Average Jane Faces the Facts

It's not as if I didn't know I'd been gaining weight over the past couple of years. All of the signs were there:

• Three-quarters of a closet full of clothes that don't fit,
• Avoidance of any garment that reveals my arms or legs,
• Failure to purchase a new full-length mirror after the old one broke,
• Tendency to gravitate toward over-sized t-shirts, and
• Grimacing at the sight of myself in our vacation photos.

Still, I don't think it completely sank in until this morning when I needed to find an outfit to wear to a business-oriented event tonight.

I was pretty sure I had a couple of suits that I'd worn the last time my weight trended upward. Even with my current jeans size providing strong evidence to the contrary, I assumed that those suits would be close enough to my current size that I could wear one of them tonight. Oh, how wrong I was.

It turns out that all of my suits from that era are a size 8. As soon as I saw that number, I knew I was completely out of luck, but I still had to torture myself by trying on the skirts. Uh, yeah. Forget zipping them - I couldn't even pull them up all the way.

Okay, so obviously I'm not a size 8. Still, I figured I could fall back on one of the skirts my sister gave me after she smallified herself by becoming a yoga instructor. I tried it on - and keep it mind that it's only been four or five months since I wore it last - and although I could get it on, the zipper didn't want to go all the way up and the front of the skirt clung in a most unattractive manner.

I had no choice but to wear a somewhat stretchy, long-sleeved black dress with a random suit jacket (that's actually too small as well, but works okay unbuttoned). It'll get me by, but it's not what I would have preferred. Plus, I'll need to concentrate on sucking in my gut all evening long. Dammit.

It all boils down to the fact that I'm getting older, I get almost no exercise, and I don't exactly go out of my way to eat the healthiest food every day. There's nothing I can do about my age, but I can certainly get off my lazy butt and drag myself away from the computer more often.

Starting this weekend, my husband and I are joining our local community center and putting our workouts ON THE CALENDAR, which is the only way we can manage to keep up any kind of schedule.

My goal is to get back into those size 8 suits by next spring. Wish me luck - I'm going to need it!

Comments

[Rozanne]

True--nothing we can do about age. Sigh. I do probably get more exercise than the average person my age (thanks to having a more flexible schedule and working at home), but even so my weight goes up about 2 lb every year. I do think exercise (mainly walking and hiking) has helped keep the gain from being more extreme.

Anyway, good luck with your exercise plan!

[Liz]

Good luck! I've gained about 10 pounds in the last year, and had already been about 10 pounds heavier than I really wanted to be...you've motivated me to start working on my extra pounds too!

[Greg]

Yeaaahhh...

I'm sure the closet looks great. All that home remodeling and all.

Good Night and Stay classy San Diego!

[Annie Lynsen]

You can do it! I lost about 40 pounds over the course of a couple of years - I blogged about it earlier this year. http://blog.thinklynsen.com/2009/01/how-to-get-in-shape-this-year.html Just take it slow and make little changes. Good luck!

Annie

[ByJane]

Ummm, while you're there, can you do a couple of workouts for me...

[LuAnn]

You can do it . . . you've got the right frame of mind. If you know you'll do any walks or hikes this summer, I'd be glad to join you.

[logtar]

Good luck!

We are going to try to do more activities oriented around exercise this summer.

I know you can do it :)