Episode 75: The Disparities in Women’s Clothing Sizes: Why’s it so Hard to Find Clothes that Fit?
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Episode Description
In this episode of The Up-Beet Dietitians podcast, Emily and Hannah break the discrepancies in women’s clothing. You may have gone to a store and gotten frustrated that they didn’t have your size. Or maybe you’ve noticed how a size at one store fits completely differently compared to a different store. The girls dive into the “ideal body type,” how fashion trends have changed, and how diet culture has infiltrated the clothing scene. They also leave you with a couple tips of how to navigate shopping if you’ve ever been frustrated with sizes or if you’ve been holding onto clothes that you’ll wear “once [you] lose weight.” Be sure to tune in!
Size Inclusive Stores
Lane Bryant
Old Navy
Athleta
Allihalla
Alpine Butterfly Swim
Altar
Arq
C’EST D
Christian Omeshun
Copper Union
Curve Girl
eShakti
Hey Mavens
Loud Bodies
Nerecina
Nettle Studios
Peridot Robes
SmartGlamour
SuperFit Hero
SWAK
Tuesday of California
Universal Standard
Wray NYC
Madewell
Girlfriend Collective
Honore
Christy Dawn
Vince
Good American
Mara Hoffman
Eloquii
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Participant #1:
Hello everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Up-beet Dietitians podcast. Hello everybody. Welcome back to the pod Emily and I took a bit of a hiatus, so we're recording together for the first time in probably like over a month. So we're a little weird. Both have new backgrounds, as you can probably tell. We both moved recently. Not closer to each other, probably farther somehow actually. But yeah, new homes, new podcasts, new season. We're feeling good. Feeling good. Sorry, what? I'm saying no, nothing of substance. We'll get into the substance part then. So today we're going to go into it's actually pretty on brand for what's going on in the media right now with the whole body image thing going on. So I guess we can talk about that too today. I wasn't really in the plan, but we can bring it up anyway. Today it's all about discrepancies in women's clothing and issues with variety, with women's clothing size. And before we get too much into it, I do want to give a disclaimer that we are both women in thin bodies and we've never struggled with this. So we are only speaking from an outside perspective. So if you are listening to this and you have actually struggled and you feel comfortable sharing, we'd love, love to hear your actual experience, to kind of share with our listeners to get that other perspective. Because like we said, when we go to the store, we're always able to find what we need unless it just happens to be out of stock. We always know our size will be carried in some way or another. So we are simply speaking from what we've heard, what we understand, we can never really know for sure what it feels like, though. Yeah, definitely a good disclaimer because we only know so much. We haven't really experienced it. So we can only speak from our what we know from a healthcare professional standpoint. Exactly. But we have seen a lot of this. And so today we're going to go over with we're going to go over all the issues with the clothing sizes, how they're just so inconsistent. We're going to go over how holding on to clothes that no longer fit you can be very harmful to your intuitive eating journey. If you are keeping clothes in the closet to where when you finally lose the weight or whatever, that probably is not helping you. We're going to go over that a little bit and then we're going to do some tips on what to actually do about all this. If you are struggling with body image, whatever way, because of all this, with finding clothes that fit you, you're feeling really stressed out about it. We're going to go over some shopping tips and things like that as well. Yeah, an exciting episode and it's something that a lot of people don't talk about. Like, there's some talk about it, but not really that much email. There needs to be more about it. So let's and dive into the issues with those discrepancies in women's clothing. So number one issue is there's no standard sizing system. Sure. There's like four five six or four six seven or four 6810 twelve. I'm really struggling with these sizes. I'm just combining them or those are odds or sometimes there's like 26, 27 that's based off of just waste circumference measurements. Circumference, yeah. But there's so many discrepancies in kind of between brands and what a six might look like at, say, like American Eagle compared to a six at Old Navy. Those could be completely different. Also, it's not even just the waist. Like, we talked about the waist measurements and circumferences, but there's differences in like hip measurements and there's also differences in thigh sizes and calves and stuff like that. Just everyone so different. So it's hard one to have a standard system. I mean, like men, though theirs is a little bit more straightforward with their waist and lanes, more than we get. But there are a lot of discrepancies between bands and there's just no standard system. Actually are looking at screen right now where this individual shared a picture of their sizes and their size twelve, and it's from six different brands and the waists are all different in every single brand and I can't see them completely, but I assume the hips are also going to be different as well. So it just goes to show that if you're upset at all that maybe like, you're typically a size ten and you're a size ten at a different store than a bit. It's probably just because the manufacturing is different. It's not because nothing's wrong with you if you don't fit those sizes. It's an arbitrary number. It doesn't really mean anything. It more so just gives you like a ballpark of where to like, maybe this will fit around you for this brand. But there's lots of issues with there being a lack of standard sizing. With that being said, it doesn't mean anything, really. No. And Emily and I were just together and we did some shopping while we were together. We went to Old Navy and we tried on probably three or four different pants in our size that we usually wear and only like, one pair would fit what we wanted it to. So even within the same store, the same size may or may not fit you depending on whatever shape that clothing item is. So these sizes literally don't mean anything. And that's why I hear all the time from patients, they'll be like, when I get down to a size eight, I'll finally be happy again. I'm like, you might be a size eight right now if you go to the store. It just depends also your gene size, even aside from that, the arbitrariness.
