What To Do When Your Favorite Jeans Don’t Fit Anymore
These jeans you see here, they are my fav-or-ite, I LOVE these jeans.
These jeans that you see here, they are also my 2nd pair. Not because something happened to the first pair, but because something happened to my body.
That something is perimenopause and aging with a sprinkle of a global pandemic.
These jeans that you see here, are two sizes bigger than my first pair.
Moving up sizes feels uncomfortable, even to someone who helps women on the daily with body image and confidence. After all, I am still swimming in the same thinner is better soup right alongside you.
But when I couldn’t wear these jeans any longer it hit me a little harder. I donated a lot that no longer fit, but these babies were going into the attic in case my girls might enjoy them one day as much as I did.
And I’d be lying if I said that there wasn’t at least 10% wondering on my part if I wouldn’t be able to fit into them again one day (she sighs) once my body got done doing whatever weird hormonal thing it was doing.
But I’m beyond trying to make my body fit an item of clothing (and I acknowledge the privilege in this as my larger body still has accessible size options).
So in the attic these jeans have stayed for years now.
Moving up sizes is not something that feels comfortable, even to someone who helps women on the daily with body image and confidence. After all, I am still swimming in the same thinner is better soup right alongside you.
But just a couple weeks ago a friend told me that she was able to find the exact same pair of shorts that she had grown out of in the next size up on Poshmark.
It wasn’t long before I was googling ‘Pilcro embroidered jeans with poms poms and Poshmark and low and behold these beauties pulled up in my new size and I was SO delighted! I couldn’t purchase them fast enough.
Most women have multiple sizes of clothing they are hanging onto in hopes they will fit them one day and if that works for you, keep on keepin’ on.
But what I don’t want you to miss out on is having fun and awesome clothing that you feel good in that also fits the body that you are doing life in today.
You will feel more confident if you have clothes that fit your body, that you like and feel like an expression of you, and that feel good on!
And I think this matters a lot, but what I think matters even more is that this attitude extends BEYOND clothing.
I wonder where else you might be holding back in life because of the way you feel about your body.
Maybe you are avoiding being seen in photos with family (hiding behind your kids) or friends or maybe you are waiting until one day you lose some weight to get new headshots or brand photos for your business.
Maybe the way you feel in a bathing suit or shorts really draws a cloud over your time at the pool or vacation.
Maybe you would speak up or speak out more at work, at church, or in friend groups. Maybe you would turn your zoom camera on, do that webinar or get on that stage.
Maybe you are doing those things but there is this voice in the back of your head that is saying “is anyone taking me seriously in this body” and that is keeping you from bringing your full self to what you are doing maybe even in ways you are not aware of.
What I really want you to know is that you can live boldly in the body that you have now.
But let’s start with the clothes, see if you can’t find something that you loved that no longer fits in your new size on Poshmark or a website like it.
Or if you have put wearing clothes that you enjoy on the back burner until you lost some weight - find yourself something new or new to you that you love!
Your body, the one you have today, she deserves it!
If you would like to be introduced to a different approach to navigating nutrition and weight in your perimenopausal years, I made a free resource for you. I’ll call it a workshop, it is a series of short videos and a workbook - they can go together or stand alone. You can click here to download it and get started!
Hi! I’m Meg and I help women stress and obsess less about food and their body so that they can enjoy life more and make a bigger impact on this world!
If you want to become more nutrition and body confident, click the button below to get my free video and workbook series, 4 Steps To Becoming Body Confident.