Post-BFL Shopping Trip Report

[Guest guest]

When I started BFL, I swore that I wouldn't go shopping again until

I'd finished at least one challenge and was at or close to goal

weight.

Well, after a month of spoiled Florida weekends thanks to three

separate hurricanes, I decided to treat myself to a trip to the posh

Millenia Mall today for a free day meal at the California Pizza

Kitchen (I had the Thai and Mediterranean spring rolls and a half BBQ

Chopped Chicken Salad…and still couldn't finish it all. My stomach

demanded a break once I hit slightly over BFL portion size, LOL) and

some clothing size testing.

I hit the Forever XXI store in search of a cheap party top to kick off

my return to Singleton status and discovered that my new lack of

frontal body fat (i.e. I've got no chest left) and 25″ waistline now

put me firmly in Small territory for sleeveless tops and S/M for all

others! Whee! My arms aren't going to shrink into XS sizing since I

plan to keep lifting weights and erm…I have no more body fat left to

lose in my relatively wide-shouldered torso (sniffs), so I figured it

was safe to buy three cute party tops.

Next, I headed out to try some pants at a place with standardized

sizing. Forever XXI is nice for trendy party clothes, but the pant

sizes are all over the place. Anyhow, extended exposure to that store

will cause the catastrophic loss of IQ points in any mildly

intelligent, independent woman over the age of 22 and under the age

of 40. Besides yours truly, the entire clientele of that store

consisted of 5′ tall tweeny boppers with the conversational depth of a

Wheat Thin, round-shouldered, squishy hoochies bursting out of

too-small tube tops who SHOULD be on BFL, and 40-something,

artificially-tanned, breast-augmented sugar mamas towing their

sheepish-looking boy toys around. LOL. Female intelligence and class

does NOT display to advantage in clothing stores catering to the

trendy, clubgoing set.

I wound up at the Gap and trotted into the fitting room with about

eight skirts and pants to try on in sizes 4, 6, and 8. I could pull

the 8's on and off without unfastening them. 6 had some comfy room in

the leg, but was 2″ too large in the low-rise waistband–a problem I

run into a lot. 4's were PERFECT. OMG. Size FOUR! I started BFL in

May as a comfy size 9/10 or 11/12 in bottoms and a stock size L in

tops.

I celebrated by picking up three pairs of size 4 pants (on sale, of course).

I checked out the Juniors department on the way out through Macy's,

too. Size 5 or 7 in Juniors pants.

Shopping is infinitely more fun when everything you try on looks good

and skims your body properly.

Whee!

That reminds me…WHY do women insist on wearing clothes that are too

small for them? I saw so many females at the mall today wearing

hiphuggers that were digging into their sides, back, and bellies,

making them look lumpy and flabby, even though most of them were young

and relatively slender. Then there were the not-so-slender gals in

tube, spaghetti strap, one-shoulder, or tank tops and stretch jeans

that were bursting at the seams. Lump, roll, lump, roll, lump. YUCK.

I don't care if you CAN compress your fluffy assets into a size 8 or

6–if you, as my sister puts it, look like a size 14 sausage in a size

8 casing, you ain't foolin' anybody. Nobody is impressed by a woman

who brags about being a size 6, but obviously needs to be in a 12. I

wanted to shout, " If you have to suck in your breath to fasten it,

that piece of clothing is NOT for you! "

It was also interesting to walk around and realize that most of the

women I saw didn't work out, at least not with weights. The slender

ones were either very young (12-24) and gangly with the the

hyperactive metabolisms of youth, or older with the thin legs but

thicker torsos and soft arms of a long-time cardio bunny. Everyone

else was…average…as in part of the 66% of America that is overweight

or nearly so. I was there for 4 hours, and only saw about five fit

women who looked like they actively weight-trained.

All in all, it was an informative and enlightening outing, and, let's

be honest, a huge ego boost, too.

Okay, enough rambling. I'm going to go admire my new purchases in the

mirror now.

Maggie