Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Is weight loss hurting your wardrobe? Try the thrift store!


During my undergrad years, not only did I gain the "Freshman 15" but I was in the accelerated class, and I gained 30+ pounds. I never noticed/cared until I saw my graduation pictures. Ouch, I wasn't even in the "cute" chubby class anymore, or the "healthy" weight class. I did a free BMI online and found out that I was hurdling the line of overweight/obese. OBESE!!! What the hell?!?! I couldn't have gotten that fat. So, I started going through all of my clothes and pictures. Yep, I was now a "full figured" girl. Now that I was finished focusing on my bachelor's degree, I needed to start focusing on my body. Not only for image, but I realized that all the extra weight was making things a bit difficult. I had a sleeping disorder, and I new my blood pressure was out of line because I flushed in the face really easily these days.

When I was 19 and in between boyfriends, I briefly dated an older guy who made a comment to me once that stuck. He said, "You're a pretty girl now, but I bet you'll be a total knock-out when you're around 25." Unfortunately, when my 25th birthday and remembered that, not only was I NO KNOCK-OUT, I was OBESE, and most of all, had HEALTH CONDITIONS RELATED TO OBESITY. UGH!!! I had to put that in uppercase to remind myself again, because I need to be reminded DAILY now. After all, those of you struggling with weight problems know it's a daily battle...

So after some changes, there was no soda, no fast food, more walking, and more water...

Here's the deal though, when you have way to much weight for your frame (which I was kicking around 175+ pounds, standing at 5'2) the first bit comes off very quickly. I made the whole promise that everyone does, about not buying new clothes until I hit my "goal weight" (140lbs realistically). However, goal weight does not happen fast. My friend at work made a comment about me "swimming in my jeans" and I knew I needed some smaller clothes.

However, if you keep dropping weight, you keep needing smaller clothes. They (the internet gods) say that to go down in a pants size you have to lose 6-10 pounds. So I'm facing AT LEAST 4 to 5 size fluctuation before I'm finished. I couldn't keep buying a few pairs of new jeans at $30 a pop every month....

So I started hitting up the thrift stores. Now, I'm no stranger to thrift stores because I come from a long line of thrift store shoppers. My mom frequents the Goodwill at least once a week, and finds some pretty amazing things. My dad goes every Saturday morning, (early, so everything isn't "picked through") and finds antique art and trinkets for his house. He buys some of the coolest paintings and I don't know how both he and my mom do it. As they say, most trips are "scoreless" but you have to frequently go, spend some time, and dig. Dad has a valuable, personal art collection now, and some pretty neat antiques. It's amazing what people give away...

Back to clothes. Sunday, on my way to wash clothes, I decided to stop at Village Discount Center in Newport to peep at some new (to me) jeans that actually fit. I was a bit disappointed at first, but then I remembered to take my time and dig.

Long story short... I walked with 7 new zip-up hoodies, 11 clever t-shirts, and 8 pairs of jeans. I paid $37.49 for all of it. If you're into labels, I got Victoria's Secret PINK sweats line, Mossimo, LEI, Abercrombie, Levi, Aeropostle, Old Navy, etc. My best find was the vintage ladies 1977 aerosmith shirt that perfectly matched the rock star zip up hoodie. Village has colored tags on everything, and they pick two colors each day that are "half off." And they have a $5 off any purchase coupon in the paper occasionally. They also do 50 cent Mondays. (Cost, not the rapper!)

I liked everything so much that there's a good chance I would have paid full cost for some of the stuff brand new, if I saw it elsewhere and had the money. I knew I was in the right place when a rock-start dressed, professional shopper was quickly skimming through the shirts. He had a few vintage looking t-shirts in his hand, and the way he moved showed me that he did this a lot. He probably owns a vintage boutique somewhere, and charges $20 a pop for the shirts he paid 50 cents for. He saw my Aerosmith shirt in my cart, and told me he'd give me $5 if I'd hand it over. No way dude.

Out of pure delight, I went back a few days later and found 4 more shirts, 3 more pairs of jeans, and 2 more zipper hoodies for $11.37. So all in all, roughly $50.00 for about two weeks worth really neat clothes. And the best part is, if when I dwindle down in size more, it won't be such a big loss. I'll probably keep going to the Village after I reach my goal weight because $30 for a pair of new jeans is worth a week of new (to me) clothes there. So whoever you are, keep donating, and the rest of us will keep buying.

In the pic, it's a small sample of the massive jean rack, I'm just hoping you can see the prices ;)

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