Today I would like to welcome Kim from ilax studio. I am so excited to have her as my tuesday guest blogger! I appreciate her style of writing and love that her posts are always very interesting and thought provoking. Enjoy!
Hi, I am Kim from ilaxstudio! I am a 25-year-old and live outside of Chicago, but do design work in the city. I am constantly trying to find balance between work, fun and rest! I am also a runner, and will hopefully be running a marathon in October this year, like Linz!
I was flattered when Linz asked me to write a guest post. I have only been reading her blog for a few months, but was instantly hooked! She is down-to-earth, honest and extremely relate-able. Thanks for letting me share this here, Linz!
How would you feel if you found out you were destined to end up with your mother’s body? Would you be happy? Ambivalent? Hysterical?
When I received the January/February issue of Women’s Health and saw the article “Are You Destined to Inherit Your Mother’s Shape?” featured on the cover, I immediately flipped to it.
You see, my mother was very fit and active when she was my age, but is not so much anymore. And we have so many of the same food habits (emotional eating anyone?) and characteristics, that I have always wondered if I will be unhealthy in my older years. I’ve always wondered if it’s “in my destiny” or really, in my genes.
What an awful thing to worry about, right?
Well, the Women’s Health article delved head-first into this fear. Apparently, I am not the only one who has it. Phew.
According to the article:
…peeking into your future isn’t as simple as taking a look at your mom. Studies suggest that while your genes may determine up to 80 percent of your weight and body shape, environment and personal choice still play a significant role. So even if you’re a dead ringer for your mother in old family photos, it doesn’t mean you’ll enter middle age with the same body.
So, your genes do determine a lot about your build, for example, the ease you have putting on muscle, or your general body shape, but they do not control your external environment – how much you eat, how much you work out, how much sleep you get, etc.
If I can continue exercising, eating a mostly healthy diet, and taking good care of my mind, I should be okay. And I don’t expect to become “perfect” – I just want to feel healthy. I want to feel good. I want to be physically active when I am an octogenarian!
Have you ever worried about inheriting your mother (or father’s shape)? Are there any habits you learned growing up that you want to break? Or are you someone who grew up in too healthy of a family, and are trying to be more relaxed about it all?
The article brought up a few other interesting points I would like to share:
- The gene Neurexin 3 is linked to addictive behaviors, which may trigger overeating, and explains why sometimes obesity seems to be “inherited.”
- “Researchers believe that each person has a baseline weight, a genetically influenced set point where the body naturally wants to be. If you end up more than 10 percent below your set point, your body will fight back.”
- “Women in their twenties and thirties who exercised as kids have less typically “feminine” body types than what was common amongst that same age-group 25 years ago. They have wider middles and narrower hips, and more muscular legs and defined arms—the result of years spent playing sports.”
Linzi's Life On The Run 
I would love to be destined to inherit my mother’s body. She has always been slim and shapely, even without exercising. She has kept her trim figure all her life.
However, I totally have my father’s and grandmother’s body! Both had larger frames and a tendency to pack on the pounds in the tummy. The dreaded apple shape. I also inherited their love of food. Oh, well, what are ya gonna do, right!
I am quite certain I’ve inherited my mother’s shape! That’s why I keep running. When she was my age, she was a size 6 and looked fan flipping tastic.
She had yo yo’d up and down thru her childbearing years even more than I and was never as much of a workout fan as I. I am counting on using my running/healthier lifestyle to combat that…um…gut my mom seems to have grown over the last decade or so. This is probably a good thing this is a guest post and I’m hiding out here! :0
You know what? I had this super long comment written out and then I was like… I’m not going to leave a post sized comment. Instead, I think I’m going to write a post about this on my blog since I have so much to say about the subject and just link back to here!
I love this post though! Extremely thought provoking in my opinion. It also taught me a lot that I didn’t know already! (Some bad stuff actually, you mean I won’t just inherit muscles? Bummer! haha)
Hysterical. I’ve actually never thought about it before since my mom’s lifestyle and diet are so vastly different from mine, but if I were destined to end up like her no matter what I did?! HELP.
