Hello there. My name is Jenn (you may know me from my personal blog, 
Or any type of clothing, for that matter, that is more shapely than a burlap sack, yet supportive enough to work for those of us with a few (dozen, score, hundred) extra pounds. From bras to bathing suits to plus size dresses to a basic pair of jeans, there seems to be two common types of plus size clothes:
- Shapeless, unflattering flowy/drapy articles of clothing that should be used for tents or bedclothes
- Shapely, stylish articles of clothing that are not built to truly accommodate a plus size woman (think tank tops with itty bitty straps, low-rise jeans, strapless tops, etc.)
Now that I’m between a 12-14 depending on the fit of clothing, I am mostly past this issue, though I do still encounter it with bras from time to time. Yet oddly enough, today I had the most opposite problem with a bra: the band was too small, the cups too big! This was a 36DD, which has been my “standard” size for the past three months, yet it was the most oddly fitting 36DD ever. My awesome husband took it back for a 38D, which should fit perfectly (though I haven’t tried it yet)!
It’s the little things about dramatic weight loss that really add up and make you realize how far you’ve come. Feeling the seatbelt rub against your collarbone. Sitting in a desk chair and seeing excess cushion on either side of you. Not sitting up high enough in your car anymore to be able to share the same rearview mirror setting with your husband. Taking a ring that was once on your pinky and putting it on your index finger (I just did this tonight!). Shopping for Orange county jewelry and realizing that you don’t need the biggest size. Trying on clothes and having to put them back or take them back because they’re too big.
Those are just a few that I can think of at the moment. Yay for non-scale weight loss victories. 
Those of you who have lost a significant amount of weight in a relatively short amount of time (1-3 years) will know exactly what I’m talking about when I ask about doing a double-take. By doing a double-take, I mean have you ever glanced in the mirror, seen the reflection from a large window or even saw a glimpse of yourself on one of those home security cameras and thought, “Who is that? Is that me?”
I’ll be two years (two years, can you believe it?) out of gastric bypass surgery as of November 18th, 2011. Besides wondering where the time has gone, I can’t believe that I have lost so much of myself and have maintained weight for so long (I’ve been bouncing between 180 lbs – 188 lbs for six months now), yet still have not become entirely accustomed to this “new” me. I wonder when the novelty will wear off?
Even though I’ve lost a lot of weight and the heat doesn’t affect me like it used (case in point: it’s currently 79° in my house and I haven’t even broken a sweat!), I still don’t like the heat. I go into greenhouses with their grow lights and I mentally break a sweat. I cringe when I think of hot summer days, particularly hot summer afternoons when the car has been locked up all day.
This crazy weather has me so thankful for the fact that both of our cars have air conditioning, and that we will hopefully have central air soon too!
By far, the worst skin I am left with from losing all of this weight (151 lbs and counting!) is what’s left on my arms. I call them my bingo flaps. I love fall and winter because I hide them in three-quarter-length tops, long-sleeved tops, and my personal favorite, hoodies. But now that spring is here and the temperatures are warming up, t-shirt weather will soon be upon us, which means there’s no hiding them. Trust me, they’re bad. So bad, in fact, that I’ve done my best to hide them in photos. But I’m all about being honest, and letting it all hang out, so here you go:
I have the upper arms of a 331 person, and they look ridiculous on the body of a 180 lb person. Sigh.
(This summer I will be almost two years out of surgery, and I fully intend on checking with surgeons on details and pricing for the removal of those bastards!)
I’ve been really into Heavy. I feel like I can really identify with a lot of the people on the show. While I never hid food or went into my closet under the pretense of cleaning in order to eat a sandwich or a pack of cookies, I did have an eating problem. More than anything, my problem was making bad choices, and indulging in those bad choices. It wasn’t until I started seriously monitoring everything I ate for the purpose of losing weight in anticipation of weight loss surgery, and then monitoring everything since then to make sure that I’m making the most of what I do eat, that I realized just how bad my food choices were. Take a tablespoon of peanut butter, for example: nearly 8 grams of fat! Or five Trefoil Girl Scout Cookies: 27g of fat! I wasn’t eating HUGE portions, just average and slightly above average portions of really fattening, high-calorie items.
There isn’t a single episode of Heavy that doesn’t make me tear up at some point. I always empathize with the overweight participants when they meet with the people in lab coats and discover just how overweight and unhealthy they really are. 
Do you watch Heavy? What do you think of it?
Even at my heaviest weight, I exuded confidence, and I did my best to exude sex appeal for my husband. I was — and still am, obviously — very fastidious with my personal hygiene, and I took care in looking after my hair, skin, nails, and general appearance. And when it came time for romance, intimacy and naughty time, I broke out my sexiest of bras, panties and lingerie. Dress to impress, you know?
Fortunately, my “job” was made easier by lingerie companies such as One Stop Plus Lingerie. One Stop Plus is a UK-based site that carries a large selection of apparel for plus size women (and men, too!). Forget the granny panties and over-the-shoulder-boulder-holders that your local department store’s “womens’ department” carries; the plus size underwear is most definitely the kind of underwear you would not want to take home to mother for laundering. Better still, One Stop Plus also carries a great selection of bras, with many styles to choose from: underwired (a must-have for us bigger-bosomed chick!), minimisers (great for certain tops, or if you lead an active lifestyle and want to keep the girls in place at all times), and body shapers (I can’t tell you what a difference these make!), just to name a few.
With spring just around the corner (literally — the first “official” day of spring is Sunday!), now’s a great time to dig through your drawers, trash those broken, beat up bras and old panties, and outfit yourself from top to bottom in something sexy from One Stop Plus.
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