Striving for Perfection?

I like to recount stories about when I worked for a model photographer as a touch up artist... how I'd spend HOURS retouching photo after photo to make these beautiful models fit the mold of perfection. At first the photographer would walk me through each frame and tell me what he wanted to see. I got the idea pretty quickly and began to recognize what flaws needed to be covered, and what strengths needed to be strengthened, and I moved from photo to photo retouching -- EIGHT hours a day. Every photo. Everyday.

Being an artist and working for advertising agencies, magazines, photographers and learning what the ADVERTISER wants the public to see... I know what can be faked... ANYTHING!

Aisha Tyler, "I Don't Want to Be Perfect" [I]Glamour[/I] article:
Before: http://www.mahoganycafe.com/aisha/aisha29.jpg
After: http://www.mahoganycafe.com/aisha/aisha30.jpg

More examples here:
5 Resolutions: Retouching

By fasting, I'm not trying to meet the public view of perfection. I do it for spiritual reasons and to CLEANSE my body. The weightloss is a wonderful side effect and I do enjoy it, but as soon as I start eating, my body puts it back on until I reach my "set point" and I'm there until I fast again.