but still ...

Even if you feel more comfortable being and talking with younger people (like i do) you're still gonna look old to them. Better accept it and enjoy the company (at least) while you still can. It's not going to get better.

Thank you Susie and Turkent 😃

At my heaviest, I was about 210, which was when my doctor was fussing at me. My last doctor had a very different attitude: weight is just a number, as long as other numbers that describe your health are where they should be, don't get too hung up on the scale reading.

Good topic! I naturally gain / lose about 20# a year and typically hit my lowest weight late Spring and always schedule my annual physicals around that time. The first time I had a full dermatology exam, it as right after the first of the year when I am heaviest, and I did find myself a bit conscious being naked and overweight in front of the dermatologist, even she herself was probably 15# on the heavy side.

Last August, I began to anticipate my November skin exam with my lady dermatologist as my debut to be seen wearing a jockstrap by anyone ever. I realized that i had begun to be heavier and more bloated, and stepped on a scale. I saw i had weighed more than i ever had, and i immediately proceeded to drop 15 lbs. (~ 30 kg). I pretty much stopped drinking beer for the rest of the summer & cut down from usual Fall intake, & sacrificed a lot of junk food just to slim down.

In addition to wanting to look as trim as possible since i have these skin exams every 6 months, i stay weight conscious most of the time.

A few months ago, i made the decision to go on blood pressure meds, where my doc told me 3 things I had to do to eventually not need them. One was to take up an aerobic activity, so i've been shopping for racquetball racquets to start playing again. Dropping weight was another. The low salt diet is too tricky for me, but i have pretty much practically wiped out consumption of french fries without a substitute.

So the roots of my body awareness/consciousness stem from a desire to get off BP meds, and from anticipation of visits to lady docs featuring me wearing a jockstrap.

The low salt diet is too tricky for me, but i have pretty much practically wiped out consumption of french fries without a substitute.

Maybe not as much tricky as a virtual impossibility, given how foods are processed and sold. Everything has salt in it, things you wouldn't expect in a thousand years.

If you want to lose weight and stay healthy don't buy any food that comes in a box. Go to the produce section and buy fruits and vegetables, visit the meat section and buy meat, poultry section for chicken and turkey and fish section for fish. If you buy food that way and cook it from scratch instead of Kraft Mac and Cheese, Mrs Paul's fish sticks or Sara Lee brownies in a box, you will be eating very healthy, lose weight and feel better.

I heard one nutritionist say you can eat anything you want--ice cream, cake, pie, pasta, whatever. The caveat is you have to make it all from scratch--raw ingredients--in your kitchen. I don't know about most people, but if I had to make ice cream, cakes, pies or pasta from scratch--NOT in a box ready to bake, there wouldn't be enough hours in the day for me to do that except for a special occasion where I was going to splurge.

I heard one nutritionist say you can eat anything you want--ice cream, cake, pie, pasta, whatever. The caveat is you have to make it all from scratch--raw ingredients--in your kitchen.

That's indeed the rub. I've had times that I could feel my heart beating faster, or my tongue feeling covered in salt from eating some sorts of ice cream. I even wonder if you can actually make your own ice cream without salt or if pasta made without salt tastes of anything halfway decent.

Not that I'd try, cause i would probably end up with some sort of bacterial infection afterwards ... ha ha

And even some kinds of fresh fish or seafood have high salt content. Bye bye oysters and shrimp. Even sushi doesn't taste the same without soy sauce. 😢 😢

. . . . And even some kinds of fresh fish or seafood has high salt content. Bye bye oysters and shrimp. Even sushi doesn't taste the same without soy sauce. 😢 😢

That's all a matter of what you get used to.

Sit me down with a platter of sashimi and I won't need anything other than chop sticks or a fork to make it disappear! Of course, some wasabi is nice to modify the flavor of some pieces is always nice.

The same goes for lobster and King Crab legs. Most people use a ton of butter on them. but I use almost none. The meat alone has plenty of flavor.

Sit me down with a platter of sashimi and I won't need anything other than chop sticks or a fork to make it disappear! Of course, some wasabi is nice to modify the flavor of some pieces is always nice.

A fork with sashimi or sushi is enough to ruin the flavor and the whole eating experience - with or without wasabi ... ha ha.

Anyway, a good alternative is to make a dipping sauce with dashi no moto and mirin ... still, I miss that salty taste ... 😢

. . . . still, I miss that salty taste ... 😢

Aww, you just miss the taste of BLOOD! 😁 😁 😁

This is an element that I attempt to visit with every examination I do through RP. I want to instill a sense of size awareness when I weigh my patients, for instance. Appearance awareness is also a factor. When I have patients disrobe, I like to comment on the marks and scars that designate their bodies as individual physical beings, such as stretch marks, surgery scars, and birthmarks, right down to the curvature and bulk of their stomachs/waists/hips. For me, seeing those aspects of the body gives me this limitless, indescribable sense of awe and amazement.

As far as the discussion content of this thread goes, portion control and fresh ingredients are the best way to lose weight. I lost about 30 pounds over the last couple of years through that method coupled with the lack of time I had to prepare large meals in college.

Even if you feel more comfortable being and talking with younger people (like i do) you're still gonna look old to them. Better accept it and enjoy the company (at least) while you still can. It's not going to get better.

@agracier This is the "hard to accept" part. I feel just as alive, just as vibrant, just as rambunctious as I did when I was thirty - in many ways even more!

I take pretty good care of myself, I have maintained what that same doctor called a "near perfect" BMI (6'-2", 195 lbs), but the inevitable just hit me like a head-on collision in the fast lane that day.

The George Strait song "Troubador" sort of played over in my mind. You know - 'the truth about a mirror' part. It just hit me that I am, indeed OLD, and that the perception of others is exactly that (...that I am, indeed OLD).

Just a bitter pill to swallow when you 'still feel 25....most of the time'....

Oh well - love it while we can, I guess...

You know - 'the truth about a mirror' part.

My wife never liked having mirrors in the house, certainly not for decoration. Now I am beginning to understand why ... there is always this guy I don't know looking back at me ... ha ha

feel just as alive, just as vibrant, just as rambunctious as I did when I was thirty - in many ways even more!

Tell me about it. And the worst (or best) part is that I know so much more and have had much more experience in the intervening years. And learned even more from being a member here these last (5-6?) years. If I had known even 1/10th at 30 of what I know now, oh my, what fun I could have had.