I'm curious as to how many of us feel that getting rid of clothes that are too big helps in maintaining weight loss. Here's my experience:
When I weighed over 250 pounds, I wore size 22W or 24W jeans. I started losing in January 2011 and at about 20 pounds down, my pants were too big, but I sew well enough that I altered them (twice, actually) at -20 and -40 pounds. By then it was spring and I bought one pair of size 18 jeans to get by. Then it got to be late spring / early summer and I needed a new pair of jeans for a party and bought one pair of size 16, but otherwise was able to wear shorts (pull-on, inexpensive, from K-Mart) for the summer. I had also altered sweatshirts that I wore to work, but had to buy new short sleeved tops for summer. At the end of summer as the weather turned cooler, I needed size 12 or 10 jeans and slacks and that's where I am still. I took advantage of end of summer sales and bought a few pairs of nicer shorts and a ton of tops on clearance for summer 2012. My main point being that I gave away all my size 24W and 2X stuff. I even gave away the few summer things from 2012 that were a size or so too big. Now all I have are clothes that fit me now. Except for one pair of size 24W jeans that I'll keep forever as a reminder of how big I actually was.
If I were to gain weight, I'd have to buy new clothes. This has been a huge deterrent to me and I've managed to stay pretty close to 162 - 165 for just over 2 years now. I had friends tell me I was crazy for giving it all away. I hope I will never need the biggest stuff again, so it was OK to give all that away - pants, tops, skirts, dresses, coats, jackets, even shoes. There wasn't much in-between stuff anyway, and what I did buy was inexpensive and was donated to a shelter (so I don't feel bad about that.)
For the life of me I can't remember what I did when I gained all the weight all those years ago, but I must have just bought new stuff as the old stuff got too tight. (Telling myself yet another outfit got shrunk in the wash?) How about the rest of you? Any thoughts? I'm of the mind right now that if we are serious about changing our life style and health for the better, it means making a commitment to ourselves, hopefully forever. That means, to me, no "fall-back" clothes. It's just my opinion, but I believe that keeping all those sizes of clothes would have been like telling myself that there was no way I'd succeed, that I had no confidence in myself, and that it was OK to go back to the old me after working hard to make changes.
Anyone?
Lin