No need for all those highly priced pre-made meals or points or costly professional trainer to get in touch with your body image. The answer is on four paws and most likely in front of you – your dog.  Should however, you not have a dog, I would strongly suggest rescuing one, waiting a year and then look in the mirror and you will have your complete honest and perfect profile.  It is recommended that the dog age with you however for the optimum results.

As I write this, I look at a photo from my attractive youth.  I am bathing my Afghan hound in the green grass, bathed in sunshine.   Those days, we were both sleek and classy with shinning long hair and poise that turned heads when we walked.  Ah, the years when I was just ready to enter the professional life of business and adulthood.

Later, I became paired with a perfectly bred Papillion.  He traveled with me in a Coach bag to the office each day, were I was a Vice President and Board Member.  My style, like his, was upper class, high dollar and a never ending supply of shoes to accent the suits and dresses I wore with the style of a magazine cover.

Somewhere between age 30 with my dog now age 36, a new dachshund came to live with us.    In his puppy years, even with his low rise body, he seems to keep up with the Papillion who was now in his declining years.  After he passed on, the dachshund became my constant companion, and since I no longer worked in the business sector, he would keep me company on the computer or as I did chores around the house.  It wasn’t until the installation of an old computer that I realized how “in tune” we had become!

When the old computer booted up, there on the desktop was his picture,  5 years earlier.  He had bright shining eyes and his red coat could rival any illustrated dog book photo.  I looked over at him at my feet, as saw the gray that now painted his muzzle and his dimmed eyes which saw little.  Then I looked at myself constructively and sighed.

Somewhere between 39 and 50 he and I both had grayed, put on more pounds than I wanted to notice, needed extensive dental work, our joints creaked and we snored after finding a comfortable spot to sleep at night.  Life became slower and more “comfortable” than “classic” for us both, and fancy dinners with champagne and Dior are now geared towards Crystal Light and knit lounge slacks.

Together, we watch television in the evening, munch on mutual snacks and watch our food intake.  He gets Senior Meal and I prefer Lean Cuisine.  Nevertheless, we both seem to be on the same road, and I can think of no better companion at this point in my life, just as in the years before in my youth.  It appears that we aren’t “what”  we eat, but “who” we eat with that defines our personal profile.