Did that get you to open this post?
Actually, it´s not as funny as you might think. You see, when I put on that cotton blouse yesterday, I found out that my chest circumference has gone down quite a bit since last summer. And that means that all of my summer blouses I bought at my former weight are getting quite loose up front. That´s not so bad if they button up to my neck, but I have several favorites that have the buttons end about two hands´width benath my throat. When worn by a person of the size they were made for, that´s not too bad in terms of modesty, but now, I can either put a vest on top (and button it) or I might wear a scarf (not so great when it´s hot). Otherwise, the act of bending forward, or even standing opposite someone who is taller than me, will provide any person opposite me with some unwanted insights in the workings of my wardrobe. Having my bra peek out is where I draw the limit of cleavage.
When I was at my top weight, I bought myself, in a last-ditch effort to contain my condensable matter, a whole drawer full of spandex tops in different colors. These are, as they look like ordinary tank tops, modest enough to be peeking out, but...these are getting wide, too!
Replacing all of them would, at the prices they demand for those things, cost half a fortune.
But there´s a chance I won´t have to yet. You see, back then I bought way too many of them, and went on to put them into a drawer for storage. And that means that only the top ones have seen substantial use, while there are actually ones that were pushed to the back of that drawer unworn and remain so to this day. They´re skintone, too, so won´t show through a white blouse. And I discovered, when pulling them out, that the ones I have been continually wearing must have become stretched out beyond the material´s ability to snap back, because the unworn ones are still sufficiently tight even on my new shape to be worn, even if they are not as tight as the manufacturer´s size recommendations would have it.
Which means sorting out the stretched ones and wearing the new ones as long as possible.
And another shopping trip avoided.
The sheer number of such items I have bought, as well as the fact that there are so many of them still unworn after about seven years, is actually a big red flag for me. Even if something works for me, I do not need more of them than I would need in a maximum of two laundry cycles. Everything above that will likely end up as wardrobe clutter.
Actually, of course, I had been so glad to have found them in my triple x L size at all that I thought I had to buy a stash of them to last me for the next ten or twenty years. What I hadn´t counted on was the possibility that I would lose that excess weight before they were worn out.
But that´s what has happened, and now I have reached a point where I know that even the as yet unworn ones will be too wide soon, if I continue condensing myself. Then again, if and when I´ll have to go shopping for a smaller size, I can tell now how many I really need. As many as there are stretched-out ones in that drawer. And not a single one above that.
It sometimes seems as if the topic of portion control were something that keeps coming back for me. The difference between enough and too much.
But I´m working on it.
Julia
No comments:
Post a Comment