Latest / Your Strongest Body / The Struggle With Clothing Sizes: How To Change Your Perspective
Transcript
- 0:08Speaker 1: You are listening to your strongest body.
- 0:11Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Betsy Foster, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and certified nutrition coach.
- 0:17Speaker 1: I've worked as a personal trainer for over a decade, helping people build strength, speed, muscles as well as a deep appreciation for their bodies and confidence that helps them live their life to the fullest.
- 0:29Speaker 1: Now I'm sharing what I know with you fitness, nutrition and all the deeper stuff to help you discover your strongest body.
- 0:37Speaker 1: Hello, welcome back.
- 0:47Speaker 1: Thanks for being here.
- 0:48Speaker 1: You're listening to your strongest body.
- 0:51Speaker 1: I'm Betsy.
- 0:52Speaker 1: I guess you heard that whole thing in the intro.
- 0:56Speaker 1: What's new around here?
- 0:56Speaker 1: It is September and it's kind of cooling off a little bit in Gainesville, florida, believe it or not.
- 1:05Speaker 1: Other people have agreed with me that it's cooling off.
- 1:10Speaker 1: Usually I'm the person who's complaining it's cold.
- 1:12Speaker 1: Now.
- 1:13Speaker 1: Cooling off here is like not fall temperatures other places by any means, but it's starting.
- 1:20Speaker 1: You can feel the change in the weather.
- 1:23Speaker 1: You can feel the change in the activities you're going to do, the fun fall drinks you're going to get, or the favorite foods around this time.
- 1:38Speaker 1: I'm medium on the pumpkin stuff.
- 1:42Speaker 1: I can go with it sometimes, but I'm not all in in the way that a lot of people are maybe Not sure, but I do like fall flavors and I like different things.
- 1:52Speaker 1: Let me think in two about pulling out the fall clothes.
- 1:57Speaker 1: Now here's the thing in Florida, fall clothes are still going to be most of the same kinds of clothes.
- 2:07Speaker 1: I'm going to be wearing tank tops.
- 2:09Speaker 1: That works for me, because I love tank tops.
- 2:12Speaker 1: I do not want to keep these shoulders locked up in a shirt.
- 2:15Speaker 1: I want them out and about.
- 2:17Speaker 1: We're not really changing clothes here at least I'm not until like in November, early December, and that's like bringing a sweatshirt in the morning and then you have to take it off later.
- 2:32Speaker 1: It had me thinking about sizes, about the kinds of mental mind games that people play with themselves when it comes to trying on clothes, buying clothes, wearing clothes.
- 2:51Speaker 1: I thought about it because a lot of my clients mention that they're feeling so good about themselves, they're having like just improved body confidence, improved self-esteem, and then all of a sudden it's time to go try on clothes or buy new clothes in like a season like this, and sort of all that progress, all that work on themselves, starts to fall apart.
- 3:16Speaker 1: We got to ask ourselves why.
- 3:18Speaker 1: Why do these sizes, literal numbers on the inside of a small tag, play so big a role in how we perceive ourselves and how we perceive our worth in the world and how we perceive how others are going to feel and think about us.
- 3:37Speaker 1: There's so much to that and we could do episode on episode on episode about that, but I do want to take some time to really think about why those feelings creep up, how to address them and start to change our perspective from the size controlling how we feel about ourselves, versus feeling a certain way about ourselves and accepting clothes however they come.
- 4:07Speaker 1: And again, I think that's easier said than done, but I'll kind of get into that.
- 4:14Speaker 1: So what is the challenge with sizing?
- 4:16Speaker 1: Well, there are lots of different challenges with sizing, I think, particularly for women.
- 4:24Speaker 1: Women and I don't know who is listening to this, so I'm going to explain it if you are unfamiliar.
- 4:32Speaker 1: Women's sizing is given sort of a random number either, or title, like small, medium, large, extra large, double, xl, which some men's clothing is women's, like dresses, skirts, pants, shirts.
- 4:48Speaker 1: Sometimes are assigned a number two, four, six, eight, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 24, you know, um, whereas and I don't I am not a man and don't typically shop for men's clothing, but I have seen that they are measured with a measurement for the inseam, a measurement for the waist, I think that's what you call it.
