Post Christmas Damage

Well, it is back to work for us here in Trinidad today, I hope everyone had a very safe and enjoyable Christmas long weekend. Now that the holiday has come and gone I have to assess the “damage” done to my diet over the past few days. Honestly, I did not have any ham, black cake, ponche a crème or rum over the weekend BUT I did have pastelles, scalloped potatoes and a divine chicken that my mom made which was rolled and wrapped with ham. Oh, I also had chocolate cake! As I enjoyed many, many delicious carbohydrate dishes over the weekend my subconscious made a “promise” to myself to cut out carbohydrates completely from January 1st, but I also came to another realization; I would never have the ideal Carnival body even if I starve myself between now and February 19th.

See, I think as humans, worse yet females, when it comes to our bodies we are own worse critics and judges. My husband tells me all the time that I, as a woman, have no idea what men find attractive in female bodies. He for one does not mind stretch marks, though I can’t think of one woman who likes to see those lines on her body. Similarly, many guys I know are baffled that I even want to loose weight for Carnival; to them “thick” is sexy. I believe “Karabana” said it once when I was talking about loosing weight in an earlier post; we can never expect to look like those girls modeling the costumes for TRIBE and Island People (among other bands).

But that is the ideal the bands themselves set for us to achieve, not that they are deliberately telling us we have to look a certain way, but with the girls they hand pick to display their costumes you cannot help but look at the photographs and hear that voice saying “that is how I should look in my costume!”. Fact is though, how many eighteen year olds can afford a $3000.00 costume? The majority of women playing mas are several years older than a teenager, with bodies that have seen children or have passed the age where loosing weight came easily or are simply blessed with curves. This is not Brazil or Venezuela where a surgeon’s knife can fix all our body ails, making those women “perfect” as they show off their sexy costumes; the women who play mas on the streets of Trinidad and Tobago are “real”!

So for all of the women who are now facing the realization that Carnival is less than 60 days away, counting how many calories were consumed on Christmas day, translating into extra pounds that have to be shed before Carnival, get real. There is no way you are going to look like the model in the costume photograph that you have stuck to your refrigerator. Now that we have gotten that clear, don’t give up on your goals, continue to eat healthy, get some exercise and set a goal to look the best that YOU can look come Carnival. No miracles are going to happen between now and Carnival, but with sensible eating habits, exercise and a realistic expectation I think we can all don our costume come Carnival Tuesday and be proud in our efforts.

And though we might think a huge spotlight will be on our love handles or little round belly or even our “fat thighs, just remember that among the thousands of masqueraders on the streets you are just one, and if anyone has time to be looking for flaws on others during Carnival, they have got to be a sour puss not having a good time! In the end, that is all that matters, really, playing your mas and enjoying yourself to the fullest. So take a drink, wine your waist and look around at every other woman, just like you and know that no body is or ever will be “perfect”.