fashion, my homeboy

Helloooo friends! Happy Wednesday.

I have my first Medical Terminology quiz today, which [of course] means I typed this blog post last night while procrastinating

Not really…. okay, yes really.

Anyway – I realize today is not a Friday, but I wanted to do a little fashion talking today. We’re going to resume with my weekly posts this Friday showing y’all an outfit from the week. But today I wanted to talk about my re-dedication to fashion since 2012 started.

Also, before I start my story – I need to admit something. I cut my hair!!!

I definitely did not intend to withhold this information. I just have been really lazy about actually doing it since cutting it, so I’ve been wearing it like this most days.

I’m sort of obsessed with it pulled back like this.. anyway.

Back to fashion – I’m sure you noticed, but my Feel Good Fashion posts disappeared somewhere around November. It definitely wasn’t intentional, but it just sort of happened. Also, completely independently (yeah right) around this time, I started slacking on what I was wearing. By the time I hit finals week in Mid December, I was wearing yoga pants to school every day.

I would have good days and bad days, but the “come to jesus” (if you will) moment really hit me when I attended a Childhood Obesity Conference a few weeks ago in business causal dress. I was wearing business casual pants that were literally falling off me, a cardigan with absolutely no shape, and no accessories to be seen.

I felt like I was wearing a sack all day.

These were my size 18 dress pants, which is now what my size 16s look like.

That night, I finally admitted to myself that I have shrunk out of size 16 pants and needed to move down to 14s. Even though 14s are a bit tight, I knew I had to make the big switch. I also can’t wear size large cardigans anymore, and officially am a medium there.

I did a little shopping and went home to watch What Not to Wear. While watching, I reviewed the rules Rachel taught me during our August shopping trip and remembered that I only need to buy things I LOVE. On WNTW, Stacy and Clinton urged their girl to push herself out of her comfort zone, trying stores and styles she usually turned her nose to. 

I took all these lessons to heart and the next day I hit the stores again. I challenged myself to break out of my normal stores and visit some new (to me) stores, now that I’m in a size 14 and a lot more stores carry that size.

First I went to Banana Republic and I shuddered grabbing pants to try on, thinking they would never fit. I’ve never tried on a single thing at Banana Republic before. Imagine my absolute shock when I tried a pair of grey corduroy trousers, size 14, and they fit PERFECTLY.

Plus they were on sale for $23!

This gave me so much confidence that I visited a ton of other stores and found MORE pants that were also on sale!

I realized a huge problem I was having when I was in 16s is that all my pants were the same. Aside from my skinny jeans, I was wearing dark bootcut jeans every day. They were baggy, so I didn’t feel like I could wear a baggier shirt on top. My options were so limited!

Now I have pants in different washes, different colors, different styles. I feel like I have SO many more options than I used to have!

Since then, I’ve been wearing all size 14 jeans and wearing a slightly bulkier or loose covering on top to cover the little muffin top I’m still getting with these 14s. I think another 5 pounds and they’ll fit perfectly!

In addition to being a size 14 on bottom, I’m finding I need more and more size LONG shirts on top to cover my long torso. Now that I’m wearing a medium half the time, it’s been a struggle with certain types of shirts to not expose my stomach when I raise my arms.

Therefore, I also went to the Nike Factory outlet and bought some new workout clothes that are my new sizes. I feel like I can finally focus on my workout instead of tugging my pants up and pulling my shirts down.

I’ve found so many great sales lately and I’ve felt so much more confident in my new clothing sizes. I’ve even felt more confident shopping and grabbing things to try on that normally I would pass up because I never thought they’d look good before.

I’m finding just shopping to gain experience in picking clothes for myself has been a really big lesson. Even if I don’t buy anything, at least I’m in new stores, trying on new styles, and focusing on finding pieces that I LOVE versus pieces that are “okay” because I need them.

I’ve found some amazing deals lately and I can’t wait to share them with all of you!

Anyone else struggling with their clothes and confidence while losing weight?