Yesterday was one of those days when I looked good, and I could feel it – all the way from my head to my toes. There wasn’t anything spectacular about the outfit I wore. I’ve worn it before. But it fits nicely, the colors are MY colors, and I just feel good in the outfit: black pants, a fitted blouse in various shades of blue and teal, a tiny black belt, and sparkly earrings that matched the blues and teals. It must have shown, because I had at least a dozen people at church ask if I had lost more weight. Truth is, I’m faithful about weighing every day. So I know that my reality is that I have maintained, within two or three pounds, for several months now.
My guess is that this outfit highlighted the effects of the foundation garments I have started wearing. They are not necessarily the most COMFORTABLE articles of clothing, but they do their job quite well (hence the various comments about my weight). And I have become acclimated the extra layer of clothing and the feeling of having everything tucked into a neat package – no lumpy love handles, no unsightly overhang, and no bulges anywhere. Pants or jeans slip on easily and I don’t have to “suck it in.” Dresses and skirts slide on and drape beautifully. This “shaper” has become a regular part of my wardrobe. I like the silhouette it gives me, and I cannot imagine going without it. In my not too distant past, I really would have laughed aloud if you told me that I was going to wear a girdle – or that I was going to like it. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.
It took a little bit of time to get used to the feel of this undergarment. As an obese woman – I can tell you COMFORT was my number one goal. I didn’t want anything tight – I didn’t want anything binding – and I really didn’t want anything that was going to make me hot. I figured I wasn’t going to look good in anything anyway – so it didn’t really matter, right? (OK, I will be the first to admit that attitude was pure laziness. There are things that I could have worn that would have looked much better than what I DID wear, but I certainly wasn’t going shopping for those things. And I certainly wasn’t going to give up the comfortable, loose, flowing garments for anything else.) Granted, my choices have definitely expanded - there are many more cute, fitted clothes for someone wearing a medium or a large, than there are for someone wearing a 4x or 5x – but my opinions have also expanded, and I’m now willing to put a whole lot more effort into finding something that looks good.
I had an important life conversation with a close friend yesterday. She has also struggled with weight issues. The conversation was about how much of life we missed simply because we were overweight: the clothes we didn’t wear, the places we didn’t go, the things we didn’t enjoy, and the memories we didn’t make. What a waste – to allow something like a WAIST to govern my choices about life. Sometimes, that couldn’t be helped. There are still places that refuse to make any accommodations for obese people. Many, many more times though, the barrier was in my head – staring at my image in a mirror, refusing to go or do or be because I was too fat. How sad!
My new resolution is to live every single minute of every single day for the rest of my life! To try new things, without regard for what I think other people might think of me. To wear that bathing suit and go to the beach just because it makes ME feel good. Never again to allow my weight to be the barrier that keeps me from doing something I want to do!
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