- 5:13Speaker 1: The inseam um that corresponds with if you took a tape measure around that person's waist.
- 5:22Speaker 1: That's what the measurement would be.
- 5:24Speaker 1: Do you already see the challenge here with that Women are getting assigned a random number that does not always associate with a measurement or the same measurement.
- 5:37Speaker 1: So if you are a size eight and you buy an eight somewhere, it is not always the same waist measurement as, or hips measurement as, any other place.
- 5:49Speaker 1: Same thing with like shoulders or bust.
- 5:51Speaker 1: It's not the same measurement from one store to another store, whereas I'm sure there is variability in men's clothing as far as the sizing and the measurements go.
- 6:05Speaker 1: But I think it's important to note that there's probably less variability or at least it's a little easier to draw a conclusion about what sizes to take in the dressing room, because they correspond with a measurement.
- 6:20Speaker 1: So from the start, for the folks out there who purchase women's clothing or clothing that are put in a women's section, you are at a disadvantage and the mind games have begun.
- 6:33Speaker 1: Why do we think there are mind games?
- 6:37Speaker 1: Because that is so much easier to sell.
- 6:41Speaker 1: I mean, we could talk about this for hours and hours and hours, but the diet industry, the wellness industry, the fashion industry are built on cultivating insecurities and then selling you the solution to the insecurity.
- 6:58Speaker 1: So, in so many ways, in an attempt to have women continually strive to be smaller, to take up less space, to even just need to perfect themselves in some way, we've even crafted sizing so that it caters to that kind of mental mind game.
- 7:22Speaker 1: Like it's absolute horseshit.
- 7:25Speaker 1: I said it, it really is.
- 7:30Speaker 1: And so no wonder you go into that dressing room confused, frustrated, disappointed, because every message that has come your way before this moment is be smaller, be smaller, be smaller.
- 7:48Speaker 1: Like that, there's no other way to put that.
- 7:51Speaker 1: I want to say that there are lots of different kinds of messages in terms of body sizing, but for the most part it's just always about being smaller.
- 8:05Speaker 1: And so you're set up for this tricky mental and emotional gymnastics at the very start, and then the best laid plans.
- 8:21Speaker 1: A lot of personal trainers, fitness coaches, nutrition coaches have tried to help individuals by asking them to disconnect from the scale, because we know how detrimental the scale can be for our progress and our mental, our mental health, and we know that the number on the scale is an indicative of how strong you are, how fit you are, how well, how, how you like the way you look, like it just doesn't tell us the kind of information that we want.
- 8:53Speaker 1: But people are sort of always grasping for markers of a progress, and so if we're grasping for those markers of progress, well-meaning personal trainers I've done it, I did it before, I did it many times before because this is how I learned it Encourage clients to think about their sizes as a marker of success versus a scale.
- 9:17Speaker 1: Just think about how your clothes fit.
- 9:21Speaker 1: In theory that's great.
- 9:24Speaker 1: If you want to change the way your body looks, you want to change its size.
- 9:28Speaker 1: No judgment here.
- 9:29Speaker 1: You want to change its size, whether you want to make it smaller or bigger.
- 9:32Speaker 1: The way your clothes fit will be, will communicate something to you.
- 9:38Speaker 1: They'll tell you like oh this, you know, I am getting smaller, or I am getting bigger, or my body shape is changing.
- 9:46Speaker 1: So no judgment on that.
- 9:50Speaker 1: But it's more to say that.
- 9:52Speaker 1: One, it's a little bit like the same thing as depending on the scale.
- 9:56Speaker 1: Two, when we get into the clothes sizing, we're thinking also about all the ways in which that can send us down a rabbit hole and isn't a great measurement tool because it varies so much.
- 10:12Speaker 1: So one you wash your clothes, you dry your clothes, they shrink.
- 10:15Speaker 1: Oh, that changes you know how, how, how long you've had them?
- 10:21Speaker 1: It changes the elasticity of the fabrics, things like that.
