This post follows neatly on from my last, in relation to BMI and body size.
I've noticed that when I look in a mirror these days, the woman looking back at me appears to be a fairly "normal" size woman. OK yes still an overweight woman, but even so, I feel as though my current body size and shape conforms more easily to the norms of society. I don't think I would draw any gasps of amazement or furtive looks of disgust. That's a pretty nice feeling, and I'm not sure when it happened.
Now here's a mystery. How come I am now, at 18st or so, wearing a size 20. I'm pretty certain that shouldn't be so. I'm as sure as I can be that in days of yore an 18st woman would have been more like a size 24 or 26. Vanity sizing? I'm not sure that entirely accounts for it. I am happily wearing a waterproof coat that I bought about 10 years ago. It was from Next and I recall being pretty jubilant about being able to buy it from Next at the time. I would have weighed maybe 15st, maximum. So it is as though my body is physically smaller per pound than 10 years ago. Is that weird or what!
Of course this begs the question of where my goal weight will fall. What will my "Happy Weight" be? I have a feeling it will be higher than those pesky BMI charts would like.
Of course it could just be that I'm delusional. That's OK too. As long as it keeps a smile on my face, it's all good!
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3 comments:
Interesting post, Wendy. I think clothing sizes have more to do with body shape than weight. When I was 19 stone last year I was most comfortable in size 22-24 top and bottom. Now I'm 14 stone and take 14-16 bottom half but still need a size 20 from some stores for my top half to be truly comfortable. It makes it hard to get a dress that hangs right! I personally think that it is easier to disguise a bigger shape when you're not top-heavy although I appreciate that it's probably not easy if you're very hippy. Stores here in the UK do vary wildly in their sizing - I find sizes differ between M&S and the Per Una range and at the other end of the spectrum George at Asda can be different from one style of trosers to the next. It's just a case of trial and error. I'm loving your blog btw - plus I agree that Slimming World rocks!
I think two things are involved Wendy:
(1) is there is a slight element of vanity sizing in that a size 24 is slightly more generous than it perhaps used to be (at least in the very generous Evans -- not always so everywhere else, especially not the market version of a size 24 where they skimp on material as much as they can to keep the costs down !!!!
(2) it does depend a large amount how the weight falls on your particular body and how toned you are, i.e. how much the muscles underneath are helping to keep your tummy in a bit.
About two years ago I did get down (very briefly) to 17½ stone (for all of one week, I was back up to 18 stone immediately the week after and 19 stone within a month after that -- yada yada yada).
Anyway, having briefly and fleetingly experienced that incredibly light (to me) feeling of being 17½ stone I know that I felt and looked much better, but due to my own particular build I was still wearing size 24 (that's an Evans 24) at that time.
As you can imagine, having *briefly* glimpsed life below 18 stone once, I really want to get there again (there's no point going over all the reasons why the previous attempt failed and what went wrong that year -- all I need to do is concentrate on now.)
Re your natural weight. I would say just keep doing as you are, healthy eating, plenty of exercise and don't focus too much on the scales. You will settle into what is right for you I promise!
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