Reclaiming and emptying my closet

As I lose weight, I am constantly amazed by some of the stuff I am finding in my closet — some stuff I forgot existed, some stuff I had written off ever wearing again, and some stuff which were my go to clothes when I was a size 26 that is now even laughable to look at.

This outfit tells an amazing story. The first year I had my job, I went home for Christmas. On that trip, my mom, brother, and I took a trip to visit Pitt, my undergraduate alma mater. I stocked up on a bunch of clothes. The truth is, they did not have too many 2XLs, so I bought some XL stuff figuring it would work. Well, the truth is, it didn’t work and the other truth is that it certainly didn’t work after I gained another 20-40 lbs. Crap, now I had all of these beautiful, barely worn clothes that I could not wear!

There is one particular shirt that I bought that was really comfortable. It was a workout/breathable shirt that was amazingly soft. The problem is that although it was stretchy and I could wear it very comfortably, I looked like a stuffed sausage in it. There was no way I would ever wear that thing in public. Ever. Or so I thought.

Last spring, I tried this shirt on again after a long hiatus in the back of the closet. It fit! It didn’t look totally amazing, but it looked passable as long as I wore a spanx shirt underneath. This picture that is shown above was taken on Sunday. No Spanx, and it is loose! This shirt I had written off as a possibility is now loose and can be worn in public with no problem!!

Tonight I did another trip through the closet, and got rid of another 2 garbage bags of clothes. While it is kind of sad to see them go, it is the right decision. I hope someone else can get good use out of them.

There is one thing I keep though: a single pair of size 26 pants that I used to wear. I don’t want to forget or minimize where it is that I’ve come from.