Can I just say that I haven’t bought a new pair of jeans in 5 years?. I have many reasons why and they may or may not make sense to you, but here goes;

1. How many styles of jeans are there really? Don’t they just recycle the same stuff from last year and call it a new design?.
2. I will be losing the last 10 pounds by next month, so I’ll wait until then to finally restock my jean collection.
3. I work in scrubs most of the time, so how many pairs of jeans do I really need for someone who spends half their life in scrubs or yoga pants?(hello moms)
4. The kids need summer, or winter, or spring clothes right now , so on the next round, I’ll buy myself some jeans.

These are just but a few reasons I told myself not to go shopping for the past few  years. And as you know, you can make a case for anything in your life if you’re determined to win.

The truth is, I am a 5’9, very curvy, small waisted woman. And when I gained some weight after the birth of my kids, all the stores I was used to shopping in suddenly lacked my size. Of course I could’ve branched out into other stores but then that would mean admitting that my body had changed.

Several diets and self-admonishments later, I picked up something called self-love.

The crusaders of self-love (I’m a convert) will tell you that no one consciously belittles themselves or their bodies. They think what they’re doing is giving themselves some kind of “pep-talk” or tough love”. I can tell you that as a former practitioner of tough love, the only thing it did was make me make worse choices and sink into a deeper hole of self-esteem issues. So a couple of years ago, I decided to talk to myself like I would somebody I really loved (my daughter, my mother, my girlfriends).

At first, it sounded childish and insincere. I would look in the mirror when getting ready for work and as I heaved my pants over my muffin top, I would smile and tell myself how beautiful I looked that day. I started thanking my legs for carrying me all these years and my hips for carrying my children. I thanked my small breasts for nourishing my children for 2 years and even gave props to my buttocks for cushioning my seats (lol).

I can’t pin-point the exact time or day but I noticed a mental shift. It started with simple things like “since my legs can carry me to the elevator, lets see if they’ll get me up those stairs at work”. Well guess what? They did. I would say “since my body digested that burger so beautifully, lets see what it’s going to do with an extra glass of water”. And slowly without much effort, I noticed my body changing. It wasn’t a conscious all out war at the gym like before, but rather a slow coaxing of an abused body to come out of hiding.

My point, I love my body no matter what size, but I’ve noticed it does more with every encouragement I give it. It doesn’t hurt that I can now run up flights of stairs without gasping for air or that I can keep up with my very energetic 5 year old Son. And after much speculation and procrastination, I just might go and buy me a pair of jeans to adorn these beautiful silhouette of mine.

Where should I go for well fitting denim for tall, curvy women?