My Clothes Don’t Fit!

“My clothes don’t fit! Now what will I wear?”

After a long hard, cold winter, I look forward to warm weather. When the days start getting longer and the wind feels mild I am full of joy. In that same spirit of happiness and hopefulness I pulled out my warm weather clothes. I was so excited to be trading my wool for seersucker!

That’s when I found out my clothes don’t fit!

I call it “shorts shock.” I was shocked that I couldn’t pull. the shorts that fit last summer, up over my hips. Frantic, I would try on the rest of my shorts. Some would go all the way up but wouldn’t zip and some zip but wouldn’t button.

One pair zips and buttons, but I can’t breathe. The waistband digs into a soft roll of flesh that wasn’t there last year when short season ended. The large, doughy, white thighs coming out of the short’s legs don’t look familiar.

I’ve lived and relived through short shocks more times than I care to recall. I’m happy that I finally learned how to get through winter without gaining weight. Seasonal weight gain is a distant, though indelible, memory.

If ever I feel like letting my better eating and exercising habits slip, all I have to do is remember this feeling and I'm recommitted to maintaining!

If ever I feel like letting my better eating and exercising habits slip, all I have to do is remember this feeling and I’m recommitted to maintaining!

More than 20 years of maintaining my weight makes it so I can still wear the clothes that fit me that long ago.

Of course, that’s if I wanted to wear them. I wore some funky mom jeans, and some crazy dresses with serious shoulder pads. I can wear clothes until they’re worn out or I don’t want to wear them anymore. I like that.

Some of the things I do that allow my weight to remain stable are easy. They feel natural. Some of the things I do are not as easy. They require mindfulness. I do them because I know that if I let these behaviors slide I will begin to gain weight.

Sometimes I want to eat too much. Sometimes I do eat too much. I have to pay attention to how often I eat too much and how much too much I eat. It could easily become a habit again.

Sometimes I’d rather sit and I can easily forget how long I’ve been sitting. I need to remind myself to get up to get moving. I could easily revert back to being sedentary.

It’s important to want stay at goal if I am going to stay at goal. It requires work. It’s always going to require work. I need to remember what the benefits are for doing that work.

Clothes that fit, year after year, is indeed a motivating benefit!

 

Jackie Conn

About Jackie Conn

Jackie Conn is married and has four grown daughters and four grandchildren. She is a Weight Watchers success story. She's a weight loss expert with 25 years of experience guiding women and men to their weight-related goals. Her articles on weight management have been published in health, family and women's magazines. She has been a regular guest on Channel 5 WABI news, FOX network morning program Good Day Maine and 207 on WCSH.