I've changed shape! Have you?

I was 5ft 6ins and weighed about 8.5 stone before I had my son. I was in a very active job walking a lot I went the gym and aerobics most nights.
I had my son at 31 my weight was about 10 stone when feeding him I lost the weight. I had my daughter at 35 and was getting divorced my weight plummeted to 7.5 stone and stayed like that through stress.
I remarried at 40 and the weight increased to 10.5 stone it’s more or less stayed that but my height has decreased by over an inch. I look ok but I have a tummy and lost my waistline. I am mentally sound but I am riddled with arthritis which gets me down at times.

When I look at my figure from the side view in the bathroom mirror it certainly isn't flattering but I remind myself that I'm alive and reasonably well apart from the arthritis.

There's that phrase which I read once (if I should ever get myself a toy-boy - highly unlikely) about one's imperfections - that the men don't mind and the boys don't matter.

Slightly bigger bust measurement even than when I was pregnant and breastfeeding. Slighlty bigger waist. Hips the same. 2kg lighter than I was when I was 15.

I put it down to ageing and (ageing) hormones and don't care two hoots.

I was painfully thin at less than 8 stone when I met DH, 52 years later I tell him I tell him he has 25% extra free. Unfortunately it's on my hips, bottom and thighs.

But we have to contend with the changes in body shape, size and distribution of fat that comes with age.

I am 2 inches shorter than I was, and all that shortening is down the spine. That is where it happens. As I said I weigh much as I did at 21, but while I was slim then, I have a round body now and too much fat because my body is so much smaller.

No, it's not impossible to exercise, diet, walk - be fit. It's setting aside time, doing the work. And a bit of genetics. My opinion.

I don’t think it’s impossible, look at Jane Fonda or Jane Seymour for example. My Pilates instructor also looks amazingly slim and fit for her age, and I’ve got a sporty friend who also does. I do think you have to work really hard and keep your muscle mass as high as possible to maintain a good figure as you get older though, which most of us aren’t able or willing to do. I’d guess the percentage of people who weigh the same or less than they did when they were 21 at 60+ is very low too, I wish I did.

As you get older, weight redistributes itself, also as the cartilege pads between are vertibrae get thinner, as they do with age, we shrink in size, but all the heught koss is in the body not the legs.

I weigh less than I did at 21, but have a much bigger waist. In fact I sometimes compare my current shape with a spider. Long arms and legs with a little round body in the middle.