Your Number is Not Important

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine about clothes shopping.  She confessed that she never tries anything on at stores and just buys things and then brings them back if she does not like them.  Whoaaaa!!  I was astonished by this.

“How do you know you are buying the right size?”  I asked.

“I only buy the same single digit size. I refuse to have any other number in my closet.”  She said.

“But not all size X fit the same way.  Wouldn’t it be easier to try them on and get the right size while you are at the store?”

“No, because there is only one right size for me and that is all I am buying.”

I have to say I have seen her in both things that are much too big and much too small so this strict adherence to a number is not a perfect system.  (And no I will not tell you who this is.)  I guess it is one way not to let yourself ever gain too much weight, but it does mean you may have to wear some unflattering outfits.

Unless you wear your clothes inside out all the time absolutely no one knows what size you are wearing.  That is unless you have a really old pair of Levi’s with both the waist and the inseam printed on the leather tag on the back.  How well your clothes fit is what people see, not the fact that you are an eight or a twelve.  Clothes that are too small make you look bigger anyway.

The number on your scale is also not a good indicator of how healthy you are either.  You can weigh more, but be rock hard solid muscle and be in great shape, or you can have a lower number on the scale and be a mass of quivering flab.  It’s not the number that is important, but how you function, look and feel.  That involves actually looking at yourself.  You may decide that despite what your number is you are perfectly happy the way you are.

I just want to encourage you to actually use the mirror as your judge and not the tag when you buy clothes.  The mirror is much more similar to how others see you and not the number on the tag.