- 10:24Speaker 1: So then you're using that as a barometer, even though the clothes are the ones that are changing.
- 10:30Speaker 1: Or you've made all this fitness progress.
- 10:32Speaker 1: You're going to a store thinking that you are going to be a different size when you shop, and because that store has a certain sizing, you don't end up that way.
- 10:41Speaker 1: You don't end up buying a smaller and or bigger size, and you're disappointed, you're really disappointed.
- 10:51Speaker 1: And it has nothing to do with you, has nothing to do with your body.
- 10:55Speaker 1: Your body may have actually changed, but there's so much variability in sizing and clothing that it's given you sort of incorrect feedback.
- 11:04Speaker 1: So I think it's a great idea in theory, but we've got to get away from, I believe, truly letting our clothes dictate how we feel about our bodies.
- 11:16Speaker 1: They can help us feel a certain way about our bodies, they can compliment how we're already feeling, but we can't or at least we're going to try not to let it impact the way we perceive ourselves as much as possible and I say that knowing full well it's hard to do.
- 11:41Speaker 1: I want to be honest with you.
- 11:43Speaker 1: I am a person who feels very confident and comfortable in my body.
- 11:47Speaker 1: This does not mean I don't have moments like that as well.
- 11:51Speaker 1: I have worked a long time to have less of them, and that's something that you can do.
- 11:57Speaker 1: That's something that you can work on, but sometimes you can't control gut feelings, instincts, emotional responses.
- 12:05Speaker 1: It's how you get out of that response that is going to determine your success moving forward.
- 12:11Speaker 1: I typically can try something on, be disappointed with it or have a frustration about it, and be able to move on shortly after and not let it change the way I see my body.
- 12:28Speaker 1: But that takes work, and so that's what we're going to talk about.
- 12:30Speaker 1: We're going to talk about the ways in which we can start to think differently about clothing and sizing and trying on clothes and buying clothes and buying certain sizes, so that we can continue to nurture a more respectful, appreciative either neutral relationship with our body or a loving relationship with our body.
- 12:54Speaker 1: Again, I want to be neutral about things, but I also want to live life like absolutely obsessed with myself.
- 13:02Speaker 1: Same way.
- 13:03Speaker 1: I want you to be absolutely obsessed with all the work you've done.
- 13:07Speaker 1: I want you to be obsessed with how you feel.
- 13:10Speaker 1: I want you to absolutely get the most out of things and the most out of the short time you have to live in this incredible beautiful body that you have.
- 13:22Speaker 1: It really is amazing and I want you to be able to relish it.
- 13:28Speaker 1: It's not going to be all the time, but could we please aim for more of that time than less of that time?
- 13:33Speaker 1: Alright, so let's talk strategy.
- 13:36Speaker 1: Let's talk strategy about clothes shopping.
- 13:38Speaker 1: So, first off, we're going to talk about some.
- 13:43Speaker 1: I'm just going to break these down into like four or five little things to be thinking about when you go to try on clothes, and you can apply these to also how you like, pick your clothes out in in it on any given day.
- 13:56Speaker 1: So, number one you're going to start to consider yourself a range.
- 14:02Speaker 1: Rather than becoming so attached to a particular number, to a particular small, large, extra large, whatever that may be, you're going to start to consider yourself as a range, realizing that in some things you wear these sizes, some things you wear this size, depending on where you are in your life.
- 14:25Speaker 1: Some weeks.
- 14:25Speaker 1: I'm stressed because, also, sometimes it's not just the sizing, sometimes it's your body.
- 14:30Speaker 1: Your body shifts and changes over days, over weeks, over years.
- 14:35Speaker 1: There are going to be times where you have more time to dedicate to your fitness and times where you will have less.
- 14:43Speaker 1: It means nothing in terms of your body's worth, so start to think about yourself as a range.
- 14:50Speaker 1: This will help you as you head into a dressing room, grab multiple sizes, because it won't be a a failure to pick up X size, it will merely be oh, I think I like this style.
- 15:08Speaker 1: Let me take these two or these three sizes and see which one lays better on my body, because that's what clothes are doing to clothes are laying better or a way that you prefer, on your body, based on fabric, lighting, all that stuff, and I'm gonna talk about that next.
