Of Optimism and Clothing

When you're losing a significant amount of weight, clothing becomes an issue. Some people, like me, may begin with a closet bursting with too-small clothing, so at least you have a few things that fit as you shrink. (You may know how it goes. If you gain weight and it stops fitting, you can't bear to get rid of it. If you lose weight and stops fitting, you can't wait to get rid of it.)

Oh, yes, I almost forgot. Some time ago I called a local charity to pick up a donation. The donated items had been steadily collecting in my hallway as I would try on outfits and "disgustedly" have to toss items on the charity pile because they were too baggy. Here's a picture:

Isn't it purty? You can't tell by the photo, but there were come cute tops and skirts in that pile. But that's OK. I don't really miss them. (Would you?) I'm not even sad that I've "had to" start another charity pile. It's tiny now, but it'll grow.

OK, back to my point. Again, clothing becomes an issue when you have a lot to lose. Part of the problem is that you don't know how much you want to invest in clothes that fit you at your current (temporary) size. What to do? You certainly can't keep wearing the old baggy clothes. Baggy clothes don't tell the world that you're losing weight; they tell the world that you don't know how to dress yourself. So you have to do something.

Shopping in a local store is one option, but you may recall that an anonymous friend/coworker/sweetiepie left me a hint by way of a business card for a tailor. Yes, I took some of my better items to a tailor and got them adjusted. I made a mistake, though. I didn't point out that I planned on continuing the weight loss. Cut to a few days ago when I, for the first time, put on one of the skirts that I had adjusted. It was already too loose. Oh, sweet irony. So, learn from me: If you're in my position, be sure to tell the tailor to resize tight. Otherwise you're just throwing away money. (But don't worry if you make this mistake. You can't get too angry about it, now can you? I know I couldn't.)

Even shopping in a local store is problematic. You buy something that fits perfectly... two weeks later it's just a tiny bit too big. Oh, the local charities are going to love me for the barely-worn clothes they'll soon receive.

Another option, of course, is shopping online. But this opened the door for a different problem. Things were on sale recently, but here's where you run into trouble with different brands (particularly with athletic wear, which was all I was buying). I may be 1X or XL in some styles, but I'm still to big for most of the XL sportswear that I just bought. Sigh. (Cute stuff, too.) But that's OK, I'll shrink into them. I've got time. And at least I now have some more "Ooh, it finally fits!" clothing to celebrate later.

However, with summer break nearly here, I'll be darned if I buy any "real" clothes. I'll look like I can't dress myself if I have to; I'm OK with it. I've got two and a half months to save up and prepare for some massive shopping in the fall. That's going to be fun. But I'll still have to be careful. The journey still won't be over by then. What a perplexingly delightful problem to have.