Back in my early 20s, I loved getting dressed every day for work. Not only a different outfit every day, but even a different hairstyle. Sometimes up or with a barrette or curled. I enjoyed it all. But then I got engaged, got married, had kids, and gained weight through it all. Playing in my closet became way less fun. The color black started to invade my wardrobe. I defended it (and still do, because I happen to like wearing black no matter my weight) as classic, but truth be told, I had just lost interest in the fun of getting dressed and black was easy.
Quite honestly, when you’re overweight, you’re quickly relegated to shopping in just a handful of stores. Stores that are devoid of the latest fashions or trends, adding insult to injury. How could I be interested in fashion?
And now? Some fifty pounds lost? It has seriously become a joy again. I have discovered J. Crew, Abercrombie & Fitch and even Lauren Conrad’s line of clothes. More importantly, black is no longer the focus in my closet. There is color, and lots of it, although I do still frequently break out the black, it’s now more often paired with a light purple, pink or some other fun color of the rainbow spectrum, not black on black on black.
I couldn’t even fit into J. Crew clothes before, now I’m a medium. A Lauren Conrad sweater I bought a few weeks ago was actually a small. It doesn’t cease to thrill me on a daily basis. The time when it took me forever to get dressed because I felt like I had nothing to wear, and nothing looked good, is gone. Unfortunately it has been replaced with the fact that it now takes me forever to get dressed because I have choices … and now I just have a hard time choosing. ‘Tis a good problem to have. This is the first year in I don’t know how long that I actually bought an outfit to wear for Christmas, right down to accessories.
The weight I have dropped this year has brought me happiness in so many different and unexpected areas, and having choices when I get dressed in the morning is a big one. It frustrates me a little to know that this was, of course, well within my reach the whole time, but I didn’t do anything about it. I just wasn’t ready to make the leap, and I missed out because of that. I hadn’t had that “magic moment” when I finally motivated myself properly enough to turn the corner and fix me.
Onward and upward, folks, onward and upward.
Project 365
December 6, 2010, Photo #247
It was about the time that Madeline was starting to rifle through the doctor’s drawers, both she and Nick started kicking each other and the yells of “You’re a weirdo.” “No, YOU’RE a weirdo!” escalated that the doctor finally came into the office to rescue me.
P.S. Last year, I watched as a number of my favorite bloggers raised money to build wells for clean water in Africa. This year, I joined in. A call went out for interested bloggers and crafters to donate items to an Etsy shop, and the shop opened up today. 100% of the proceeds are going to build wells in Africa. Last year, enough money was raised for two wells. What will this year’s efforts bring? I donated three prints from my own Etsy shop, and as of this afternoon, was thrilled to see one of them has sold already. The Water4Christmas Etsy shop just might be the perfect spot to get something for that hard to shop for person on your gift-buying list.