Look in your closet. Do you have your sacred pair of “fat pants” neatly folded on the top shelf on the off-chance that you might need them? Or are they rumpled up on the floor because, well, you had an off day?
One of the best things I did for myself was I decided to throw out all my “fat pants” and commit to only keeping my “fit pants.” I did, however, build up quite a collection of skirts… Allow me to explain.
A few months ago, I pretty much lived in skirts for work. Not the short, shapely pencil skirts, but the knee-length, flowy, stretchy kind that hugged my waste. They looked awesome, but honestly, I hate wearing skirts all the time. And I wasn’t wearing them for looks purposes. They’re cold. And, since I never really wore them before, I got a lot of, “You’re so dressed up and look so nice today.”
My response: “Not really. I’m just too fat for my work pants.”
OK, so not really. I’d give an uncomfortable smile, mumble a thank you, then move along. What can I say, I’m just awkward like that.
When I graduated college and got my first full-time job five years ago, I bought several pairs of work pants – all size 14. I then moved away for my job where I proceeded to live through the worst year of my life. Throughout that year, I had lost a significant amount of weight. When I moved home and started a new job, I decided it was time to replace my work pants with ones that actually fit – all size 6.
Not gonna lie. I was elated. I mean, sure, I was also scared because a big reason for the weight loss was due to my autoimmune disease, but the consequences worked in my favor and were then controlled before becoming life-threatening.
When I realized I was down to a size 6 – a size I had never worn before – I swore to myself that I wouldn’t allow myself to buy a bigger size. To me, that meant making weight gain acceptable. No. I wanted to make sure that if I started gaining the weight back that I had to be stuck with being uncomfortable so that it wouldn’t get out of control. For the past three to four years, it’s worked really well.
And then a few months ago, they got tighter and tighter until one day I looked in the mirror and thought, Come on, who wears pants this tight? You look like you’re trying way too hard.
I was so unhappy, and it was so tempting, but I still wouldn’t allow myself to buy the next size up. For better or worse, I decided to stick with skirts until I was able to fit back into my work pants. This could have completely backfired on me because wearing skirts got really good to me for a while. As nice as it was, though, I’m just more comfortable – and warm – in pants.
Today, after several months of working to get my weight back under control and seeing moderate improvement on the scale, I’m comfortably back in my size 6 work pants – no awkward stretching, no “trying too hard.” The downside is that I’m still not quite where I want to be, and now I’m having a little bit of trouble staying motivated… Still working on that.
Moral of the story? If you get rid of all your “fat pants,” and don’t let yourself outgrow your “fit pants,” it makes it a lot easier to keep your weight under control. So what about my skirts? Sure, maybe they’re just my “fat pants” replacement, but hey, at least they’ll still motivate me to get back into my “fit pants.”
Badass Is the New Skinny 