Participant #1:
Arbitrariness. It's very arbitrary. The size of arbitrariness. That's the bottom line there. I don't know what the current ideal right now is. Like, what the ideal payment size is always like, size eight is, like, what you should be or whatever. I don't know. Do you know what the number is right now? I'm very confused based on that, like, New York article that came out. I always thought we were in the air still of the Kardashians, where it was like tiny waists and large booties. Didn't you see that? Didn't Kim Kardashian get rid of her booties? Now? We're out of that now. Yeah, we're going back to I think it's, like, more 90s. Yeah. Related. So, anyway, the reason I wrote that up is because there is always going to be, like, this ideal that the industry makes you feel like you should be at. But it's always just for marketing. It has nothing to do with health at all. It changes so frequently. There's no way that science is going that fast that we know that if you're at a size eight, you're healthier than whatever. But this ideal, which is always changing, which should be a red flag in itself, is not health promoting at all. It's just about marketing and getting you to kind of appeal to what they want you to appeal to, and also has a lot to do with the weight loss industry as well, because of this fashion industry. Arbitrariness. Once again, I don't know the word for that. The weight loss industry, which is like a multibillion dollar industry, is also benefiting because people are always trying to fit into a smaller pant size to fit whatever that ideal norm is. Yeah. And bringing back up Kim just because she has been changing her body more recently, she has a lot of money. I don't know if she's a billionaire. I'm pretty sure I think Callie might be the only one that's a billionaire out of that family, but she's at least a multi billionaire and she has a lot of money and a lot of resources where she physically can change her body through BBL and what not. And that's what we kind of see on the COVID of magazines or like, I don't really read magazines. Like social media and stuff like that, where you see these people who have a lot of money and they start promoting different things. But their access to resources is just so much different compared to the average Joe who does not have multi million dollars of assets. And whatnot that they can just change their body and whatnot? So I saw a really cool video where they showed how the ideal body changed over the past century or so. And it's so different. Every single decade, they just think of something new and science does not function that quickly. And all so dramatically different every single time that it's not scientifically based. Right, exactly. It's literally just marketing. In the industry of fashion, which I don't know much about, I'm wearing a T shirt and pajama pants right now. I'm clearly not a fashionista, but I do know that it's pretty messed up and it's not meant to correlate to health, that's for sure. When I was making the outline for this podcast today, I found a really cool graphic. I can't remember the name of this gal. Lexi Penny. She is, I think, a dietitian. I stole the graphic and screenshotted it on our outline. She has a lot of really great information, but she kind of has like a little five point thing about how the weight loss industry profits off the fast and industry limitations. So I want to go through those five points together. So our first one is that most clothing stores, first of all, only have up to size twelve. And it presents the sizes like double zero to twelve as a normal range. So if you're outside of that double zero to twelve, sucks to be you. You got to go somewhere else to find your clothes. You're abnormal. It makes you feel bad, I'm sure. And so because of that, women can't find options that fit their bodies. Because whether you want to believe it or not, there are a lot of women who don't fit in a double zero to size twelve. There are a lot of very healthy women who are above a size twelve. But because of the industry limitation, women that are not in that range feel that their bodies are wrong and need fixed. And so it's kind of where the weight loss industry comes in. The women are, at this point, seeking for a solution to their problem, which is just a problem created by the fashion industry, the problem of their body not fitting into clothes. And so from there, the wealth industry benefits and the fashion industry profits from just making clothes that don't actually fit most people because everyone's trying to shrink their buyers to get into them. So the two are kind of in cahoots, it seems. Yeah. And then they always love charging more money yes. For sizes that aren't within their typical ranges, which very annoying. There's a good point, too. You got to pay the price of being in a larger body. Yeah. It's a vicious cycle and one that just keeps happening over and over and over and over again. Yes. We have our whole fat phobia episode. We should link that below. You guys will listen to that. We talk about it a lot more, even outside of this piece of it. But yeah, I don't know if the fashion industry necessarily is what their motivation is there. Like Hannah said, we are not at all experts in the field of fashion, but the weight loss industry and fashion industry definitely can play off of each other and do play off of each other because of these limitations with clothing. And like Hannah talked about, the weight loss industry has just been promoting shrinking or bonding to the small size constantly. And that the inaccessibility around sizes really pushes us even more into that mindset that, oh, I need to