Real Women

I love, love, love Dove's new ad campaign. Finally, real women! It is so refreshing to see beautiful, confident women who don't wear a size two. Women who lead real lives. Women who eat. Women who love their unique bodies.

My quest for a healthier body started out, once again, as a weight loss regimen. However, I realized something this time. I have been on countless diet and exercise programs that eventually failed. You name it, I've done it. Strict diets, early morning exercises (and I am soooo not a morning person), pills, hypnosis, acupuncture. It was all a fight, a fight against what I thought was an unacceptable body.

Unacceptable? Says who?

Let me tell you about my best friend. My friend is a tall, "plus-size" woman. And she's gorgeous. Yes, she has a few extra pounds, like most of us real women. But she's also got something that many of us are missing. Confidence. When we go out for a night on the town, she flaunts her curves. She embraces all that is feminine about her- breasts, hips, belly, thighs. Let me tell you, this woman is more beautiful to me than any starving, workout-crazed supermodel. She is comfortable in curve-hugging clothing, in her naked skin, in her sexuality.

Thank god, and I mean that literally, that she appeared in my life. When I'm around her, I feel my own confidence rising up from within. I feel proud to be a woman.

Thanks to women like my best friend and the Dove models, I've decided that this time, I'm giving up the fight against my weight. Critics be damned, I am through with the struggle. After years of hating my body, I am finally ready to start loving myself exactly as I am today. I'm ready to embrace every inch of my beautiful, feminine body. I do plan to lose weight, but I'm doing it to become a healthier person, and I'm only doing it in ways that feel joyful to me. Eating delicious healthy foods. Moving my body more. Pampering myself with massages and hot baths. Not beating myself up for enjoying a cookie.

It is my hope that Dove is the first of many companies that will celebrate real women, women of all shapes and sizes and ages. It is so nice to be reminded that the most beautiful women are those who love themselves. After twenty-five years, I'm finally one of them.