iwant2beaskinnybitch

I have never been overly interested in Eva Longoria. I LIKE her. I love Desperate Housewives and have always considered Gabby a fun character, but have never been able to identify with her until now.

Saddling Gabby with weight gain and frumpiness this season did not automatically warm me up to her.  In fact I was sometimes frustrated that she didn’t seem to be evolving despite the humbling kicks she had been taking. Good for her that losing her glamour and money did not take away all her moxie, but she just continued to do mean and stupid things.  I wanted to see her grow.

Well she did grow. She was growing all along, we just didn’t always see it.  The last episode I watched, where Carlos got his sight back, broke my heart. Watching it that night I WAS Gabby. I even got choked up recounting the episode to my husband the next day.

Like Eva Longoria’s character, I have gained weight over the last few years. It is common for that to happen to women after they have children and become housewives. Or is it a stereotype?  I am sure there are many beautiful and fit moms out there so I don’t mean to support a stereotype but since I am one of them, I assume it’s common.

Anyway!  The knee jerk thought is that when the weight starts packing on it is a reaction to the woman’s focus being removed from herself and onto her children, family, and household. Having lost the time and energy to exercise and changing her once healthy diet to grazing mac and cheese and bologna sandwiches, the new mom puts on weight.  It’s not always that simple, though, as Gabby reminded us.

Since the loss of Carlo’s big money career as well as his sight, Gabby has had more on her plate than just child care and macaroni and cheese. She had a household to maintain and a husband to protect. She lied and sacrificed to protect her family. For a moment we are irritated at her old tricks of selling a prized possession of her husband’s. But then we see that she has also sold all her jewelry, shoes, and clothes to make house repairs and pay the bills. Stress and worry can pack on weight just as quickly as bad food and bad habits.

Who among us can identify with those fibs of good intention, sacrifice, and worry?  I know I can.  And watching it happen to Gabby brought on realizations of my own, the most important of which being that MY happiness is just as valuable as everyone else’s and that putting it on the back burner is not the way to provide for and protect my family.

So this year my list of New Years Resolutions was influenced in part by Eva Longoria’s character, Gabrielle, on Desperate Housewives.  In addition to that, I learned that an actual resolution of Eva’s is to give up meat this year. Who knew we had so much in common?!