Feb 04
This is not meant to be a dieting post. I’m not dieting, and I’m not encouraging anyone to diet, either. As I’ve gotten older I’ve found dieting to be a pointless exercise in frustration for me. I’m not going to discuss my weight, or say I weighed X ten years ago, or five years ago. Totally not the point.
The point is, I have a number of clothing items I can’t get rid of. A very expensive suit from Nordstrom I’ve worn once, and bought partly because I could fit into a smaller size in it than anything else I’ve ever worn as an adult. D*** you, vanity sizing!
I have several concert t-shirts I bought that were American Apparel brand, which of course runs so small even when I bought them a size up they did not fit.
A long puffy coat I can’t zip up all the way. A handful of fitted shirts from Brooks Brothers. I cannot seem to get rid of these things, even though some of them I don’t really even like! (Though I admit I loved the suit, and the puffy coat, and my Franz Ferdinand and We Are Scientists concert Ts.)
Will I ever get back into these things? Unlikely. My weight is what it is, and I’ve done three triathlons quite successfully at this weight, so…
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, for me insanity = dieting.
I recognize the items MUST GO. But I can’t seem to let go of them. The last time I wore the suit was 5 years ago. However, in September, I am taking all the money that has been sitting in my “clothing budget savings account” during this year of no-buying, just accumulating quietly, and I am going to spend it on great clothes that fit me perfectly. And I am going to get rid of everything that does not. Poof. It will be awesome. And all that guilt about not fitting into things in my closet will be gone.
Meredith
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Tagged with: decluttering, fit, weight
Mar 25
Currently I am facing a real pants problem. All of the pants that I wear for work (4 or 5 pairs of khaki’s) are too tight in the waistband. I suspect that this is due to two reasons: shrinking and growing. I purchased all of these pants when I started my new job 3.5 years ago, so I believe that over time they have shrunk from repeated washing and drying coupled with the fact that I am growing. Now that I am over 30 (ssh, don’t tell anyone…), I gain and lose an amazing amount of shape on various areas of my body. My waist line expands and shrinks in a way that I didn’t even know was possible. While I train to maintain consistency in diet and exerice, there are times when it is difficult (I recently tore my mensicus and haven’t been able to exercise for nearly two months). There are times when I have to work late, or have engagements that prevent me from getting in my exercise and sleep regularly. I eat pretty healthy, so that’s not much of an issue. I also quit smoking, which has led to some modest weight gain. All of these things equal pants that don’t fit well. Ordinarly I would just go shopping for new pants at the Goodwill and Ebay first, then ultimately at the gap to replace them, but being on the diet means that I’m going to have to get creative. For casual clothes this is always less of a challenge because I can take liberties in my creations. For work however, this is a different story. Thankfully, I had the foresight to purchase only wide leg pants, so the hips and thights are fine, it’s really only the waist band that has become an issue over time. In the immediate future I can’t starve myself, and I can’t just start doing aerobics on a bum knee, so I’m going to try to snip out a little rectangle on each side of my waist band and put in a small piece of wide elastic and then cover with a coordinating fabric from some older scrap garments that I have on hand (maybe even old tshirts?). I’ll post a tutorial on my personal blog and let you know how it goes; wish me luck. In the long-term, I forsee a trip to the gap to replace my pants once the diet is over. I think that if I can get a good 3 or 4 years out of a pair of pants and then use them to make something esle later, I feel like I’ve done my part to reduce consumption and balance comfort with consumerism. Moving forward however, I suspect I see more skirts with stretch waist bands in my future closet.
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Tagged with: balance, clothes, Consumerism, diet, Ebay, fit, Goodwill, modification, pants, personal blog, Refashion, shopping, skirts, temptation, The Gap, The Great American Apparel Diet, tutorial
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