restoration: wardrobe

As long as I can remember, I’ve struggled with my weight. And usually my weight wins.  But this summer, with working on the house again, especially with the kitchen facelift, the pounds started shedding one by one.

The first week of July, right when I started doing the kitchen, I decided it was time to break out the skirts.  I’ve never liked my legs, but I hate wearing shorts even more than that, so about 5 years ago I started investing in skirts.  Even though my weight fluctuated up and down to the point where I sometimes hated looking in the mirror, I still liked how I looked in a skirt.

The reaction I got at work was a positive one, with my female coworkers commenting on how nice I looked in one. I decided then that I was going to make a little challenge for myself – wear a skirt every day until it got cold. Then I realized something else – I own a lot of skirts.

When you’ve fluctuated in weight from a size 8 to a size 16, you obviously need to buy a lot of clothing. The funny thing is, I apparently never parted with a single skirt, even when they didn’t fit anymore.

And even had a dress or skirt or two from freshman year of college….

So what started out as a little challenge…

became a big one ….

Wear a different skirt (or dress) every day, no repeats, for as long as possible. It became a bet at work that I couldn’t make it the whole summer.

I made it to September.

I finally packed away the skirts a week ago, admitting to myself that it was way too cold for my pale Irish legs to see the light of day. And when I started wearing dress pants again, I came to a horrible realization – they didn’t fit. So with a shopping trip funded by mom, and a visit to the tailor with 6 pairs of pants 2 sizes too big, I’ve started admitting the size that I am.

When I got married, I tried losing weight. It didn’t work, and I decided that I wasn’t going to be that bride that went insane just to get into her wedding dress. So I got the size that fit, and quit worrying about it. Would I have liked to be svelte? Sure. But I looked pretty and felt like a princess anyway.

I tried on my wedding dress last month for kicks. It lives at my mom’s house, and we were watching “Say Yes to the Dress” and I wondered if it would fit.  It did. And it fell off.

It’s funny how much my body has changed. Just as much as the house, and maybe even because of it.  I know that I’m stronger, and I definitely have a higher pain tolerance (which comes from slamming your finger with a hammer and falling off ladders). As I’ve restored the house, I think I’ve restored a little bit of my self confidence.