Blog Post #6 | Hiding your beach body

I was toying around with various ideas before I saw last week’s post. My first reaction when I read it was “who wrote this?” After the first paragraph I thought it was Min because I was expecting the post to be about working out and/or bodybuilding. Once I got through it I realized the whole thing was very pageant queen, which is to say, Shayna. Anyway, I have the good fortune to be pretty good looking, but even the greatest bodies can be obscured by bad clothes. It would be a shame to let your beach body go unappreciated 99% of the time, especially after all the trouble you went through making those vegetable smoothies. And if you don’t have the body you want, clothes can make it look like you do. Now I am a man, so I don’t know much about women’s clothing. But I’m going to talk about men’s clothes and how you can look/feel better through dressing better. There will also be some points that could probably be applied to women’s clothing as well. If you’re reading this and thinking you know someone who might benefit from my advice send them a link, but don’t force anything upon them – nothing good is going to come about unless they decide for themselves they want to dress better. Your clothes should fit your body. Now, just because I can fit into a medium and it’s comfortable doesn’t mean that the medium fits me. Next time you go shopping, maybe try going down a size from what you usually wear. For most people, this is going to mean an improvement in fit and an increase in confidence (and interest from the opposite sex, although I couldn’t say which comes first). Anecdote: I lost bunch of weight after first year, but I saw/felt no change. However, when I started putting an effort into dressing (which was rather difficult after the security of a uniform throughout grade school), people noticed and gave me compliments. Fit pet peeve: boot cut jeans. Your ankle is probably the narrowest part of your leg, so it should also be the narrowest part of your pants. This is my reason to dislike boot cut jeans. My feelings toward boot cut jeans are not reasonable, and go beyond dislike. I can’t stand them. If you are smaller than me, you are probably going to have a hard time finding things that fit. You might want to take up sewing/tailoring so you can alter your clothes (shirts are easy, and it makes a difference). Beware though – magazines cheat. What you’re wearing should match what you’re doing/where you are. Wearing a suit does not make you better dressed than everyone not wearing a suit. It makes you look like you either, a) came from an interview, or b) are a douche. You are not Barney Stinson. Even if nothing suits you like a suit, there is a time and a place. Avoid wearing white gym socks, unless you are at the gym, but don’t freak out when it happens either. If you have decided to take my advice, I have some more. Take it slow. You are going to make mistakes. If you take your time, hopefully they will not be too expensive. Putting on your clothes can give you the confidence to take them off. One last thing. If you decide to change the way you dress. You’re probably going to be pretty self-conscious about it at first. Don’t be. Really. I’m sorry, but no-one cares that much about how you dress. The occasional person (me) may become upset if you wear boot cut jeans, but everyone you pass isn’t silently judging you on how ‘tight*’ you pants are. *I thought I had tight pants when I got some jeans that fit. I now understand what ‘tight pants’ are, and that my jeans are not ‘tight pants.’ Bracing myself for hordes of plebs wearing of boot cut jeans to offend me,