something's wrong with my body. So it's a really frustrating place to be in, and I'm sure that so many people listening have experienced it. Where you want to go shopping and they don't have your size. Or like, there are some stores that just don't are very non inclusive and are very limited, as is with their sizes. And then they can't shop there and then they feel upset, and then they feel like they need to change their spot because something's wrong with them because their size is not accessible to them. And that's just not the case. It's more of the brands need to be a little bit more inclusive. Luckily, a lot of brands have been moving in that direction. It's just needed to continue to be moving in that direction. And something really frustrating that a lot of people experience with this is there's all this we talk about this all the time whenever it comes to weight loss is it's not just calories and calories out and it's not just physical activity. Sex plays a huge part in it. So oftentimes when you see people promoting different body sizes, or not that they're outright promoting different body sizes, but they do it in a way that's promoting a specific body size. It's most likely genetics. Like, very much genetics. A lot of I always think of Victoria's Secret models, a lot of them just genetically look like that. Of course they like, eat specific ways and they do exercise, but to get this specific I don't even know if this is still true. I remember a couple of years ago, I was like, not so healthy. I don't want to say obsessed, but let's say invested in that. And I would, like, watch workout videos about how to look like a Victory's Secret model. And I'm also not a fitness ex. At first, I'll put that on the record as well, but I was like, I'm going to make you look this way. It's genetics. That's what's making way. They're talking about, like, exercises that elongate your body. I'm like, they're tall and thin. They're naturally going to look elongated if you saw their parents. They'd also be long and thin and tall. Yeah. So genetics can't be no, you cannot control that. Oh, my gosh. I bet I'm making a prediction in the next five to ten years, if there's not one already, there's going to be a push towards changing your genetics. From a food standpoint, I'm making this prediction now, kind of like how you can boost your metabolism and stuff. It'll say, like, boost your genetics. Yeah, eat this food to change your genetic makeup so you can lose weight. Oh my gosh. I had someone tell me today that she saw like, an ad or something where you wear a magnetic nose ring and it has something to do with oh, my gosh. What you say? I forget how the mechanisms supposedly works, but helps you lose weight wearing a magnetic nose ring. What? Yeah. What? I'm not eating on your patient at all. No, she was very aware. That's not how it works a few times, so she was not asking. We left them to do it. Very aware. Good. Oh my gosh. I'm not surprised. They also had devices that told people to keep your mouth shut. And they're probably making more money than we are because they're making a quick fix kind of thing. Is that supposed to affect your old factory receptor? I can remember what she said. I literally just saw her like 4 hours ago. It was something about so bad. So you don't want to eat? No, it wasn't genetics, but it was something kind of like that. I don't remember, but I don't know. There probably will be something like that in the future with genetics. If you eat more pineapple, which that's carbs probably not pineapple, if you eat more, like bowl testicles, you can really improve those genetics. Actually, that one guy oh my gosh, what's his name? Is it liber king says this. He says that whatever tissue you eat, that one gets stronger in your body. Like, if you eat, I think, like, bowl testicles that can strengthen your own testicles. I don't know. Yes. He has a theory where if you eat a certain tissue, it goes to that tissue in your body. Just thought of a very graphic example. I thought I'm like, if you eat, like, fish eyes, will that make your eyesight better? Better eyesight? Yeah. Okay. It's on YouTube. Eat organs to improve your organs. What the so he's basically doing what you're talking about. So I should eat if I have heart problems, I should eat hearts? Yeah. If I have lung problems, I should eat lungs. Yeah. Oh, it has to be like, raw meat, too. Oh my gosh. He's all about raw me as a food safety concern. Right. Oh my gosh. And you have to shield yourself from toxins, and you have to take cold plunges and don't use deodorant. That's what we're up against. What an interesting way of life. Strong dude that this is also controversial in that world. Who I think is probably on steroids. He's like, who. Yeah. He's like, no toxins, so, you know, whatever. Like, of course, if it wasn't to him, the shirtless, scary guy with ABS, like, over the skinny white dietitian. Oh, my gosh. Whatever. You guys are here. We appreciate that. Yeah, we appreciate being here. Sorry we don't have the biggest muscles. Yeah, sorry. But we have strong brains. Yeah. Because we eat brains and that makes our brain strong.
Participant #1:
Yikes. Yikes. Okay, well, you guys get it. You understand now, hopefully, how the weight loss industry is greatly benefiting not only from all this, but just in general from our society. It is I think I have my notes. A $72 billion weight loss or weight loss. Boom. $72. Nope. Okay, let's try this. For the fourth time, the weight loss industry is a 70 70. Oh, my God. I can't say that. It's a billion industry. Yeah, that was rough. You got through it. We got through it. And that number is going up. That's so scary.