- 15:28Speaker 1: But take a range, think of yourself as a range.
- 15:31Speaker 1: Take a range.
- 15:32Speaker 1: Same thing goes.
- 15:33Speaker 1: I mean like online shopping.
- 15:35Speaker 1: Come on, that is hard.
- 15:36Speaker 1: You get a picture, you get this random picture of a model that says Josie is 511 and where's a double XS.
- 15:46Speaker 1: Okay, like that's what you're set up for when you go and you start to shop.
- 15:51Speaker 1: So that's frustrating, first off.
- 15:59Speaker 1: Secondly, you're just like maybe you can apply your measurements to it, but you haven't felt the fabric, you haven't seen it up front.
- 16:09Speaker 1: They have a name for you know they have a stargazing blue.
- 16:12Speaker 1: And then you get it and it's like aquamarine or something.
- 16:16Speaker 1: I don't know it.
- 16:17Speaker 1: Just it's a really hard situation to be in to shop online.
- 16:23Speaker 1: So consider yourself a range and realize, when it comes back, like you may like it or you don't.
- 16:29Speaker 1: And I suggest finding stores that have a good return policy and or like come with the return package for you, because the last thing you want to do is also feel like you're attached to a size because you bought it even though you don't like the way it looks.
- 16:45Speaker 1: You know you you don't have to wear something because it's a certain size and then feel uncomfortable in it and feel like you have to move it around all the time and shift and change.
- 16:57Speaker 1: That is only going to play into how you're feeling about yourself and it's not going to feel good.
- 17:02Speaker 1: So you're going to start to consider yourself sort of a range of sizes and be open to the possibility that you might even fall outside of that range sometimes, but it's going to be less a indicator of who you are.
- 17:19Speaker 1: You don't walk up to someone, say, hi, I'm Betsy and I'm a size blank Like.
- 17:25Speaker 1: That is not a, that is not a personality trait of mine, nor is it a something I'm going to, I'm going to put on my bio because it doesn't matter.
- 17:36Speaker 1: So, thinking of yourself as a range, merely for ease of shopping, ease of allowing yourself to see how things look on you.
- 17:45Speaker 1: And then number two, number two we're going to realize that the clothes are supposed to fit us.
- 17:52Speaker 1: We aren't supposed to fit the clothes.
- 17:55Speaker 1: The clothes are supposed to fit us.
- 17:58Speaker 1: We are not trying to fit the clothes.
- 18:02Speaker 1: So if they don't fit by, different fabrics, different colors, different lighting in a dressing room are all going to impact how things look.
- 18:14Speaker 1: And just because something looks great on someone and you love how it looks does not mean that you are going to love how it looks on you, and that's okay.
- 18:24Speaker 1: I want you to go out into the world one day and I want you to go to a crowded place and I want you to look around at all the different kinds of bodies.
- 18:31Speaker 1: All those bodies could also be on the exact same workout program and they'd still all look different, which means that when everybody tries on clothes, they're going to look different.
- 18:44Speaker 1: I only discovered in the last year that I have a longer torso.
- 18:51Speaker 1: I didn't know, and I was like, oh, why don't these things like go all the way up on me?
- 18:55Speaker 1: Or like, why do I have to buy this size?
- 18:58Speaker 1: And that, oh, I have a really long torso, I guess compared, excuse me to other people.
- 19:04Speaker 1: I didn't know that.
- 19:05Speaker 1: Does it like wildly impact how I am going to interact in the world?
- 19:12Speaker 1: No, it's just going to change sort of the sizes I wear in some things, especially things that are going to be like a bodysuit that requires length in my torso.
- 19:23Speaker 1: That's all Same thing.
- 19:25Speaker 1: So different colors are going to.
- 19:27Speaker 1: You're going to like and I'm listen to listen how I'm saying this.
- 19:30Speaker 1: I'm not saying you look better in blank.
- 19:33Speaker 1: I'm saying you like the way you look better in blank, because nobody gets to decide but you.
- 19:40Speaker 1: You can have people you trust and give you feedback, but this isn't about you don't look good in this.
