Size Matters!

The votes are in and SIZE DOES MATTER. But it’s not what you think.

We live in a society where we are very heavily influenced, whether we like it or not, by what we see and interpret as the “ideal” body. None of us are immune to the effects of seeing a product being used on or by a beautiful woman, or of looking at advertisements (or store mannequins) wearing cute and attractive clothing in sizes far smaller than our own (and in the case of mannequins, usually pinned back to look much more form fitting than they are!). The  impact this has on a lot of women is “I want to look like that” or even “I need to look like that”, but in our struggle to get there, we sometimes get hung up on the numbers printed on the label, and lose sight of what really matters – how it fits and makes us feel!

I remember being in high school, a time when I was much more fit and slender than I am now, and feeling fat just because I didn’t have a washboard stomach. And then one day while shopping for jeans, for the first time in my teens that I could recall I FIT into a pair of size 5 jeans. Being a size 8 I was ecstatic! For all I know, it was one of the many brands that print a smaller size on the tag of a larger pair of jeans to help women feel better about themselves, but the fact is the trick worked on me and I DID feel better about myself. That is until a “friend” of mine cut me down by declaring they must be a “size 5 plus size” in order to have fit all 120 pounds of me. I didn’t dwell on it then and had a witty comeback unbecoming of a friend in reference to her breast size… but the point of the story is that it’s clear to me now that we allow the number on the tag to have far too much influence on us than we should.

Stop comparing your body to the scary looking
mannequins in the background!

When we buy something with a nice tiny number printed on it, only to have to squeeze into it and then see all our flaws on display, we are setting ourselves up for disaster. How can one remain dedicated and motivated to a healthier lifestyle when the jeans we wear barely button and put a muffin top out on display? When I make this mistake and look at myself in the mirror, all it does is draw negative attention toward “troublesome” areas, and totally kicks my motivation off course. It also leads to a lot of negative self talk for me such as “I worked out all week, why aren’t these jeans looser?!” and when I think that way, I quit. I’m not saying it’s right, but I am sharing the cold hard fact that when I don’t feel good about the way I look, it actually does more to demotivate  me than it does to encourage me to work harder. I just want to eat a plate of cookies, crawl into bed and sleep. It may not be the same for you, and if that’s the case, more power to you! But for my personal psychology, I have to feel good about myself to work on feeling better about myself.

So what do you do when you are dead-set against buying up a whole bunch of new clothes in your larger size so you can feel good about how you look (even if you don’t feel good about the size of those clothes, the numbers on the scale, etc…)? Well for one, you break down and tell yourself it’s going to be alright. I might need a larger size pants right now, but I am working on eating healthy and exercising, so I know that doesn’t mean forever. You also remind yourself how much more confident you feel when you are happy with yourself, and then you just do it. You don’t have to run out and buy an $80 pair of jeans or sweater from a department store, but you DO need to buy your right size, right now. Consider shopping at one of the many consignment and second hand stores available to you (Goodwill, Savers, My Sister’s Closet… do a Google search!) and spend next to nothing to feel GREAT about yourself until you reach your next fitness goal, which is going to make you feel even BETTER. Consider buying something with a little stretch in it so you can wear it even longer as you slim down, and buy styles, prints, etc… that highlight your assets and diminish the areas the bother you the most.

You aren’t going to reach that goal if you quit because you could see your “back fat” through a shirt that was too form fitting or because your tummy is spilling over a pair of skinny jeans you have no business wearing. I’m perfectly happy in my size-13 jeans when I can feel confident that eating a single Cheerio isn’t going to bust the button off!

So SUCK IT UP and forget about the size on the tag while you are reinventing yourself, and remember, dressing your size will give you more confidence, more confidence will make you more motivated, more motivation will make you more successful, and more success will make you happier! And who doesn’t want to be happier?