Shopping in the Mall of Despair

Every overweight person has them. Some more than others, but if you look, every closet has clothes that are too small to wear. They are often referred to as "Goal Clothes." You will hear shoppers say, "Well it doesn't fit now, but once I lose the Holiday Weight it will. I'll get it!" But there it sits in the back of the closet for months, until you add next year's Holiday Weight and now you are even further from that "Goal Outfit."

I have only one shirt I have ever purchased with a goal of wearing after I lost weight. It was about 7 years ago when I had already lost about 50 pounds in the summer, and was expecting to keep the weight loss going. I felt like another 20 pounds, and I can wear that shirt. About 3 weeks later I herniated three discs in my lumbar and was hindered in my exercise for 6 months. I was angry, and ate my comfort food. If you have never ate and ate out of anger, then good for you. It is a disgusting sight.

I put the 50 pounds back on, and more. Since then I have had physical set backs, mental set backs and ended up not caring, in an eating cycle of despair. Never mind "Goal Clothes," I was not fitting into my big clothes. So I bought bigger. Then I got bigger, so I bought bigger. Soon I had more than a closet full of clothes that no longer fit. After the tree fell on my house last year, I consolidated my big-but-too-small-clothes at my Mom's house. Three laundry baskets full of stuff that could no longer stretch its seams around me.

This week, I went shopping in my Mall of Despair. After my recent weight loss my jeans are too big, and I need some of my old pairs. So I went and picked up my three baskets. The jeans in these baskets have not fit for 2 years. Now they are comfy.

Thank you Mall of Despair! You are now the Mall of Hope!