For fifty years of my life, for six,
sometimes seven days a week, I wore what my grandmother called “Sunday best.” I dressed up daily, put on makeup, fixed and
sprayed my hair. I wore heels. And then I retired.
Except for church on Sunday, I no
longer needed to put on makeup daily. I
stopped fixing my hair and only ran my fingers through my short do. I wore flip flops and house shoes, but every
three or four days, I ran out of things to wear. I needed more play clothes in
my rotation.
Before I went shopping, I assessed
what I had available and found a box of hand-me-downs my sons had given me when
they moved away. It was full of extra-large tee-shirts and a stack of men’s, large,
gray sweatpants.
Up to then, I had ignored my weight
gain; my dress slacks cut into my middle and I sometimes wore them without
buttoning or hooking the waist. I bought
the larger dresses that take up the back half of the dress rack in stores.
The moment I tried on my first sweat
pant, they became my wardrobe staple. I wore them everywhere, every time, and I
even considered pairing them with a nice top and knee high boots and wear them
to church.
By the second year, they started to
show wear and I considered buying more, but it was time to face the truth. I needed to work off the weight. I joined a gym and replaced the sweat pants
with yoga pants. Yoga pants are what the
Walmart Mom wears to Target. I wanted to recover some of my former dignity and worked
on my weight and health. I upped the
ratio of yoga pants to sweat pants, and I did wear them to church on several
occasions.
This year I lost over 30 lbs and
downed my pant size to three times smaller than before. It was time to go
through my wardrobe and give away a few items before I bought more. I kept a
few good pairs of yoga pants, but there at the bottom of the drawer was a pair
of sweat pants. I measured them against
my body. They fit, but then I walked over to the donation bag and stuffed them
in among the rest of the clothes I no longer wanted.
I am considering leggings
next.
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