Elastic Waist

Just posted a long winded comment at Elastic Waist, which seemed perfect fodder for this blog. The original post was about a survey in England, that the happiest women were between UK sizes 8-14 (US 6-12).

My long-winded comment:
On my way down, from a US 16 to a US 4, I was only more ecstatic with each size move. I hit a plateau at size 10, and was pretty happy there for a while though I wasn't at my Weight Watchers goal weight. Once I hit 4, I was 10 pounds under my Weight Watchers goal weight, could see my ribs, and only hit that mark because I was taking cold meds (pseudophedrine, a stimulant) for what was really a chemical reaction. Once I was a size 4 for a few weeks, the ribs kinda freaked me out. I worked to gain a bit of weight, which was easy because I'd figured out that the cold meds weren't fixing the runny nose and got rid of the irritant. Even at this size in pants, I was still wearing size 10 shirts, because my shoulders are a size 10 width.

I stayed a size 6 for 2 years, and was very happy with my body.

I've been slowly gaining weight over the last year and a half, with intermittent short term battles to lose the weight. They were successful battles, but did not win the war. Since my wedding 2 months ago, I've gained 15 pounds (rehearsal, wedding, second reception, weeklong gourmet honeymoon, second vacation, extended Thanksgiving, extended Christmas) and am pretty angry with myself. At 5ft 4in this moves my BMI from 23 to almost 26. Every morning is an internal tirade about how fat I've gotten, and how nothing fits. All the 6's are in storage, some 10's still fit, and I really don't want to go out and buy 12's.

Which is a very long winded way of saying: Satisfaction with where you are is likely a product of where you've been, and where you're going.