Participant #1:
Yeah. So let's go over what to do about this if you're like. Well, we always try to give takeaway tips because, you guys know, we can talk all about the bad, about everything that is happening in our field, but it's not going to be helpful to you guys unless you know kind of how to combat it. So I guess one last thing that isn't good kind of much, just a little bit, and that it's like holding on to clothes that you hope to eventually fit into, which, Emily, I have both been guilty of ourselves. I used to have a little section in my closet of clothes that I would eventually fit in when I lose the weight or when the summer comes around and start moving more. I'll fit in them in the summer. Yada, yada, yada. I think we often do this because we feel like we'll use it as motivation to stick to a diet or like an exercise routine, where, like, if we see that visual of those size eight genes that we got to get into, then we'll be more likely to stick to our routine. But unfortunately, that motivation is not probably what we needed. We actually had to improve our ship with food and our body and everything to kind of figure out that fat Bubba belief that we're dealing with. What doesn't set is it usually creates a whole lot of guilt and self loathing. You just feel guilty about it. And if it's like me, in my case, I never ended up sitting in those clothes because they were from when I was like 14 years old. And at the time when I was dealing with this, it's probably like 21. So of course I don't fit in those anymore. I'm like a different stage of my life. So it's just not even a realistic goal to set for yourself most likely, either. Yeah. Your physical activity level is probably different. Your eating is probably maybe different. Where you were in life, for our example, I was also high school, college. You were an adolescent. You were growing completely different place as well. And oftentimes those external motivators of I'm going to look a certain way are one of the weakest forms of motivation to keep us going on any type of goal. So oftentimes I always think weight loss because that's one of the most common ones, if not the most common one, was like, oh, well, stick to this plan for eight weeks so I can fit in this dress I want to wear for this wedding. That will we like to find something deeper than that. Not that we're telling you to lose weight for this wedding, but just from an external standpoint of like, I want to look different. That's not going to stick around as much. You have to kind of find a little bit more of an into your internal motivator that's just for any goal in general. Like, you have to find something a little bit deeper to keep you going compared to just an external change. And if you don't like your body now we've said this before, you will not like it later. You got to do some mindset work around body neutrality, which is kind of a foreshadowing of what we're going to talk about next. Mindset around food, exercise, we have to look a little bit more deep. Yeah, I hear that all the time. They're always like, I want to lose weight because I like myself a lot more, or whatever, and it's hard for me to relate. Of course, I always do try to have a disclaimer of, like, I can't know what you're going through. I haven't had to experience what you're going through, so I can't know for sure how it feels, but I've rarely seen it happen. Like, the cause of your unhappiness is likely not just your weight. It's a variety of things. Even if it is related to your weight, it's not because of the weight itself. It's just how you view yourself in your body image. That's the issue, like Emily was saying. So that mindset work is going to be huge. So that way, no matter what your body's looking like, you're able to appreciate what your body's doing for you, which is a great segue into our next point. Let's talk about it. We'll have to do a whole episode. We can even, like, get a great guest on this. I follow a lot of people who call themselves, like, body image coaches, and they talk a lot about this should be a really great person to have on for this. But what you can do about this predicament of this whole thing, like keeping clothes that you want to fit into, struggling to find sizes, shopping is very stressful for you, all of that. Our first thing to think about is the whole concept of body acceptance and weight neutrality, which I forget how much I said on here before on the podcast, but I talk about it quite a bit with my membership. I'm talking about like, body acceptance versus body positivity, where the big difference is, like, with body Positivity, it kind of gives us idea and also a great way that we should always love the way, like, we should always love our body all the time. And that's just not realistic no matter what size your body is or what stage of life you're in, whatever, you're probably going to have times where you just don't love everything about your body, and that's normal and expected. But with body acceptance and body neutrality, it kind of takes it a step further and says, even if you don't love your body, you still got to treat it right. You have to accept it and you have to take care of it and appreciate what it's doing for you. So you're not always positive about it because it's not realistic to have that positivity all the time, but you at least can value what it's doing for you and so you're not trying to punish it and hate it and be mad at all the time. Yeah, we talked about this a little bit with Amanda way back when, the problem episode, but yeah, I don't really have