February 20, 2006
Monday

I want to wear clothes that have no elastic, that have zippers or buttons or snaps instead. I want to wear clothes that have a number for a size instead of a letter. I want this little red dress from Coldwater Creek, with its flared asymmetric hem and its back waist darts and its (oh Sweet Margaret of Cortona, pray for me!) pintucks that cross the hip.

I go along thinking that I am more or less a Size L. I rarely try clothes on in a store. I buy mostly knits and stick with brands I know and trust. I send away for Lands’ End size L pants (with an elastic waistband, of course), and shop at the Bon Ton for Liz Claiborne tops in XL (because I don’t like things to bind in the bust). I have a Coldwater Creek denim jacket in L, and a swirly fake suede skirt in PXL.

I took my measurements on February 1 and wrote them down in my notebook. They translate to a size 22W to 24W in the Coldwater Creek size chart. The dress pictured comes in sizes 6 through 18 only. I need to lose about ten inches in the waist to be a Coldwater Creek Size 16. According to my friends on the Weight Watchers “50+ pounds to lose” message board, it takes about 15 pounds (and working out to tone and reshape as you lose) to go down one dress size. So I’m looking at 45 pounds before I can even think about this little red dress that I want to wear in August when I go out to dinner for my wedding anniversary.

45 pounds divided by 24 weeks (to August 7) equals 1.87 pounds a week. Doable, certainly, within Weight Watchers guidelines of no more than 2 pounds a week.

But to someone who’s lost only 2 pounds since the first of the year, that seems impossible.

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