- 19:45Speaker 1: It's about you don't like the way you look in this, which is just fine.
- 19:51Speaker 1: It's about your decision.
- 19:54Speaker 1: There's nothing that says a certain style isn't for you, except for you as the person who picks it and we're kind of going to get into that next.
- 20:04Speaker 1: So you, the clothes are fitting you.
- 20:07Speaker 1: You aren't trying to fit the clothes.
- 20:10Speaker 1: Lots of different things look different and you can take pictures of yourself.
- 20:15Speaker 1: That sometimes helps you get like a little bit more of a as neutral, a a feedback loop as you can.
- 20:23Speaker 1: But remember we all see things that we that and and we put our own spin on what we're seeing.
- 20:32Speaker 1: The third one is no slash, learn what you like.
- 20:37Speaker 1: So when you're going shopping, it's probably a good idea to try a bunch of different styles on different style necklines, different style shoulders, different style waist height, different style bottoms of pants.
- 20:51Speaker 1: You know, are you a skinny Jean person?
- 20:53Speaker 1: Are you a big flared out pant person?
- 20:57Speaker 1: Whatever that may be.
- 20:58Speaker 1: Trying on a lot of things gives you a lot of information.
- 21:02Speaker 1: It's also maybe helpful to learn the styles that you like, the way you look in, because you may be able to recreate that feeling of liking the way you look if you return to that style.
- 21:19Speaker 1: Again, note how I'm saying it.
- 21:21Speaker 1: It's not like this style is for you.
- 21:23Speaker 1: You know you have a blank build, so you look good in this.
- 21:29Speaker 1: If that's how you feel, great, but it's about how you think you look in that thing.
- 21:34Speaker 1: Oh, I like the way this looks on my body, or I like the way this looks on bodies like me.
- 21:41Speaker 1: Sometimes that helps me if I see a body type that's very similar to mine and I like the way those clothes look on that person.
- 21:50Speaker 1: That might be where some inspiration comes from.
- 21:52Speaker 1: Again, we don't have the same exact body so it might not work exactly the same on me, but it does help me sort of get ideas as a person who would not consider themselves like innately aware of how styles fit certain body types.
- 22:12Speaker 1: But again, it's about your preference, not about what a magazine says.
- 22:19Speaker 1: For women who have blank, blank, blank, these are the things you should wear.
- 22:22Speaker 1: No, what do you want to wear?
- 22:26Speaker 1: So, finding style types that you like that you can fall back on, that will help.
- 22:33Speaker 1: You want to try a lot of things on and you might learn that you like different things.
- 22:38Speaker 1: That's a good.
- 22:39Speaker 1: You know, when you are going into a dressing room, you want to have some variety and some places and some things to pick from.
- 22:46Speaker 1: But realize that if you want to feel your best, you may want to always take in one or two styles that are going to be like a home run for you right from the start.
- 22:58Speaker 1: And the last one is gather your trusted loved ones and lean on them If clothing and sizing and all that stuff feels hard for you, and you have people who you feel like you can genuinely ask their opinion on things without feeling hurt by what they say and or knowing that they're coming from a place of love, knowing that maybe they're not even saying things don't look good.
- 23:33Speaker 1: They're just telling you the things that they love the way you look in, and sometimes that helps you see how others see you in that loving way.
- 23:43Speaker 1: I think we forget how much you know.
- 23:47Speaker 1: If you spend a lot of time with a lot of negative thoughts about how you look and your body, you might forget that other people don't see you that way.
- 23:59Speaker 1: And so if you've got a hype squad, if you've got people who are going to say that looks amazing, or I love that color on you, or that's a great fit, they're going to help you.
- 24:12Speaker 1: Or, let's say, you have the two sizes, you're going back and forth and you feel like you can genuinely ask which of these feels like it fits me better, remembering that you can tailor things.
- 24:24Speaker 1: That's also an option.
- 24:25Speaker 1: But that sort of feedback from someone who's on the outside, who you know love and trust, can take some of the hard work off of you and allow you to make a decision that is less about getting stuck in a number attached to something or the size name attached to something and just what feels and looks better, because, remember, you're walking around and moving in these clothes too.