much working towards that would be helpful in all this because you will be much more open to getting whatever size clothes fit you. Again, I can't speak too much personal experience if I don't have the struggle you may have. You're listening to this, but even in my size that I do wear, like I said, if I go to Old Navy, I might have to get like, a certain pair of pants because even this other pair, the same size, won't fit me. But because I'm neutral about my body and I am cool with wherever it's settling at, it's okay if this size doesn't fit me in this shape of paint, but they do in this one. It's just like, who cares? It's like a neutral thing. It's not correlated to my health or my body image at all. No. And this actually kind of leads us a little bit into the next one is just trying to shop at stores that are a little bit more inclusive to your sizes but also almost going off a little bit more into. This is like finding brands that just fit your body well. This is something Hannah and I have talked about a lot over the past couple of years where I'm sure you've brought up your hatred of jeans, hate jeans at some point. There's no way, as you know, you guys don't know. I'm finding a love for jeans again because I got to get to this. I'm, like stealing the spotlight jeans. I'm finding brands that actually fit my body type. Yeah, because we're both I don't know if I want to say victims of this. We're both perpetrators of this, where we would buy jeans based off of our size and they didn't fit us well and they weren't comfortable. Also, skinny jeans are not comfortable and we will never go thank God those are out. We are never going back to them. Why did we think it was marker wear? No, they could come back in style. You will not catch me wearing them. No, I do, trying to get it over, like, your calves. That was the worst thing. You guys can't see my legs, but I've got my calves, and my thighs are the same size. Like, I have huge calves. Huge is, like, a nightmare for me for ten years of my life. Yeah. And it's because we were wearing one uncomfortable jean, so that's on the trend, not on us, but also, we were buying sizes that didn't fit us properly. And if you find hannah and I had gone through this very recently where we loved pants, but they did not fit us properly, we would not allow ourselves to buy it. Even if it fit your hips and it fits your thighs, if it does not fit your waist, do not buy it. There are so many different brands and also now so many different cuts. Whether it's, like, curvy style, I buy more petite because my legs are, like, 2ft tall. But you have to find ones that work for you, and that's okay. It's going to be a frustrating process, but it's so much more rewarding when you buy pants that actually fit you. And don't look at the number on the size. That doesn't mean anything. It's more of look at it maybe, like, on a reference of that specific brand, like, oh, I need to find one that's a little bit bigger or smaller. But even then, it might be, like, smaller just in the waist, or it might be smaller in the hips. It might be that sometimes this has been what's very frustrating me is sometimes when you go between sizes, I think it's like the waist is the only thing that changes. And I'm like, I've had this problem where there were jeans I liked, and I went like, I don't know if I went up or down, and it didn't fix the problem. I was like, yes, why are we designing them this way? Right, but maybe that brand fits someone else's body. Everyone exactly fits differently. So maybe that brand that you find frustrating works for someone else. Like, just try different things, which I've been well, Emily's been pushing me to do, actually more than I'm pushing myself. I've just been like, I'm this size. I have to wear this exact cut. I just got to do that. But Emily and I were shopping recently, like we said, and we both found, like, our dream pair of jeans that we never thought we would have worn. And, like, we're so happy with them, and they were not what we would have ever bought in if we were, like, stuck in, like, a certain zone we had to buy in. No, I like what you said that jeans that might not fit me might fit someone else really well, because sometimes we see. I always will see. Like, I was supposed to say it incorrectly, and then I probably got canceled or something, but levi's? Yes? How are you going to. Say it. I was going to say Levi’s. Don't play Levi’s. No, I sat myself. Where did you learn this? I told you, I just read things like aspartame. Oh no. What was the other one? That was like another really big one. I know that recent one that I was like mind blown about. I don't remember what it was. I don't know either. Oh no, this is going to bother me. There is something more recent, a more Chicago related one that my mom literally was like if you say that you are going to get like bullied. There's a street called Armitage and I say Armitage. Oh no. So they know what I'm talking about, hopefully. But going back to the genes, there are a lot of like I know, influencer collaborations with Levi's to really think about someone's name. It's a very common I say Levy in my head. Would you call someone levy. I'm pretty sure there's like a famous anime character. Actually, I've never seen the anime so I could be completely I could be completely gone. You just stopped reading and like actually listen to things as well, like audiobooks. Because I like learning the names. I see them all in my head, the weirdest ways and then I hear someone say it out loud and I'm like, oh, that's how you say that.
