I have on my skinny jeans today. Oh, they're not Hollywood skinny jeans or even twenty-something-year-old's skinny jeans but they're my version of skinny jeans. Tight clothes have never been my thing (I'm much more into comfort) and these hug me a little more than I like when I first put them on. Lucky for me they've got a little stretch to them and it doesn't take long before they're comfortable. They're still snugger than any other pair I own but maybe it's a sign I'm closer to being fashionable. Not that I worry about that.
And I'm sporting my skinny genes today...but then, technically speaking, I have them everyday. I was just reminded of them today when I was going through some old photos.
That's my mother there on the far right with her four sisters. Outside of Hazel (standing next to Mother), I don't think a one of them tipped the scales at more than a hundred pounds. Maybe Ethel (far left); she was a good bit taller but still. And while Erma (next to Ethel) and Edna Mae (in the center) have on loose clothing so it's hard to judge, I can assure you that they were rail-thin too. Heck, I think their hairdos weigh as much as the rest of them...but then, bouffants were all the rage in 1968. Come to think of it, the Hedrick women were pretty much rocking the skinny jeans then too, even if they aren't exactly jeans.
Experts say that up to 80% of our body shape is heredity with behavior and environment influencing the other 20%. Thanks to these good genes, maintaining a healthy weight isn't a battle for me. Of course, those same genes gave me short legs and skinny bones too. It's a trade-off; you take the good with the bad. I might questions those studies, however, since they also showed the tendency to exercise can be passed from parent to child. If that's true, mine came from the other side of the family because Mother didn't do anything athletic, although she'd come close to working up a sweat by the end of a mean boogie-woogie on the piano.
Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that who we are today, in body and in spirit, is a lot about the family from which we came. Old photos and skinny jeans will do that.
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