When was the last time shopping for clothes felt like Christmas morning? Do you relish the opportunity to check out the latest styles? Or is shopping for clothes a chore that you put off as long as you can?
For Megan, shopping for clothes became a whole new experience after losing almost 25 pounds.
As a larger person, shopping was a CHORE! I hated it. …the clothes for women my size were always too “old-looking” for me. I’ve never been a small person, and I’ve always had trouble finding clothes that don’t stretch to bursting over my chest… but after gaining weight I couldn’t find clothes that didn’t accentuate the “lumpiness of my stomach and huge thighs and saggy butt.” After losing weight and feeling much better about myself, shopping has become uncomfortable in a whole new and far less disparaging way! I have to wade through the clothes not to find something to hide my body, but to find something that I actually LIKE! 🙂 It’s a whole new paradigm, choosing clothes because I like the style or color, instead of choosing the item that covers my lumps, even if it’s a burlap sack. It’s a great feeling, and I’m sure everyone at the store was wondering what that goofy grin was on my face.
This change, however, didn’t happen overnight. When I met Megan last August she wasn’t exercising consistently. She told me of pain in her hip when she even thought about running. She seemed to like exercise but I sensed that the worry of hip pain and a lack of support at home were keeping her from doing it on a regular basis. She also ate out at least once a day, sometimes twice. Stress, a hectic schedule and her belief that she couldn’t cook kept her going back to Chinese take-out and sugar-laden snacks. But when she gave blood last summer the technician voiced his concern about her high blood pressure. When he said she should see a doctor, she knew her lifestyle, and the added pounds it brought, were not only impacting her wardrobe choices but her odds of living a long and healthy life.
She had tried to change her eating habits and get moving again on her own but realized she needed to find a coach, a “cheerleader”, to keep her on the path. She did what most of us do when we need to find an expert; she did a Google search that led her to my web site.
After her initial consultation we built a plan that started with small steps. In fact, the steps were surprisingly small and basic according to Megan.
The first baby step … was to add a multi-vitamin and drink more water… my life wasn’t completely disrupted by this… then eat breakfast and do 5 minutes of some sort of movement a day… still my life wasn’t uprooted. Then add more fresh vegetables and fruits to my diet (I’m always up for adding more food!). Then think about protein. I found myself cutting out the bad things in my diet just because I was full from eating so many vegetables and fruits and good proteins! It wasn’t hard! And once you put on workout clothes, you start wanting to do more than 5 minutes… the change was gradual. I didn’t starve or pass out from working out too much. I was just becoming a healthier person.
Of course, Megan now exercises more than 5 minutes at a time. She isn’t afraid to push herself and she keeps a check on her food with a journal. Just like the rest of us she still fights cravings and stress eating but she finds other things to satisfy her cravings (like Greek yogurt and frozen bananas) and deal with stress (like a good workout). She used her new strategies to deal with the extremely stressful holiday season and came out weighing less instead of more. In the 5 months we’ve been working together Megan has lost 24.4 lbs. and 7.2% body fat. The hip pain that seemed to be holding her back hasn’t made an appearance either. All in all, she’s living like a healthier, and perhaps more stylish, person.
