I am hoping some of you who have been successful with weight loss can chime in.
I got up to my heaviest weight ever recently. In a moment of frustration and anger, I cleaned out my closet and got rid of every piece of clothing that was too small for me.
Big mistake!
Now I am committed to getting healthy again and doing all the right things and I have lost ten pounds! Woot!
Well, sort of…
You see, now my clothes look kinda dumpy and unflattering. I don’t really want to buy a whole new set of clothes in this size since I plan to lose 30 more pounds in the upcoming months.
So, those of who have lost weight, what did you do about clothes? Did you put a lot of money, time and effort into ‘in-between’ clothes or just wait until you had reached a certain goal? Did you throw out your ‘fat’ clothes? How did that work for you?
Hit Goodwill or some other second-hand store and get the minimum of what you can get by with for now. Then when those clothes get too large, do it again. Donate the fat clothes as it becomes obvious they will no longer fit you. Keeping them around will only make it easier for you to continue to gain weight back someday as you won’t have to suffer with overly tight clothing if you can just grab fat clothes from the closet.
I can do this for tops but for bottoms, I can never find my size. Finding things that fit properly (or can be minimally altered to do so) is very tricky for me.
I am short, have a small waist and junk in my trunk. Add to that the thighs of an ex-ballet dancer.
(Shirts are also a problem since I have big boobs but I usually just put a dart in the sides or buy it a size that fits the rest of my and show them off.)
Go to every store in the known universe and try on every pair of pants they have. Find the one that comes the closest to fitting and then have the waist taken in.
Needless to say, I am kind of pissed at myself for throwing out my skinny clothes.
I would hit up goodwill and buy a bunch of skirts and sun dresses, then.
This is actually a great time to experiment with dressing in styles outside your comfort zone, since they aren’t for “keeps”. When I lost a bunch of weight, I used thrift stores and I found some new looks that I never would have tried other wise.
On the bright side, even wearing ill-fitting unstylish clothes you are likely to get compliments on how nice you look, some thinking its your new look that they are noticing. And when you splurge on some new clothes that are your look and that fit right … they’ll really gush!
I did a clothing exchange at my dance studio. Each member brought in a couple bags of clothes we weren’t wearing anymore, laid everything out and went “shopping.” I managed to get rid of my “fat” clothes and pick up some smaller pieces that fit better.
That netted me enough work clothes to get by. I dropped three sizes in about six months, so I was the middle size for about two months. I am still wearing some of the new clothes I bought at that time, like skirts and such, but the waistline hangs really low on my hips. As my weight has stabilized, I’ve been slowly adding pieces when I can afford to drop extra bits of money here and there.
There are some stores, like Old Navy and H&M, that sell a lot of cheap, somewhat trendy clothes that aren’t inteded to alst very long. You aren’t buying quality and the price tag reflects it. That might work for the short term.
I have also bought some good quality clothes for cheap on ebay, however, I stick to one particular brand that I know fits. Do you have any brand that consistently fits you? If yes, look for more of the same on ebay.
Is there anyone you can ask to exchange clothes with? My mom and I (and sometimes my aunt) trade tops and bottoms as our sizes fluctuate. If you have any relatives or friends who are around your size or smaller, this is a great way to weather your weight transitions. And even though the stuff is used, it feels like you have a whole new wardrobe! Which, for me, helps with confidence.
So I’m not the only one who uses this as a measure?
I’m in a similar position. Skirts and dresses are a good choice, as mentioned. Right now, I have 2 pair of shorts that fit well, one that is a bit big, but I cannot yet take off w/o undoing, also two pair of capris that fit Ok, and a handful of skirts. I don’t have a single pair of long pants that aren’t too big or two small at the moment. But since it’s summer, I can’t see a reason to buy a pair either.
I am beginning to think I am unique but I don’t wear skirts or dresses for a very good reason.
Spoilering for TMI:
My thighs rub together causing a painful burn-like rash.
However one of my friends is very pregnanrt right now and she was about a size down from me before she got pregnant. I wonder if I could borrow her wordrobe until she gives birth/loses the baby weight? That should buy me a couple of months (I’ll have to pin up the pants and dart the waist on the pants but the rest should be fine).
Also, for skirts and dresses, get some pettipants to wear underneath, or just a pair of cheap spandex shorts. It’s SO comfortable to wear skirts then, it feels like wearing shorts to work!
Congratulations! Why not just have your current clothes altered to fit? Also Monostat (yes, I know) makes a product that works great for skirt chafing.
Another solution is just to do a lot of laundry. By two pairs of black pants that more or less fit and alternate them all week, washing on Wednesday. Wal-mart sells reasonable t-shirts for $4.
I did something like this. It was a bit easier in the winter when I could also get a couple baggy, long sweaters that you can wear for a range of sizes.
I first tried washing everything in really hot water to see if anything would shrink. Nope. That only happens when I don’t want clothes to shrink. All it did was fade everything.
