Enough!

I was sitting on the floor a few minutes ago, struggling to get my very grungy toe nail polish off. I’d inadvertently gotten sunblock on it and as most women know, that creates a tacky, gooey mess. Compound that with having been in the sun and my toes looked awful. I’d caught a glimpse of them while emptying the dishwasher this evening.

So there I was, sitting on the floor, scrubbing with acetone and I realized I wouldn’t be able to wear open-toed shoes to work tomorrow. Ok I’m capable of it but who wants to look at my or any other woman’s naked toe nails? This got me pondering nail colors. Not because I was going to repaint my toes at nearly nine. I was thinking of why women, particularly overweight women, paint their toes.

Let’s be frank, we can’t see them and it’s a hassle to lean over to reach them when there’s a gut acting as a roadblock. But when we do make the effort, it makes us happy, feel pretty, and pulled together, even when the rest of our appearance isn’t. In short, it’s the easiest thing to ‘correct’ about ourselves that doesn’t require a gym membership, a special eating plan, no discipline and we’re hoping it just might detract from our overindulged midsection.

Most overweight women I know have their toes painted on a regular basis, some fancier than others. I include myself in that statement. This is most prevalent in the nail salon. A spa pedicure does indeed relax and remove calluses but for larger women, its just plan easier to pay someone to sit at the other end of the massage chair/tub and make everything prettier, disregarding that we’re winded from a short walk from the parking lot.

Of course this form of, oh what do we want to call this twisted version of reality? Faux thin? Let’s go with that. This faux thin takes on other forms as well. I know a friend of a friend who insists on the best of everything but her two biggest weaknesses are expensive designer handbags and jewelry in blue boxes. She robs Peter to pay Paul just to make sure she can purchase those two items. We’re convinced its because those are the two things that don’t require you to try them on. No Spanx are needed to wear a fancy necklace, a purse strap will always glide over an arm. In short, there’s no size to slap the burger out of this woman’s hands and force her to see what she’s really doing.

We’re all guilty of it, taking the easier route, rather than fixing what really bothers us about ourselves. But is there a line we fat women need to draw and say ‘enough’? The quick fix, like a high, may make us feel better in the short term but once the shiny top coat begins to dull, so do we and we’re off to remedy that instead of taking twenty on a treadmill.

So I’m saying ENOUGH. I’m not wearing going to wear polish for a bit. Not because I don’t want to look pulled together but because no matter now fierce my pedicure is, it won’t change that I’m still overweight. Instead of attempting to draw the eye away from my tummy, I’m going to forgo polish for a bit and instead use it as a reward. The next ten pounds I lose will garner me a trip to the nail salon. In the meantime I’ll keep them filed and neat, so as not to rub against my tennis shoes while I’m exercising.

Daily lie for today: everyone will notice I'm not wearing polish and suddenly realize I’m fat.