I was extremely depressed the other day i had to buy a size 20 pants at old navy. And thats what set it off for me. I love shopping but lately I havent loved it. All my friends are smaller and I want to wear the clothes they do. But it takes time and thats what im learning. I tried to take the easy way out with quick weight loss and did good and got off of it and gained it back.

i find clothes shopping motivating because the alternative feels terrible! What i've been doing lately though is going around and looking at all the cute clothes that I know would look great on me. I don't buy anything and will not be buying anything until I hit my first goal of 170 lbs.

Plus, if i don't keep window shopping I'll totally lose sense of what is in fashion. lol

I find clothes shooping very stressful most of the times, and I think that is what partially contributed (with the sporty/casual/veeeeeeeeeery low key attitude at my former job) to my wardrobe of cargo pants and turtlenecks (hey, it was an ice rink, I had to keep warm). The pants were easy and baggy, and if by chance they grew a little large I could easily take them in at the waist without bothering with the already baggy legs (approach that doesn't really work with the few more dressy pants I had - I tried taking in the waist, but the legs looked weird then...). My usual comment on my look was "you're lucky I changed from my pajama"... so shopping was surely not one of my priorities, and was quite frustrating when I sometimes had to buy something for some special occasion...
Now that I am at home, I am still living in my old pants, and until I get to loose some weight, I won't bother with worrying about new clothes... and hopefully when I will, I will have a shed a few pounds and things will be less stressful....

When I first started I didn't buy any new clothes & didn't have to until I got down to a size 16.....what was really motivating was giving away my old clothes as I moved down to the next size :)

Now I love shopping! I don't really buy many new clothes yet except for nice clothes to go to work in but I can see where this could be a fun, yet expensive, habit for me :lol: For my everyday clothes I go to goodwill, ebay or garage sales for now.

Depressing right now. I still have to shop in the "women's" section and it's really frustrating trying to find things that look good. Hopefully it will be motivating when I can shop in the regular clothes section and don't have to search for xl or double digit sizes.

Well, I'm on the tallish side, and I waited to start losing weight until my clothes were already verrrrry tight, so it's a little depressing that after 22 pounds lost I'm only just starting to go down a size... but only a little. :) I haven't really gone clothes shopping yet, just picked up pants and sweaters here and there at Goodwill and Ross, but I plan to once I lose another 10. Oh my yes, there will be clothes shopping. :D I'm losing slowly enough that I should be able to buy a few things for summer and not "lose" out of them till fall, at which point I'm hoping to be at goal... at which point I'd love to go shopping with friends! I haven't gone clothes shopping with friends since high school, since it's always such an unpleasant experience for me... my friends are all (and have always been) skinny 4's and 6's, and I've always been 12-14's (though like I said, those 14's were about bursting a few months ago). Sigh... someday! :)

Just like Julie, I went out and spent money when I was about 25-30 pounds down. I hated losing all that money because within another month or two, none of the new ones fit. I discovered thrift store shopping and love it. I have to say though it is because I have really good thrift stores. I am able to find "my" brands every day I go in if I want them--Abercrombie, Inc, Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, Black & White, Gap, Talbots, etc. I guess you could say I am hooked and for me, it's motivating.

preppingbride,

I think your idea of window shopping and figuring out WHAT is the fashion and thinking about what will look good on you is a really great idea. I had ignored myself and the fashions for years--probably a decade. I am really enjoying watching the trends now and trying to figure out how I can have a splash of them too.

I don't get depressed about shopping, I actually can't wait until I am able to go shopping in a smaller size. Here is my issue, I have some fabulous big girl clothes. I mean this stuff is really nice. My problem is, when I do lose the weight, what am I to do with this stuff? I don't want my mind thinking, okay-you don't need to lose weight cause you have fabulous clothes already....lol...HELP!!!

Devsmama--I would try to Craigslist them or something or list them in a lot on EBAY. You could also consider a donation to one of the organizations that help women get back on their feet after going through difficulties.

When my mom passed, I gave all of her stuff away (she was a size 8-10). I gave it to several homeless shelters and a women's organization that helped women find jobs.

I think it took me a while till my weight loss translated into a smaller clothing size but I really did not buy anything except for a single pair of jeans - once the old pair started became too baggy, I bought a new pair. I ddid not want to drop too much money on new clothes as my weight loss went fairly ok and I was confident I would keep going (like the Energizer Bunny). It was exciting though to be able to buy smaller sizes.
Don't worry, you will get there, too!!!

Right now, it's pretty depressing. I've regained about 15 lbs so it's hard not to beat myself up when I see how things fit.

That being said, I am very much looking forward to shopping in my closet. I have some really cute and classic items from 150-180 lbs that I can't wait to be back into, including this dark wash jean skirt that makes my bum look awesome!

I hate it, in general. We don't have a lot of Plus Size stores here so the selection is absolute crap for my tastes. I did a bit of shopping in Scotland last weekend and it was a bit better, but I still end up usually just saying "forget it" about halfway through my shopping trips.