Well, it’s Monday, and I have to say this one dawned a little happier for me, knowing I was heading off to the Scales of Truth with a week of consistent training, hydration and smart eating behind me (rather than the week prior, when I’d come off of a week front-loaded with running and back-loaded with margaritas and cake. Talk about junk in your trunk!). In fact, I woke up convinced I’d be back under 140, since my dress fit me differently, read (less clingy).
How much does a banana weigh? Because maybe that large banana that I ate at 11 AM is what tipped the scales to 140.25 at 12:30 PM today. A loser, but not quite the big loser I’d hoped to be. In any event, I still feel healthier and lighter than I did last week. I am totally ok with losing a pound a week, I have more than four marathon-training months to get down 13 more pounds.
I have to say, though, this morning during my morning run, when I was still thinking my lucky numbers would be 1-3-8, I took at trip down memory lane with my four favorite pairs of “skinny jeans,” all of which I still own. I admit it: I was dreaming of a reunion. Here are their stories, in descending order, by weight.
135-138 lbs: ANN TAYLOR LOFT “Slim & Straight” JEANS — I bought these as a reward when my weight dropped down below 138 last year, in February, and actually had to get the waist taken in (that’s what I get for being curvy). I love their dark stain, yellow stiching, and back pockets. I was wearing them at my company’s March 2007 sales conference when the the CFO (who is a super-fast runner himself) asked me, “did you lose weight when you trained for Phoenix?”
130-135 lbs: THE LIMITED PINSTRIPE SLACKS — purchased as an emergency wardrobe enhancement during a different sales conference, these slacks make my legs look long (I have to wear them with at least 3″ heels) and the pinstripes can be dressed up or down. I currently have them hanging in front of my mirror for motivation.
128-131 lbs: H&M SKINNY BLACK PANTS– even though they’re stretchy, they’re not that forgiving as they are also very huggy. When I can fit into these pants and not look tasteless, I know I’m at my best weight. Full disclosure: I haven’t fit into them since 2005, when I was running 2 fast miles every single morning and existing on dinners of white wine and mixed nuts. What is it about women that compels us to keep a $25 pair of pants that are too small??
128 lbs and below: GLO “Juniors” JEANS, SIZE 7 — a gift from my cousin in 2001 (who was the sales rep for Glo jeans at the time), they were too small when I got them and I have only wore them once: two days before my wedding in January 2002. The chances of me ever fitting into these jeans again is (no pun intended) slim, and even if I did fit into them, I’d never wear them in public because they were so trendy in 2001 that now they are just simply atrocious. Huge bell bottoms, a double-buckle in the front, no back pockets (all three being bad ideas for those of us with prominent arses, swoopy hips and sticky-out tummies). Why do I cling to memories of these halcyon skinny jeans? For the same reason I got married, for the same reason I work in publishing, for the same reason I dream of qualifying for Boston: the value and tradition of the instituion!
Pigtails Flying 
What is it about women that compels us to keep a $25 pair of pants that are too small??
Because in the backs of our minds we think, Someday, I will be able to wear these again…someday.
I kept an entire wardrobe of clothing that was too small because I couldn’t bear to part with it. I told myself that I would be able to wear those clothes again. I kept a lot of really pretty (and pretty expensive) dresses. My “motivation dress” was a size 12 navy blue silk sundress with matching navy silk sweater from Ann Taylor. I wore that dress for the last time in June 2001 and it sat in my closet until sometime in the spring of 2007 when I squeezed myself into it, triumphant.
Of course now it and everything else I clung to all those years is too BIG. All of my size 10-12 dresses billow around me like parachutes. Now I’m keeping them because I want to have them altered. I’m not, repeat NOT giving up my size 12 Laundry pink floral silk halter top sundress!
I have a new “motivation dress,” something I picked up on sale at Anthropologie. It’s a size 6 floaty little chiffon number that I want to take with me on my Cape Cod vacation next month. I’m so close to getting that side zipper all the way up. Another five pounds and I’ve totally got it.
What a cool post! My big issue with jeans is that while I have a whole drawerful, I tend to wear just one or two pairs over and over: the two that fit/flatter me best at the time. Though honestly my weight hasn’t changed too much, so I really don’t have anything I absolutely CAN’T squeeze myself into, as unattractive as the squeezing may be.
I should really start using the smaller pairs as goal pants. Could provide me some good motivation…
Wait, I thought you got married because of my incredible masculinity?
rD
I love what I’m hearing…i could care less about the jeans and that floral sundress, but this sick fascination with keeping all your clothes is very good for business.
Ladies, if your closets are overflowing, check out http://www.californiaclosets.com and give me a call.
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