The World According to Mitch

I would not be surprised if nearly every person out there who has struggled with their weight does not have several sets of clothes – ranging from the stuff that fits when they are at their heaviest to the stuff that fits when they were their lightest.  I am no different.

Earlier this year when Theresa and I separated I moved into the guest room of our house, and I only took the ‘current’ set of clothes.  When in September I moved into my condo I took all of my clothes, and for the first time really I separated the pants into three batches – Size 42, 44, and 46-48.

I was glad that the upper batch no longer fits – they are up in the closet in an area that I hope will gather dust until I am eventually so far beyond that range as to be able to donate them to charity.  Right next to them (separated somewhat) I placed the Size 42 pants.  I had recently worn a pair for a day, and when I bent in a particular way I heard that telltale rip that reminded me that I was NOT there yet.  The Size 44 pants hung in the closet easily accessible.

A couple of weeks ago I was very happy that I was able to wear a pair of blue jeans.  I have not worn jeans regularly for years, and never bought them in the higher sizes.  Getting them on was a tight squeeze, but they made it through a couple of days wear.  I was very pleased, and after laundry day that pair was removed from the Size 42 shelf and hang with the rest of my pants.

Yesterday morning, after I was already dressed and ready to go, I realized that I did not have a hanger for my dobok (Taekwondo uniform).  For the doboks I prefer the good wooden hangers that I purchased, rather than the wire hangers I get from the dry cleaners, or the plastic hangers from wherever.  There was a pair of green pants hanging on such a wooden hanger in the wrong place – they are a Size 42, and should have been up on the shelf.  I removed the pants from the hanger and put them aside… depending on what the scale would say I might try them… just to see.

This morning the scale reading was indeed favourable.  While I was not quite down below the milestone I wrote about last week, it was still down from any reading since.  I looked at the Size 42 Dockers, and decided to give them a go… and they fit 🙂  To say I was thrilled would be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was nice to see that my efforts have been paying real dividends.

There is a commercial on the radio that says that losing weight is simple – just eat less – but it is not easy.  I think that is crap.  Maybe if you have to lose five or ten pounds it is easy, but when you are trying to go from obese to a healthy weight it is certainly not simple.  To add to all of the complexities of it, wearing pants properly is a complication that most slim people don’t think about.  I’ll give you an example:

While businessmen may have several, normal people who do not dress up every day will likely only have one or maybe two suits.  On Friday I was delivering the keynote address at an event, so I wore a suit.  I bought the suit last summer at a big and tall store in Minnesota, and it fit me perfectly at the time.  Like every other pair of pants I wear, I secure the belt tightly and low around my waist.  Friday was no different.  After my event I came home and as I stood in the bedroom I undid the belt.  With absolutely no prompting from me, the pants dropped to the floor.  Of course I had realized all day that the jacket was fitting looser than it once had, but were it not for the heroic efforts of the leather belt I would have walked around pantsless all day.

These are all good things of course… unless you have to buy a new wardrobe because you don’t have anything that fits anymore.  I am glad that I am not there yet – I still have my last set of Size 42s to go before I am there – but I will be… and several times over the next few months I hope, until I settle in at a weight that I can be happy with – and maintain.

The struggle continues… but for the time being, it is nice to be on the winning side.