In the process of having two babies, I had gained a lot of weight on my already less-than-in-shape body. It was depressing to get dressed, my feet hurt so bad I could barely walk barefoot, and my blood pressure was high. And my babies weren't babies any longer. I was wearing a size 24, and even some of those were getting tight.
Because of my history of dieting, and low self-esteem in general, I was completely unwilling to go on a diet and restrict my calories, or, god forbid, keep a food journal, or do weekly weigh-ins. lol I have done all those things in the past, and I hated it.
It didn't matter how much I knew that to lose weight I had to diet and exercise. I was NOT going to do it that way ever again.
In determining the path I was going to take, I tapped and meditated. What I learned was that what I really wanted was to feel comfortable and happy in my own skin. My number that came up on the scale really didn't matter. What mattered to me was:
- that I felt good in my clothes
- that I was able to shop in "normal" sizes instead of specialty plus sizes
- that my feet didn't hurt
- that the doctor and dentist weren't bugging me about my blood pressure
- that my husband thought I was sexy
- that I stayed alive to raise my kids
The first thing I did was to get rid of all my clothes that made me feel frumpy and fat. It was easy to pick out the couple of items that I wore and felt pretty good in. The clothes that fit, didn't have holes or stains, and made me feel good were few....it left me with about 3 outfits. Everything else got bagged up and I drove it to the donation box.
When you have nothing to wear and your closet is literally empty, there's some strong motivation to get some new clothes. We were a single income family at the time, and we didn't have ANY budget for new clothes, so I went to the thrift store. For about $60 I bought myself a slightly used wardrobe that made me feel comfortable AND beautiful.
Mostly I found long skirts and dresses, this was a fall wardrobe, nothing tight around my stomach, and long enough that I could wear socks instead of hose. I shunned all the jeans and most of the pants in general. My husband had admitted to me that he thought I looked better in skirts and besides, my jeans were the first thing to squeeze me and make me feel fat. Basically, my wardrobe went from frumpy stay-at-home mom to business casual.
The energy shift was amazing! Suddenly, people were complimenting me everywhere I went. Suddenly, I didn't feel the stress of getting dressed in the morning. People wondered why I was dressed up all the time.
The next step was to go back to practicing yoga.
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