If you happened to read my blog yesterday, I named some qualities that I think makes us more attractive to our husbands. I skirted the issue of looks on purpose. However, realizing that our husbands are very visual creatures, our appearance is very important. There are about a million other women that are more attractive than me. But Mark seems to think I look like a movie star. Tells me that beauty is way more than outward appearance. I am not setting myself up as an expert here. Just being brave enough to confront some fears that we face with our appearance.
First of all, I do not believe that our husbands are so shallow that they expect perfection from our appearance. If your husband is really that shallow, he has a character flaw and you can only minimize character flaws with prayer, not nagging. For the other 99% of our husbands, I believe our men desire us to spend time on our appearance but not obsess. Obsessing is NOT attractive. I have spent a lot of money and time, doing just that...obsessing. At this point in my life, I am concerned more with eating healthy and exercising, and less on a perfect weight.
I will mention a few things that I have begun to do. My nature is to give a ton of "unwanted advice." I will answer any comments if someone wanted more details on my journey.
Step one: Make sure you are eating a well balanced diet and cooking these things for your family. There is nothing attractive about feeding your spouse and kids a bunch of take out food. I actually eliminated most of my dining out. Mark and I may eat out once a week on date night. There is just too many bad choices at most restaurants. I have learned over the years that you must eat tons of fruits and vegetables in order to maintain your weight. I have also learned that you need to replace meals at least once a day with a low calorie option. My husband sells Shakeology and he has finally gotten me to drink that once a day. I am hooked on it. Notice the subtle hint. I am supporting my husband because that is important to him. He loves me for drinking that shake with him!
Step two: Make sure you are exercising on a consistent basis. Let me add that I am not a former athlete. I was not allowed to drive out of the driveway on my bike. I am not kidding. We had 4 girls in our family and we played with Barbie dolls and read books. Since we could not leave the driveway, we roller skated, forwards and backwards on our carport. My mom was a tad overprotective:) I never played a sport. One day in 8th grade, I did try out for basketball and we ran up the bleachers, I threw up and never came back
My exercise journey began with walking. Anyone can walk. Next I progressed to riding a treadmill and reading a book while I rode. I read a lot of books:) In January I began, at age 56, to lift weights. Oh my goodness. I can lift weights with the best of them. Mark stalked me through the window of the Body Pump class to see if I was being careful. He decided that I was doing okay and he tells me all the time how proud he is.
Next big, big step...riding bikes with Mark. We ride about 15 miles together several times a week. It started out slow. I would not allow Mark to ask me how I was doing because it would make me cry. I could not say anything positive about riding bikes so I told him to quit asking me. Today I rode next to him the whole way!!! I rode next to Superman!!! He appreciates that I am living way out of my comfort zone. I wish you could see the smile on his face.
I want to tell you that I met Mark at a skating party. How did I manage to meet him? I was a little tricky. I came up to Mark and asked him sweetly if he could teach me how to roller skate backwards. He probably thought I was athletic because I caught on so quickly:) The rest is history.
I say all this to say that if I can ride a bike 15 miles, anybody can do it. If I can lift weights, anyone can. I have not met anyone yet who cannot walk for daily exercise. I believe that our husbands enjoy seeing us work hard to improve ourselves to be more attractive to them.
One last word of advice. Don't let the world pick your standards in appearance. Do not be conformed to this world. It will bite you every time. Good luck impressing your husband.
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