Let’s see who can relate to this? I just bought a shirt. A basic, long-sleeved Henley shirt. Nothing fancy at all. I try it on and it fits okay. I say Ok, because it is snug, but not overly so. Shows my bulges, but not overly so. Covers my lower stomach, but not overly so.

        It is a give and take kind of thing. I like the shirt because it is comfortable, which is what I want above anything else in clothes. Most of my shirts are plain and solid colored. It used to drive my mother crazy. “You are such a plain Jane”, she would always say. And I guess I am. I blame it on being a Taurus. We like comfort.

        So, I settle for an okay fit. But then I look in the mirror and say to myself, “If only 10 or 20 pounds would come off, it would fit better”. It hangs here better or pulls too much here. You know the drill probably. We women have such dilemmas when it comes to clothes.

     Do you think men have this problem? Not the majority of them. If you look around at them you can see that if they spend more than a few minutes getting dressed or spend time in front of the mirror analyzing their bodies, I don’t think so.

        Meanwhile, we women criticize ourselves and evaluate ourselves with a fine-tooth comb. And do not even get me started with our love/hate relationship with our hair. As I got my haircut today and have to face the fact that my hair is thinning and my hair was thin enough already, just from heredity. And why is it that some things are thin that I do not need them to be thin, and others, oh well…

        So, I am keeping the shirt because it does mostly fit. I do not want to go up to the next size where there would be more room because in my fantasy, I am going to take 10 or 20 pounds off this frame (and God-willing even more than that) and the shirt will fit me better or correctly.

Plus, when I move up to that next size, it is all disproportional and makes me look bigger than I am. That is not the look I am aiming for!

        Being plus-sized, I have always hated the shopping experience. I walk around feeling the fabrics, looking at patterns and wondering what the designers are thinking. I have even wanted to learn how to sew and make my own clothes so that they would fit me at least. Especially pants. There are all kinds of issues there.

        And then I think, if I can lose only 10 pounds, that would help. It would make some of the body look different, maybe firmer, maybe straighter where it seems to be popping out on the sides.

        I look sideways in the mirror and push in the gut and see what it could be, if I could figure it out. Even 10 pounds. That is the first goal. Baby steps, progress, whatever you want to call it.

        How about you? Do you over-analyze your body in the mirror? Do you hate clothes shopping too? Do you wonder if you can do it, like I do? Stay with me and let’s see if we both can do it. Maybe we both can find success in this. It is worth a try, right?