Participant #1:
These influencer gene collaborations, they might say like, oh, these are the best genes for me and then you'll really love this influencer and be like, oh my gosh, I trust them. And then maybe the jeans don't work for you and that's okay. It's just that cut and style of Jean does not fit your body type and that's fine. There's so many discrepancies in jeans. We're really fixated on jeans today because we have a hard time with jeans personal. Yeah. Trying to think, aren't dresses that bad? Well, hopefully if they're long, I can't wear long. Yes. Like when I would get like a prom dress in high school, I almost always had to get it altered. It never looked right. And the boob sizes are not always consistent. Everyone I know had to get their prom dress altered. Is that like do they just not do they make them like they're based on one person's body and they don't match the exact body? You're out of luck. Aren't shirt size and bad? Oh yeah. I usually wear a medium but I could wear anything from a small to extra large and fit the same depending on the brand and the size and the shape and all that. You know what I have beef with speaking of shirt sizes, I fit so well in bobby's shirts and we are very different sizes and I'm like how is this amends large? I don't understand their sizes because I don't really need to know those sizes at all. No, but if it's going to be like a large on a man, I want it to be large on me. Not like, comfortable shirt. Yeah, I can't speak too much because Ross and I are very different sizes, but yeah, men's sizes are weird. They're weird. Yeah. I swear they're somehow smaller than ours. I know. I don't get it. Maybe because, like, the curvier yeah. The curves, maybe. I think the shapes just different. That's true. Okay, anyway, this one, speaking of, like, making a dream closet of clothes that actually fit you and are comfortable, get rid of or donate clothes that don't fit you. I did this recently when I moved. It was so great. Things I just didn't like anymore, aside from all this, but clothes that I was saving for whatever arbitrary reason. Clothes that aren't comfortable, like size aside. Like, if you don't feel comfortable in whatever this is, like, get rid of it. If it's like, a dress that technically fits you but you feel really uncomfortable in it, why would you want to feel uncomfortable? I guess I'm saying that from a perspective of, like, I never want to feel uncomfortable. So I know sometimes fashion is painful. It's just like part of the game or whatever. I don't know. I don't get it. But comfort for me is so important, which is why you guys, if you ever see me probably wearing clothes that are comfortable. So that I would say, I guess depending on what your fashion style is, you might be more into clothes that aren't as comfortable. But from a sizing standpoint, don't try to squeeze into clothes that don't fit you anymore, I guess is the bottom line. No, if you haven't worn it in a year, you've gone through all the seasons and you don't wear it, you might not want to keep it unless, I guess it's like some very, very specific, like a sentimental thing, like a wedding dress. You know, everyone just passes on hand. I have mine. Like, if I don't get rid of that. Yeah, but like, we'll say, non sentimental clothing that you've had for over a year, or if you even you're like, emily, a year is we'll give you two years. Yeah. Even then, trying to think of my own closet, I do have, like, some nicer dresses that I'll literally only wear if I ever go, like, a nice Christmas party or whatever, which maybe is like every two, three years, depending on, I don't know, I guess various factors. But yeah, anyway, like your day to day, like T shirts and jeans and that kind of thing. If you haven't worn them or they don't fit you, get rid of them. Yeah. So let's talk about the next thing we can do when working on our mindset around clothing sizes. So if we have those thoughts of weight loss starting to creep in, of, like, if I lose weight, I'll fit into this shirt again, or if I'm going to save this for when I lose weight or when it gets warmer, I'll start exercising more. One, stop yourself. Like weight. What type of motivator is this? Is this obviously, you know, it's an external one, but still talk yourself through that kind of what is driving this? Why am I feeling the need to change my body? And that's more to say, like, is diet culture pushing something on me right now? Did I hear any like, really rude comments that made me feel bad about my body? What is kind of the driving factor behind these before? Just kind of really jumping right into like, I'm going to hold onto these clothes because I'm going to change my body first, do some work, but that initial motivator is and then challenging that more. So and hopefully as you work through this mindset work, which obviously this is not an extensive workshop for that, which, though we do have a section on it in our course that is coming out late 2022. So definitely top of the waitlist if you want a little bit more work on that. But that being said, when these thoughts do start to come up, we're going to challenge them. We're going to look into kind of what's wrong and then kind of running through all those things we talked about before with like, we don't need to change our body. Be better. We're probably not going to like our body if we change it. Like, even if we don't like it now. Stuff like that. Yeah, agreed. A couple more tips here. Next one is just like get pissed. Like get angry at the designer and diet culture. This applies to like, any part of diet culture, really. But it's a really good sign that you're improving your relationship with food and your body if you're like, really upset about all this. Emily and I have, like, daily rants about all this kind of stuff because, like, it's so true to us and dear to us and we're very passionate about it. And so we're just like mad all the time about this kind of thing. Anyway. We have ways to cope. Don't worry. We're not just honestly angry and bitter. We're very happy people usually. But it just is a good sign if you really see how messed up this all is. If you're getting angry about that, that probably means that you are improving a lot of good ways. Yeah. Get pissed. Yeah. Our last little tip is just, or in this case of what Hannah wrote, just because it zips, take up what I said. Just because it zips