Oh yeah, I went there.
That is a picture of my “Before” underpants and my “After” underpants. I took that picture because I was so tired of seeing people post-op sticking both legs into one leg of a pair of jeans. I thought my post-op clothing picture needed to be jazzier. So yeah, drawers are jazzy.
But guess what? You’re gonna need new undies!!
And pants. And skirts. And eventually tops.
Which all sounds like a good thing. But here’s where it’s a bad thing. It’s frustrating to go into the store, buy a new pair of smaller sized jeans, then two weeks later find out that you can step right outta them bad boys! I’m not kidding! When I hit size 16, I bought two brand new pairs of jeans, and was so excited to see my new smaller self in them. But two weeks later, they kept falling off, they looked awful, and I had wasted the $100 bucks I spent.
There’s only so much a tailor can do when you’re dropping weight this rapidly, so as tempted as you are, you want to try and curb your urge to shop for the time being. So what are you supposed to do when your clothes start falling off? I mean, you don’t want to risk having the fashion police called (or the real ones, as indecent exposure could become an issue – for real!!).
If you belong to any type of Weight Loss Surgery support group, check and see if they do a clothing exchange. Many groups – especially ones with a good number of members – will have a once a month clothing exchange. You bring in all of your old sizes that are falling on the floor, and you can swap with members who are getting rid of the next smaller size. It saves everyone a lot of money, because there are almost always people moving from one size to the next.
Check out the thrift stores. You may not typically be a thrift store shopper. I am not, and believe me when I tell you I get a bit skeeved out when I think of used clothing from people with whom I am not personally acquainted. Now’s the time to get over this skeeve factor. Buy a good bottle of bleach and hit the Goodwill store. I went from a size 24 to a size 10 in less than a year. There is no way possible to purchase the amount of clothing you are going to go through unless you are exceptionally wealthy. If you work at a job that requires a uniform or a particular type of clothing, then you need clothes for your days off, you really can sink a TON of money into replacing things every month. Goodwill and other thrift stores will save you a small fortune, and you can think of the good deed you’ll be doing when you donate it all back as you continue to shrink.
Use Freecycle, Craig’s List, and yard sales. I know, again with the used clothing, but trust me – you aren’t going to have to wear them very long, and just think of all the brand new things you’ll be able to afford when you’re weight stabilizes if you keep it cheap now! Some Freecycle rules indicate that you have to offer something before you can take something – it’s a great way to get rid of the clothes you no longer need.
And lastly, buy stretch things. I know, it’s finally a time in your life when you don’t NEED stretch pants – you can fit into jeans and slacks and nice thing. But, stretch pants will take you further. You can buy stretch pants in a size or two smaller and still wear them today. That means that instead of getting two weeks out of a pair of pants before they are falling off, you may get two months out of them. I know my size 24 arse was still squeezing into size 18 stretch pants (thank goodness for strong seams!), so coming down from the size 24 back to an 18 was a fairly easy adjustment on me in terms of clothing. So, if you’re a size 18 now, buy 14 stretch pants – or better yet, a size Large, which really could take you down to a size 12. And you all know you can dress the stretch pants up or down and make them work in lots of settings.
So, what have we learned? We don’t want to spend our annual wardrobe budget on clothes we won’t be able to wear next week. No one will believe you have joined a gangsta rap group and you INTENDED to wear your pants that way. We have to get over our skeeved out selves and wear used clothing. And all the money you save can be put into a fund for either a banging wardrobe at the end of your weight loss journey, or it can go towards some of the plastic surgery you might ultimately want to have!
