This 66-year-old is grateful for your essay--still dieting, still denying the cheesecake (well, on occasion), still striving for that distant goal of the last 10 pounds to lose.

I too feel as if I've accepted myself and my life--except in the bathing suit dept. after all those years of jumping and stretching to get into some lycra purgatory only to realize that the cottage-cheese thighs still dimple under the fluorescence.

We are what we are, and I think I'll direct my flagging energies into enjoying life and this ageing body that has carried me kindly through all these years--cheers!