doesn't mean it fits. You might think it's based off that mechanism, but like what we talked about with our gene experience, that doesn't necessarily mean if it's comfort is important. Just because you can get it around you doesn't mean it's great. I have another thing I can speak on. I don't know. I actually talked to you about this. I ordered a dress online for a wedding coming up and silly little me didn't read the reviews, which user error right there, that's on me. I will take that hit. And the dress fit incredibly well everywhere, but I couldn't get around my hips at all. But I could shimmy them down, but there would be no movement involved. There can be no dancing. There could be slowly sitting and standing. And technically, it fit. Technically, very borderline. It's barely fitting, but it was not comfortable. And if I did go to the wedding and that, I would probably slash many people. So yes, it was my quote unquote size, but then I was like, well, I'm not comfortable in this. This is not I don't want to go to a wedding wearing something that could break. Also, I looked at the reviews and I experienced that solidarity of everyone's. Like, I can't get out of silver my hips literally every single review. So that's on me. But that was the case where maybe it was my size or maybe you had something inexperienced where it just barely fit, but it was not comfortable. It's not worth it. Get a different size. Get a different clothing item that you feel better in. Yeah, like you said earlier, there's so many clothing brands and styles and colors. If you like that kind of thing, it can be fun to even look around and find a new dress to fit you better, rather than getting mad about it and being like, oh, this sucks. I should lose weight for this. Like, no, no, you get to find a new dress to try, which if you're in a time crunch, it kind of sucks. That's very stressful, but maybe even trying to shift that mentality of like, oh, cool, now keep shopping for this. And if you like shopping, it can be kind of a fun thing to do, which we're good at. Segues today. Our next segway is shopping tips. So if you are someone who experiences these issues all the time, we have some tips for you. So first one, if you are in the actual store trying things on, bring a few sizes to the dressing room. So even if you're a size ten, typically bring a size eight of those jeans, a size 14 of those jeans. Bring like, a few different sizes and try them on until you find one that fits. Or maybe none of them will fit, and that's okay too, but that way you don't have that, like, mini breakdown of like, ugh, why didn't that size ten that usually fits me fit me today? You can just try a different one, and if that fits better, you can get that one instead, or maybe just discard it all together, but it'll just help you feel in the moment that you have a solution to that. I don't call it a problem, but the issue you're struggling with yes, you don't know how that brand unless you only shop that brand and you know how it fits. Really well, it's good to give yourself multiple options just in case. Jicic and then something else to note with shopping tips is trying on your clothes without looking the mirror. There's a lot that can change what the mirror looks like. One, the angles of the mirror can change how it appears, where it is stationed on the wall, whether it's full length or just a little bit that can change how you look. So focused a little bit more. We talk a lot about nonscale victories, but this is a little bit more of that kind of focus of like, do they feel comfortable bringing up the jeans? Example we're going to beat this one down. Do these jeans fit my waist? Do they fit my hips? Do they fit my thighs? Can I sit comfortably in them? Can I comfortably move around? Do I like how they look? And this doesn't necessarily have to be in the mirror, just kind of looking down at them. Like, do I like the style of the jean? Don't buy jeans that you don't like how they look as well. But focusing a little bit more on kind of that feeler with, like, how you're feeling in the clothes first instead of looking at the mirror. Because also, our mind, our body likes to play our mind likes to play tricks on us. Often. If we're having a bad body image day, we might experience some, like, body dysmorphia, and we might see something different than what's actually there. So taking away that component can be good for you. Yeah, I posted a TikTok and an Instagram reel recently on Instagram. I got so many mean comments, of course, but I was talking about how your body image something to do with what your body actually looks like, it has to do with, like, what your brain, like, views your body as, and everyone's like, that was the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You're an idiot. Yada, yada, yada. Because I was saying that, like, body image is not about your body. And they just couldn't wrap their heads around that. I'm not surprised anymore. A bunch of boys, man boys, man boys. But yeah, that's essentially what you just said. Like, your body image isn't really what your body looks like. Usually it's body dysmorphia or just like, you're having a bad body image day, so you feel like you look different than you actually do. What your body actually looks like to other people is probably not what you're seeing yourself. And a lot of people experience body image issues often. So taking away that near piece plays a huge part because that way you don't give that as much power as it has over the decisions you're making. Focusing just more on that comparability will be better. Yeah, I don't know if that's a word I was saying arbitrary or something. Really, it's fine. We are not English majors. We're dietetics majors. Dietitians. Doing our best. Give us a break. We're trying. We're kind of you guys are lucky we're here today. Honestly, it's rough. OK, well, we're wrapping up our let's talk about yeah. Size inclusivity. So we're going to give like a whole longer list in the show notes. So check it out on the website. But we want to go over a few different side of lizard brands. Yes. So Old Navy is the one we've dropped a lot. They go up to four X. We love that for them. Lane Bryant I've never heard of. I think my mall has one. It's like a plus size store. Oh, cool. Yeah. Amazing. And then Athletic goes up to three X, which is for a little bit more of like that athletic wear. Athletic