- 24:58Speaker 1: So how do they feel?
- 24:59Speaker 1: And a great friend would be like how do you feel in this?
- 25:03Speaker 1: See what I'm saying?
- 25:06Speaker 1: There are a lot of ways for us to just slightly shift our perspective and start to experience just how lovely it can be to feel good in your clothes, because I promise you, when you feel good in your clothes or when you don't, nobody is sitting there going.
- 25:28Speaker 1: I bet blank is wearing a size blank.
- 25:31Speaker 1: If they are, they're a trash human being and they don't don't.
- 25:36Speaker 1: Don't go hang out with them, but I doubt that anyone is doing that.
- 25:40Speaker 1: Instead, what people are saying is oh, she looks amazing or even more than that.
- 25:47Speaker 1: Okay, remember that, like who you are isn't is more than what you look like.
- 25:51Speaker 1: She looks so happy to be here.
- 25:53Speaker 1: Can you and Matt, like I think about.
- 25:58Speaker 1: I went to a wedding this summer and I found a dress that I loved.
- 26:02Speaker 1: I absolutely loved it and it was like the perfect find.
- 26:06Speaker 1: And it was the perfect find because it felt like it fit me well.
- 26:09Speaker 1: I felt stunning, I loved the fabric, I loved how it moved, and then I loved that I could dance at a wedding and not think about my skirt coming up too high or I just knew that it felt good.
- 26:22Speaker 1: I like the way I could, I could be in it, because that's what we are.
- 26:28Speaker 1: We are beings, human beings, living and interacting.
- 26:32Speaker 1: Like you got to find clothes that make you feel good to do the stuff you like, because you're not gonna look back and go like, oh, I only wish that my pictures looked good.
- 26:42Speaker 1: No, you want to have a great experience.
- 26:45Speaker 1: There's so much to this and so I don't want to discount the feelings of wanting to show up as beautifully, as powerfully, as attractive as you want.
- 26:55Speaker 1: It's just all together and that, when it comes down to it, we are wearing the clothes as humans, as people who want to have rich experiences and relationships.
- 27:10Speaker 1: The clothes are not wearing us.
- 27:11Speaker 1: You have no obligation to wear X, y or Z, in whatever size it is.
- 27:19Speaker 1: You have no obligation.
- 27:21Speaker 1: This is, this is up to you.
- 27:23Speaker 1: I want you to work on that perspective shift.
- 27:27Speaker 1: I want you to take those tips.
- 27:29Speaker 1: The consider yourself, arrange.
- 27:33Speaker 1: The clothes are supposed to fit you, not the other way around.
- 27:37Speaker 1: You're not supposed to fit into the clothes.
- 27:40Speaker 1: You're gonna find styles that you love, but you're gonna try lots of things and then you're gonna find people who raise you up, who are your hype squad and who will give you honest feedback.
- 27:53Speaker 1: If that's what you're looking for, all right, I could really chat about this forever.
- 27:57Speaker 1: I do have to pick up my child from school, so thank you for listening, as always.
- 28:04Speaker 1: If you want to talk about this or talk about anything else, or you have ideas for the podcast, you can reach out to me.
- 28:11Speaker 1: I'm Betsy at be foster strong calm.
- 28:14Speaker 1: That's my email, and then my Instagram, which I'm very good at DMing.
- 28:19Speaker 1: Back at foster underscore strength.
- 28:22Speaker 1: You can reach me there.
- 28:25Speaker 1: Do me a favor if this was helpful.
- 28:28Speaker 1: You can choose to rate this podcast.
- 28:30Speaker 1: You can choose to leave a review that would be delightful, or you can choose to just share it with somebody.
- 28:36Speaker 1: The more people we can get feeling all the good stuff.
- 28:43Speaker 1: You know, applying these things to live our strongest life in our strongest body, the better off I feel like we all are.
- 28:52Speaker 1: So I appreciate that you listen, I appreciate your time, your effort, your energy.
- 28:58Speaker 1: Go, build your strongest body and until next time.