The truth about gaining weight is that it’s surprisingly easy to ignore. Sure, step on a scale every now and again and you’re quickly reminded, but friends and family tend to keep their observations to themselves. One place where you cannot escape harsh reality: fitting rooms.
Pants in your size are no longer quite your size. Your favorite t-shirts don’t fit anymore. And the joy once derived from seasonal shopping is largely replaced with dread.
Losing weight poses its own set of complications when it comes to clothing, a different frustration I’ve written about before on this blog. But I wanted to take a minute to remark on an exciting new development in my relationship with clothing store fitting rooms. Because in the same way they served as an inescapable reminder that I was putting on the pounds, they now offer the most compelling evidence that those pounds are indeed disappearing.
I’m well past the 50 pounds lost threshold, a milestone that is significant only for its appealing round number-ness. And yet I still don’t see or feel the differences that I sort of expected by now. Ten or twenty pounds, sure, the changes might not be noticeable. But 55 pounds?
It would be disheartening were it not for fitting rooms. It is there where I have found validation of my shrinking waistline. To date, I’ve lost three pants sizes. I’ve gone to more department stores in the last month than in the rest of 2016 combined, not always to buy anything but just to try stuff on and smile. I’m flirting with sizes I haven’t worn since high school, and my biggest concern when making a decision on whether or not to buy something is if I should buy a size that fits now but might not in another few weeks or buy a size that’s a bit too tight (for now).
It’s a great problem to have.