will be good for that. Old Navy's probably more like your everyday. They have some athletic stuff, but yeah, a little bit more every day and then lane Bryant so there's a lot more than this. Just we were able to come together with for this list here, but we'll put a whole longer list on the website for you guys. Yeah, cool. So let's finish it up. So in conclusion of our talk today, your worth is not divided by the size of your jeans or the size of your shirt or the size of your dress or the size of your shorts or whatever it is that is holding you back and is haunting you in your closet that's sitting there like, oh, my gosh. Wear me. When you lose weight, you look so good. You are not defined by whatever that size is. Size is arbitrary. There's no standard sizing guide. Every brand kind of does whatever they want and you just have to kind of find what works best for you and what makes you feel good. So keeping those clothes around that don't fit you is not going to be a helpful strategy. You might find it to be a good motivator, but like what we talked about, those different types of motivation. External motivators are one of the weakest types of motivation to kind of keep us working towards a goal. So just shop for clothes that are comfortable for you. It's very normal for your body to change. There's a lot that goes into it besides eating and exercising and not even just genetics. There's a lot more even on top of that. So it's normal for bodies change and we want you to feel comfortable in what you're wearing. So buy clothes that fit you, not sizes that feed. Yeah. Ringing, ding, tingling so much. My tingling inside. Joke. You had to be there. Not really great for a podcast. Okay, so Barry on brand today. Our bonus question is what is our favorite clothing store to shop at? Emily, do you want to go first answer are we like, living under the assumption that we have unlimited money? Yeah. Okay. I was wondering because I'm like because if money is playing a part in this. My answer is in the very different we can do we can do like, budget favorite. And then if you are a kardashian favorite, okay, I feel like hold on, I'm stumped. I'm like, where do I shop the most at? I'm going to say my kardashian favorite is buckle because oh, no, that's a line. Buckle. I'm going to be like you. I'm going to have three answers because I'm going to have two for the kardashian budget and one for my budget friendly. So I love buckle in altered state, which was like, very much if you look at what they have there, I don't even know what my style is. I've heard, like, people describe my style as different things, and I'm like, oh, sure, I'm surprised you like buckle. It's very like, farm girl. That's what I was going to say. It's very much like that. But I like very specific things there. I think I like their shoes the most. And I have too many shoes. Actually, my answer I'm changing my answer. I'm changing my answer to altered state. In Francesca. I feel like it's a little bit more up my alley. I mostly like altered states sheep. But my budget friendly place, I want to say old navy. I feel like I'm forgetting places. I shop regularly. Yeah, mostly because whatever I'm looking for doesn't fit me. Then I have to go somewhere else. So it I shop at stores regularly. Exactly. I don't think I have a favorite either, which you guys all saw coming. But, like, truly, when it comes to clothes, I was going to say that, like, I love clothes and, like, I love shopping. I'm just so cheap. I hate spending money. And so I have clothes from like, 510 years ago, not because I want to lose weight and fit them. I haven't changed that much. In certain jeans I have for shirts. Those are like, more specific to your body shape, but, like, shirts and stuff I can definitely fit in from ages ago. So anyway, I don't have a lot of, like, up to date things. I really want to get better at it. I want to have a more fashionable closet. I don't really have a place that I like to go to. I will say I have a lot of old navy. That's probably my budget friendly. Like my goto, like all my swimsuits are from there. Like a lot of my plain, like, tshirts, like crop tees. They have some cute workout stuff. Abercrombie coming back. Yes. That's my not so budget friendly option. I got a pair of dress pants from there that I've worn a lot recently. Those are really, like, they fit really well. I got a pair of jeans from there. I need to try the curvy line because the jeans I got to alter a little bit, but they all kinds of cute stuff these days. We went to Hollister, emily and I did, when we were together recently. They had some cute stuff there. I don't think we've stepped foot in a Hollister in ten years. No. And they obviously had their usual stuff, too, that you would have gotten ten years ago, like the graphic tees and all that. But they also got some really cute stuff that was very volunteer of us to get. Yes. I like Target, but Target has been weird lately. Target is I don't know what it's going it's going through like an identity crisis and it's always getting really expensive. I know. Walmart honestly has been the place to go. I've gone there a few times and they've had all kinds of cute stuff, like basic turtleneck, long sleeves from there, like all kinds of jackets and flannels. Yeah. I was thinking honorable mention goes to Nordstrom Rock. I don't have one near me. Yeah, I love Nordstrom Rack. The closest one for me is like 2 hours away. Yeah, I'm not doing that. I also love classic, like under armor, Nike, all that kind of stuff too. For your comfort. What? I said for your comfort. Comfort. Most of my closest leisure. Yeah. And now that skinny jeans are no longer a thing, even my jeans are baggy and comfy, so I'm thriving. I'm never going to be comfortable ever again. And I get to wear scrubs in my day job. Like I'm living the dream. I was going to say that's all I had to contribute. Yes. You guys knew where I was going to go with that. I don't have an answer. No. So we hope you enjoyed today's episode. Definitely be sure to check out the Fatphobia episode and Amanda's episode. We'll link both of those in the description and then we'll include all of those store, like the clothing brands in the show notes on the website, check out our course. It's going to be coming out within the next couple of months. And we'll see you next week. See you next week. Season five. All right. Bye everyone. Bye.
