The land of hope...

There is a section of my closet where clothes go to hide from the charity bags. I like to call it the "land of hope".

Because we move quite often, I am no longer the pack rat of my early years. Rather, at every given opportunity I gladly go through our belongings and give away things we just don't need. I have 5 categories in my wardrobe that I mentally run through when it comes time to purge. They are...

1. clothes I actually wear
2. clothes I haven't worn in ages and probably won't wear again
3. clothes that are a bit shabby or worn out
4. clothes that are truly out of date
5. clothes from the land of hope

Categories 2,3 and 4 get tossed...leaving me with my true wardrobe and the one I wish I could wear. You see, clothes in the land of hope are usually a size or two too small, but are items that I absolutely love and can't bear to part with. It's that mental wrestling match of knowing that you can't fit into them, yet not giving up hope that skipping that last bite of chocolate won't magically subtract ten pounds from my posterior.

The most recent inhabitants in the land of hope are my pre-pregnancy clothes. I almost have to laugh at myself for writing that. You see, pre-pregnancy means that these clothes are at least four years old now. That old wives tale of losing your baby weight through breastfeeding and chasing a toddler...yeah, hogwash. Didn't work for me. I lost a good amount of my pregnancy weight, but not all of it. And so, many beloved skirts, trousers and suits found their way to a dark corner of the closet, clinging for dear life, hiding from the charity shop bags.

But this past Christmas, I had had enough. I told my husband that I was tired of all the methods I had tried and was going to go full-force into reshaping myself to something that resembled the me before our son. I even went so far as to opt out of Christmas gifts and ask for one item instead - an elliptical machine. And then, after the new year, I started on a real diet...and now have a smaller frame to prove it.

So today, while my son was blissfully playing, I took a very indulgent period of time and opened my closet door and pulled out the clothes from the land of hope. Tentatively, I took them off the hangers and slipped them on. And you know what? They fit! All of them! Some are a bit snug, but at least this time I can actually get them on! It was pure joy. As a woman, there are few things in life that send you into giggles more quickly than discovering your clothes fit again.

And now I am looking at a new dilemma...a stack of clothes that are becoming too loose to look right. Will I throw them out in the next charity bag? Not yet. I am too much of a realist. Weight can reappear when you are least expecting it. But if I can keep on the path I am on, I don't foresee these clothes making it into the next move boxes.

You see, there is always hope.