Problem areas? Finally peace with the body!

Problem areas? Jutta Duhm-Heitzmann quarreled with her stomach.

The stomach - for many a problem zone

There I sit now and howl. On the lap of my friend. No, he had not done anything, not yet. He just wanted to admire what I had just brought: the first bikini of my life. A dream for years. He was sweet, with little blue flowers. And now the shock: It arched in the middle! I had a belly! Was fat! It was obvious, a fat cow with a wet! Fat was: 55 kilos at 167, slim and everything in the right place, plump bosom, tight butt. Only in the middle, where it should be super flat, a little roll. From today's point of view a joke. At that time, not only the world collapsed: it rang for the first round in a lifelong struggle. He started with the camouflage clothing and its dark side: bodice panties - deadly for the spontaneous love life. Full body corset - once and never again. Later tight bodysuits, prettier, more elastic, body-friendly - nevertheless: what a joyless jest.

Crash diets up and down. All did not help Supported by abdominal exercises and sit-ups, feet clamped under the wardrobe, on, off, on, off on. Did not help. Dry rowing - good for the thighs. The belly stayed. It even increased - proportionally to the years and body weight. The reactions of the environment differed only in nuances. "Are you getting a child now?", A nice colleague asked, quite spontaneously - I could have strangled her. (By the way, you should really just ask this when the other one is already in labor!) "Worry, if the belly protrudes further than the breast, or if you have to lean forward to see the pointer of the scales", explained a compassionate friend. "You're not that far, right?" Comforting is different.

Jutta Duhm-Heitzmann, 63, works as a freelance journalist specializing in culture and politics

You're crazy, said the men of my life (almost) always. I did not believe them here any more than they did with their love stinks - both might be a mistake. In other words, my life was, in terms of the abdomen, a single failure. Any chance glance into a mirrored shop window became a stab in the heart. Every look at the new fashion a reminder of lost battles. My stomach is mine? Never, he always belonged only to others. And then, at some point, the fight stopped. Not with an aha effect, as was the case with the bikini. Not with a sudden tantrum on a beauty ideal that makes you an eternal freak with his "slender, slender, bellied". The end came creeping: Suddenly excited the starving models amused pity. The new fashion was just an offer that was once accepted, not even. And with the men? My God, that gets less anyway as we get older. Otherwise everyone should take me as I am. Everyone! Me too. Damn it, why only now?

After all, now. Finally. A completely new gut feeling. "Gut feeling" - that was until then only for intuition, empathy, instinct. Not for nothing is the belly for many the navel of the world, the actual seat of the soul. Maybe there are reasons to protect it, with a bit of padding against the shocks that permanently put one's life? So stay as you are, belly, plump, soft, unmistakable. Something to which someone can comfortably lay their heads. From time to time I torment you, shapewear, body - which is just what. But otherwise? Pants comfortable, blouses wide, pullover loose. Go then! No fight anymore. Finally peace. Are the bells ringing somewhere ...?

Problem areas? Anke Gröner did not like her legs

Legs - a confusing affair for some women

"Apple shape" - what a wonderful word. For years I envied women who were equipped with this body shape: lots of breasts, stomach, buttocks - and slender legs that fit in boots and slim pants and look great under short dresses. I rather have the body shape "Litfasssäule": everything oversized from top to bottom. Also the legs. About which I was particularly unhappy. Which is why I never wore boots (because I never found any that fit me), never narrow trousers (because they already failed on the lower legs) and above all never short dresses (that would have seen my legs - sinking of the Occident).

Until two years ago I joined a food coaching and learned to perceive food no longer as an enemy, but as a pleasure. The joy of eating made me happy without me having to do it: suddenly, I was not busy all day reproaching myself for not following any diet plans.Or that I just have to work a little bit to look completely different. Instead, I asked myself, Why do I have to look different, please? Why must not Anke Gröner look like Anke Gröner? Why do I expect from myself that Anke looks like Kate, like Gisèle, like Claudia?

Anke Gröner, 42, works as a freelance copywriter and writes on her blog (www.ankegroener.de), among other things regularly about her changing eating habits. Her book "Nudeldicke Deern" (240 p., 14.95 euros, Wunderlich) revolves around this topic

With the new look at food came a new look at me: If I eat enjoyably every day and do something good for my body, then it can not really be that bad. I can be proud of my body, even if it does not look like the many bodies that are presented to me daily in the media. And my body also includes my legs, which were so far covered by very wide pants. My legs still have dents and bruises, and I like sloppy shaving, but suddenly they did not want to hide anymore.

And so I bought the first leggings of my life and the first dress, violet and knee-length. For the first time, I did not creep humbly around because I was fat, but I was glad that my legs were strong and powerful. And although a fat man gets more disapproving glances, not a single one of them hit me that day. Despite a tight-fitting dress and my clearly visible thick legs. It seems to be correct: If you are proud of yourself and feel good, you do not have to run around in black high-rise tents that supposedly conceal something. I still do not know exactly how my eyes have changed. I only know why. Because I can not spend my time reproaching me with my body shape, in which I can change very little. Because I'm good to me now. Especially to my legs, which bring me well wherever I want to go. Also as advertising column.

Problem areas? Nina Grygoriew had problems with her butt

The butt - why do many women have so many problems with it?

When I look at him today, I can not remember why I was so ungracious with him for so long. For years I detested and fought him and talked about him very badly. He is actually completely fine. Not very firm and certainly not small and round, but with soft skin and pretty dimples over the top. Today I like him, my butt. Because he makes me the same as my voice or my laugh. Before love is about a twenty-year history of suffering, which began where all female figure problems begin - at puberty. While my breasts became an elegant "handful", my butt grew into infinite latitudes. This was the family diagnosis "breeches-thighs", which meant: The butt needs two clothing sizes more than the waist. In my case, a 42nd with 16. While my girlfriends put their perfect apple butt in perfect minis, there were only pants in my wardrobe. And 75-centimeter T-shirts - to cover my monstrous rump. Summer afternoons in the outdoor pool? Skinny dresses, shorts? I avoided.

Maybe the relationship with my back would have leveled if a classmate with a single sentence had not given me a year-long trauma: When I ran in front of him, he said in a whisper, but clearly: "If you see Nina from behind ... that's really a battleship. " After this sentence, my butt was no longer just a bit too broad body part, my butt was my enemy, which I hated and for which I was ashamed. Although I almost never saw him myself, he became an ongoing theme in my mind. And reason for countless fitness classes, panties - not hip then, but for women in their 70s - and of course for diets. The only one insight brought: If I took off, then on the upper body, when I increased again, then on the butt. The highlight of our war: At the age of 27 I sucked the fat off. After that, I thought everything would get better.

Nina Grygoriew, 40, writes as a freelance journalist on psychology, fashion and cosmetics

It got better. First and foremost, because getting older means not only becoming more wrinkled, but also smarter. And more relaxed. I discovered that you can dress sexily without leaving the skirt short under the pubic bone. That women with apple butt from mid 30 to tend belly. And that men usually see things differently. From time to time someone said to me: "I do not like your hairstyle" or "I'm sorry, but we do not have the same goals". "Your butt is ugly and too thick," never one said. On the contrary, one or the other even found him beautiful. And I realized that he probably is. Although he is far from perfect and until today does not fit in size 36. Meanwhile, my T-shirts are short and my jeans tight and my feeling with it: wonderful. Recently, a colleague said to me: "In the pants, your butt looks crisp." That's right, I thought. But not on the pants. It lies on the butt.