Oh, Cindy.  You’ve done it now.

Edit: Since I posted this, I’ve been told this photo is fake.  But it is still ON, Cindy. 

The legendary supermodel Cindy Crawford recently released  an unretouched photo of herself in lingerie.  First of all, I applaud her. In a society where so much of a women’s worth is measured by appearance, I think this was a very brave act. She looks like a normal middle-aged mom.  A pretty good-looking one at that.  With the  average size of the American woman today being a size 14, she is normalizing normal.   Bravo!

Vain creature that I am, however,  I take this photo as a challenge.  By the summer, I hope to be posting my own similar photo. Without the fur or feathers or whatever that is.  I see this as possibly the only opportunity in my lifetime to be able to say that I rival Cindy Crawford in a two-piece.  Yep, I can jack up my boobs and tone up the old abs.  I’ll never have the height, but my daughter does have a fedora I can borrow.

What this photo has really done is set me back on a regular course of exercise, which I desperately needed to do anyway.  It wasn’t that long ago that I spent half the day, 6 days a week at the gym.  I worked with personal trainers who nearly killed me.  Although I haven’t been completely sedentary, I’ve slacked off quite a bit since my gym rat days.

Winter is a crappy time to work out, especially to start a routine. Your natural instinct is to hibernate, cook and eat.  At least mine is.  My exercise of choice is hiking the hills in the beautiful parks near my home. And I am NOT doing that in below freezing weather.  Sorry.   I’ve been using our elliptical and weight machines, and adding to my routine gradually.  Regular exercise releases endorphins and they go a long way toward an improved mood.  We all could use a bit of that, with this nasty, gray winter we’ve had.  With me, it also becomes something of an obsession.  Once I get in the routine, I feel guilty if I miss a day.  (I know, I’m working on that obsession thing.)

So thank you, Cindy, for posting this photo.  You’re an inspiration for the over-40 crowd.  You’ve also inspired me to get up offa my thang and get my ass back in gear.  I appreciated that.  We can all use a good swift kick once in a while.