GRANNY'S LOOKING BACK AT ME

I know I joked about Downton Abby, but I really am mostly English bloodlines.  I was obsessed with researching our Ancestry a few years ago and although I was very excited when I confirmed I had Irish back there, the dominant genes are English.

As I look in the mirror these days it is becoming even more obvious, I see Granny looking back at me.  I watch a lot of UK TV, I prefer the English programs to the Yank ones. I love the countryside, and the way the actors look so natural, unlike the plastic rubber stamped look of most of the American actors.  I enjoy the lifestyle portrayed, although I'm sure they think we all live on the beach in caravan parks or on perfectly groomed streets with brick houses.  But the more I watch, the more I see myself as having that 'English' look ( if there is such a thing).  I would have enjoyed looking a little more like Lady Mary and less like 'Granny'. But it is what it is.

Man of the House takes after his maternal grandfather in sooo many ways. German through and through. Looks like him too. 

What does all this mean?  Very little really, except that I personally find it satisfying, comforting even, to understand at a DNA level who I am, why I look like I do.

  

It dawned on me that we are so bombarded these days with shyte about looking a certain way.  The American way (for want of a better term), perfect, slim, toned, flat stomachs, hair straightened, hair curled, eyebrows, noses, teeny tiny little 'computer mouse' sized fat deposits sucked surgically from our hips or thighs, and pumped into our lips.  IT'S CRAZY MAN !

STOP THE ROT !! Fight the tyranny of the diet and exercise and plastic surgery industry I say.  And don'g get me started on music videos !

More Meghan Trainor, less Taylor Swift, please.  I know she's smart and lovely, but the body image it must be giving young girls is frightening.

For probably 3 decades or more we have been brainwashed about our appearance. Propelled by the money grabbing companies selling vitamins and weight loss plans and still we hear reports of the obesity rate increasing. How can that be?  The diet and exercise craze has been around so long, why is society still increasing in weight.  PROCESSED FOOD & SEDENTARY LIFESTYLE - for the general population.  The 'you can do it' paleo / gym enthusiasts were probably always going to be fit and healthy humans.  For the rest of us 'give it a go and give up' club members, the constant badgering sends us straight to the fridge for chocolate.

I figure if we could all go back to cooking fresh food, instead of fast food; eating around a table at night with our families and running around at the beach or in a park on weekends, instead of running to the gym; we'd surely be happier and healthier - and richer.

Although this pictorial evidence of my female ancestors would suggest a somewhat predetermined body size and shape for me.  It was never going to end well.

Now, in the interest of honest disclosure, I have to confess to a couple of 'procedures' myself.

The first, when I was 21 and had a nose like Barbara Streisand but without the voice to carry it off. Having some self esteem issue since being teased about it at high school, I sought help.  Although the teaser was a boy with red hair and freckles whose surname was Corn, sooo in hindsight, he probably had his own issues.

Yes, believe it or not, this nose is a reconstruction; it was 40 years ago. I often wonder if my glasses would stay on better if I had left it.

The second, although somewhat vanity inspired, was to lift the 5kg of genetically inherited extra eyelid I had hanging over my eyeballs, so that I could see better, even with my slippery glasses. 

I wonder, if I was offered a pill tomorrow that would strip me permanently of some weight would I take it?  Or enough free money to have a guaranteed 'safe' tummy tuck? Would I do it?

Probably, I'm on the road to acceptance, but I'm not stupid.

Ahh, it's a long road.