My size-up pants are getting snug

Yesterday I put on a pair of pants I bought a few months ago. They were noticeably tighter than before. I stood in front of the mirror waiting for the bad feeling that used to come when clothes got tighter. It did not come.

I bought these pants two sizes up because nothing else fit at the time. The purchase was practical. I needed pants I could wear. If someone had told me then that I would one day be glad to find them snug, I do not think I would have believed it.

That is what happened at the mirror. The upset never arrived. I felt relief instead, and it surprised me. My body is changing. The progress I have been working toward is now visible in my clothes.

The relief of clothes getting snug

I keep thinking about how strange it is to be glad about this. Most of what I learned about clothes and bodies treated looser as success and tighter as failure. I spent years with that view. Standing at the mirror and feeling relieved was a clear break from it.

It also settled how I want to buy clothes from now on. I am done buying things sized for a smaller body I hoped to have later. This body, the one in the mirror, gets clothes that fit it today. That goes for whatever I buy next as well, because at this rate these pants will not fit forever.

For now they are staying in the rotation. Their fit gives me a practical way to notice changes in my weight.