Thoughts On Clothes Shopping

by | Oct 31, 2017 | Blog

Clothes shopping. It can be risky business.

You might leave happy & feeling great about yourself. Or, you might leave feeling like the fattest slob to ever walk the earth.

It doesn’t depend on how well clothes fit you or the lighting in the dressing rooms.

It depends 100% on your perspective & mindset.

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I used to hate shopping. No matter what my size was, I hated it. I hated the way I looked in fitting room lights. I hated seeing something that didn’t look good on me. I hated carrying something into a dressing room only to realize it doesn’t fit.

I could walk into a store feeling great about myself & my life and leave the store feeling like a smoking pile of poo.

Seriously! I could walk in feeling great about my body & my progress and leave 15 minutes later feeling terrible about my body & my progress.

My body didn’t change.

My perspective did.

Even though I’ve lost over 100 lbs, I can still walk into a fitting room feeling great and leave feeling awful. I’ll tell you though – if you had asked me when I was 350 lbs how shopping would be if I was under 200 lbs, I’d have said it would be magical. I’d have told you there would never be a problem. Never a complaint.

I would have been wrong. 

It takes work to end the miserable self talk that often accompanies clothes shopping. But if you don’t do it, you’re always going to be at the mercy of clothes that run small & terrible lighting.

There is another way. I’m sure there are lots of ways, actually, including staying miserable and being that 60 year old who still comes home from shopping feeling bad about her body but I digress…

Here’s what has been a great practice for me:

I do not allow the rabbit holes of thought when I’m trying on clothes. I jus’t refuse to go there.

It fits or it doesn’t. I love it or I don’t.

That’s all.

If I start to notice “oh my gosh my arms look fat…” I turn it off.

Would I ever say “oh my gosh your arms look fat!” to my sister? Of course not.

So, I redirect. It fits or it doesn’t. I love it or I don’t.

I’m on my own side. That’s it. That’s all there is to it.

And: shopping is a freakin’ blessing. Not everyone has the means or the access to shop for new things.

But you do.

Refuse to be a victim of your circumstances.

 

Refuse to be complicit in your own misery!

Today’s workout was a legit full body workout. It felt great, as did my chiropractic adjustment afterwards! Yay for prioritizing my body!

“Criss Cross”
AMRAP 15:
60 Single Unders
15 Power Cleans
60 Single Unders
15 GHD Sit-ups

I’m really focusing on my workouts early this week because I won’t get to the gym during ASCEND Friday & Saturday!

On the food front:

After my workout I went out for a late lunch (first meal of the day) at Smashburger. I had a jalapeno burger without the bun and a salad. Both were totally delicious & it helps that I was really hungry.

Around 7pm I had a can of salmon (from Thrive Market) mixed with some Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayo (also from Thrive Market – bar far the least expensive place to get this and I go through it fast!)

Happy Halloween everyone!

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