❤ ❤
Very interesting info. I know my ‘family’ has a certain ‘shape’ to them, but I think although we may have tendancies to lean a certain way, we don’t have to. We control our own destiny and we can have any ‘shape’ we want. Okay, except, I wish I were 5’3! I’m only 5’0″, it’s tough!
As always a great post Kim!
I would LOVE LOVE to have my mother’s body. She has this beautiful dress that she sewed herself when she was 24-25 years old and she could still wear it up until couple years ago. She has done a great job of keeping her shape, eating healthy and being active that with a roll model like her I don’t know why it took me so long to make myself healthier lifestyle. She has gained a bit of weight now… but she is also post menapausal which even though she tries really hard, she is having a hard time shedding the extra few pounds.
Loved your guest post Kim! Yes I have worried about that and I’m pretty sure I get my small frame from my mom. Despite the fact she doesn’t eat very healthy she is still relatively “slim” but most standards. Like you, I’m hoping my continued healthy living will assist me later in life. 🙂
# “Researchers believe that each person has a baseline weight, a genetically influenced set point where the body naturally wants to be. If you end up more than 10 percent below your set point, your body will fight back.”
# “Women in their twenties and thirties who exercised as kids have less typically “feminine” body types than what was common amongst that same age-group 25 years ago. They have wider middles and narrower hips, and more muscular legs and defined arms—the result of years spent playing sports.”
I really identify with these two points. The first confirms what I believed to be the case when I recently lost weight. I reached what was to me, a goal weight. A good weight for my height. My body on the other hand was like, “Um, no.” And I lost weight until it reached a point where it was happy. I think this is an important thing for people to keep in mind when losing weight. Where we *think* we should be might not be where our bodies want to be.
The second point, I danced as a kid all the way till college. I have that same body type, defined muscles and narrow hips. Now that I’m lifting again I can see even more definition in my muscles forming. Love it!
ehhhh i don’t think it’s so much destiny. if it was for absolute sure i think i’d be okay with it. my mom is in great shape! and she even beat breast cancer. go mom!
but michael pollan made a really good point in his book In Defense of Food– eating habits USED to be handed down, but now we are changing our eating habits not just from generation to generation but WITHIN generation which is drastically new. i doubt any of us are destined to be our mothers when it comes to health and body. whether that is good or bad.
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Great guest post, Kim! This is an interesting topic. My mom has already told me that it didn’t matter what she did when she was my age, she never looked as good as me (I’m not being conceited, just repeating what she said!). I know I’ll have to fight the battle of the bulge, but I’m hoping that getting into good habits now will help later.
lotus4u – that is what I keep telling myself – this weight would be okay if it were stretched out (I were a bit taller!)
I am not so lucky – I inherited what I call short and stumpy combined with pretty busty, which is not the best raw materials to work with, when you wish you looked slim and athletic! I have a pretty similar shape to my Mom and the bone structure (re: big and German) of my dad… But I do have a great role model in my mom, she is a very fit and active person at the age of 67, and I hope to be as in shape as she is when I hit the same age. I guess we can’t do too much about the basic body shape we are given but we can sure be conscientious about the factors we do have control over – diet, exercise and lifestyle.
I’ve never worried about looking like my mom when I grow up. In a lot of ways, I hope I do! While I understand a lot of your figure is based on genetics though, I believe a lot of how you look in the future is due to environment, decisions, etc. I am definitely a nurture over nature believer. Thanks for the guest post Kim, very interesting!
Ive never worried about having my mothers body. Shes not perfect, but she looks pretty good. My mom’s always been a runner, shes stopped now (she thinks shes too old – excuses excuses) but she still looks pretty good.
My only concern is that I dont want her butt. She has NO butt! lol
What an interesting group of answers! I wish I could relate more to the people who have moms with a rockin’ bod! I did tell my mom the other day that I would love to run with her (she used to be a runner) someday. I’ll keep encouraging her!