Thea Thursdays--Dress for Success

While clothes may not make the woman, they certainly have a strong effect on her self-confidence - which, I believe, does make the woman. Mary Kay Ash (1915 - )

 What’s in your closet? Right now. Need to check? Go ahead, we’ll wait…

…………………………………..

Did you look? Cool. So what’s in your closet? Did you answer clothes or did you answer saboteurs? Can you tell the difference? Am I making any sense at all or have you already stopped reading?

Let me explain. But wait, one more question. How many clothing sizes do you have in your closet? Do you have categories (fat clothes, skinny clothes, good clothes, etc)? O.K., that was 2 questions. Sorry. But anyway, if you have several sizes of clothes or more than one “weight category”, it’s time to clean house (or closet).

If you have clothes that are too big for you hanging in your closet, you need to get rid of them. That’s right. Toss ‘em. Nothing is a bigger saboteur then thinking there might ever be a time when you would need those clothes again. You are giving yourself permission to gain the weight back. And you are sending little subliminal messages that you don’t believe in yourself enough to keep it off. So go get a big garbage bag and get rid of them. You can donate them to a local charity. You can sell them on Ebay. Heck, you can start a bonfire with them if it will make you feel better. Just get rid of them.

And the same goes for clothes that are too small. Sure, they can give you something to work towards, but don’t you think you deserve new stuff once you hit your goal weight? When I was helping my sister purge her closet, I told her that she could choose 2 pieces that were too small for her. She hung those on the back of her door and they became her motivation. The rest of it she bagged up and donated. She thought that she would miss them, but she actually felt some pressure being taken off that she didn’t have half a closet full of clothes that didn’t fit her.

Holding on to clothes that don’t fit is just one more mental hurdle that you need to cross on your road to weight loss. If they’re too big, they’re holding you back. If they’re too small, they’re causing you stress. So toss ‘em.

Leave a comment to let us know if you’ve gotten rid of anything lately. Was it hard? Easy? Do you feel better about it now or did you go rooting through the trash the next day to get it out? Let us know!

Comments

[tammi]

I've always thought that way about too-small clothes, but I never thought about the bigger clothes affecting my subconsciousness as well. Huh. Guess I'll be sure to get rid of the 'really fat' clothes, too. (I'm currently wearing my 'fat' clothing, dang it.)

[Tina (4 Miles)]

I just got rid of (donated) a bunch of the too small clothes that I was "going to get back into". I realized most were from before my first son was born (um, 4 years ago) and last week it hit me when I am back down to that size I wouldn't want to get back in them anyway, they are pretty out of style! So they are gone. I have to agree with Tammi, I'm wearing my 'fat' clothing right now, and can't WAIT to get out of them. They're baggy, but not quite big enough to move down a size! ;-) But I realized my cloest and drawers were so crammed full of clothes yet I never wore most of them and I hated how messy things were, so that was also part of cleaning up and organzing the bedroom. Nice to see it's part of the weight loss as well!

[JanB]

Just this week I donated a hefty bag of fat clothes, including the last of my maternity shorts which I was still wearing even two weeks ago.

My closet is a mess. I have everything in there that no one else will deal with. It gets stuck in there. I hate to even look!

I have even found that some of the stuff that I have bought recently is getting too big. What a waste! I am donating it, and not worrying about it. More of a waste would be to fit back into that size.

[Julie]

Well I took some things yesterday to our town's equivalent of Goodwill. It sure was nice to be able to get rid of clothes that were too big. I also am passing along some new Land's End skirts that I just bought in June, to a friend from church that is having the lap-band surgery. She can't wear them yet , but hopes to soon. I did keep one outfit, to remember where I have come from. I hope to be a WW leader someday and I think it might be motivational to someone else.

[Beth F.]

I did this! I had just started my weight loss journey last year and I cleared out the big clothes, put them in a bag and donated them. I honestly think that step was just as important as exercise! I'm so glad I did it!
Great post, Thea!

[JHS]

It's so funny that you should write this post this week because I was just working on a post about the fact that my clothes -- way too big for me -- are not dong me any favors!