Anaconda

The Anaconda is one of the largest snakes in the world. Native to the tropical South America its habitat is the water; however, it also has the quite unappreciated habit of preying on land animals visiting the shore line for a drink. It kills by wrapping around the poor sod choking it to death before swallowing it in one piece...

I met the Anaconda in April 2010 via email and it turned out that she is quite a specimen of her kind. Her name is Rachel, which is a rather sweet name for somebody who likes to choke other people in combat. She surely likes the water, although this is more the sight of her bike racing passion rather then her hunting ground, and she doesn’t live in South America but North of Britain.

So now that it is established that she is female, I should mention that she seems to be a very rooted person. Having lived in other parts of the country enjoying the years of education and first workplace, she is now back in her homeland in the North East to settle with husband and offspring, a little boy. This however is as far as it goes with the image of a calm and settled family woman. Never underestimate the Anaconda!

Whatever she does, she does it full power, whether it is the job or her hobbies – which mainly consist of sport. And see, that is where I came into the game. This woman has always been active, but now that she had quit the job to enjoy the family life for a while, sport has become a little bit of an obsession... well, some might even go as far to call her a bit of a nutcase. Due to aforementioned activities this lady always featured a quite substantial rear and the matching thighs, which showed a tendency to growth as soon as she increased her sportive endeavours, and when she stumbled across my website the thought of getting in touch for a bit of compassion and reassurance cropped into her mind.

For me those email exchanges were a fascinating reassurance of my own. This strong and powerful woman had so similar doubts to mine, for no good reason. How often did I fret about my shape, not believing my dear and supporting husband that he loved me for exactly this big rear? Oh well, my website was not just about bottoms, but looking back there is no doubt: The bottom started it. Sometimes I just wasn’t sure if I might be a bit bonkers to wrap a whole website around my insecurities, which on the other hand I had overcome as a consequence. And now this woman dropped into my life telling me that apparently I did not go entirely wrong in my points of view, and that what had worked for me was working for her as well. How wonderful! Oh we were sisters in spirit quite instantly.

Once it was settled that the fretting was not worth the effort, she really kicked off. The woman embraced what genes and hard work had given her and submerged in charity bike rides, training camps of all sorts, the gym and most of all: Jiu Jitsu!

Being a brown belt she already knew her ways, and with her newly found confidence she grappled her way through a series of tournaments, won her team the favourite training slot in a fierce battle against a strong male, and secured the Redcar Summer Cup for herself. Nobody escapes the Anaconda’s grip, once those legs take hold.

The Anaconda found her home, and the circle is closing! All this energy and passion, all this joy for life and the appreciation of freedom that a strong and healthy body can give are now channelled into encouraging others.

This July Facebook saw a new group called "I've got big strong legs and I'm proud" which as of today (4th October 2010) has accumulated 75 members. Reading through the comments it becomes clear: For those women the age of ‘Does my bum look fat in this?’ is over. These women embrace their stature as a signal of strength and confidence, and the Anaconda is showing the way!