On dress sizes...No! Clothing Women sizes in general!

When I first started wanting to lose weight for my wedding...it didn't happen right away...in fact I wasn't worried about it at all because I had a man that loved me and nothing else mattered.

Then, I found it...THE DRESS. I would like to say more, but it will just have to remain a mystery in case my fiance finds this blog, but let me just state the obvious...

#1- IT'S BEAUTIFUL

#2- There's something about it that can't be fixed that I never found to be all that ideal for my body type, thus I decided I would feel better and less self-conscious if only I could only drop a few dress sizes.

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The sample dress of my dress in the store was a size 12 and too small...no surprise, it was good enough to get an idea, but just to test different sizes I tried on a different dress that was in a size 16 and it was too big...

Yes, the story of me and dresses often seems like the part in Goldilocks and the Three Bears where she's trying the different chairs and bed sizes.

I would love to tell you that if a 12 was too small and a 16 was too big it means that the 14 was just right, unfortunately that's not the case. The truth is my bust fit perfectly into the 16 and my waist and bottom not so much, it turns out the different areas of my body are all different sizes....*sigh*

I am proud to say my waist and bottom are smaller than my bust. I wish that was good enough news to give me a better body image.

Conclusion: the dress shop has ordered me a size 16 dress and will be taking the waist in or in the words of the owner of the dress shop "Your bust is plus sized, but the rest of you is not!"

She said that like it was good news and I could see how many would see it that way, but what I heard is my wedding dress is plus size, which brings me to the whole point of this blog entry...SIZES.

This moment is what made one of my goals to drop one dress size...why one dress size?

It can depend on the shop but typically:

SIZES: 0-14=regular sizes

SIZES: 16 and above=plus sizes

(Sometimes ladies who wear a 16 are just out of luck because shops will end their regular sizes of 14 and start their plus sizes in a different section at 18.)

 Bottom Line: I thought if I dropped one dress size I could feel prettier having confidence knowing that I am wearing a reguler size dress as oppossed to a plus size dress....even though for me there is only a one size difference. HOW RIDICULOUS IS THAT!

So ladies and gentleman, here is the point I would like to discuss today, WHY DO WE EVEN HAVE PLUS SIZES? Why is there a separate place for bigger women to shop in a store?

I can't think of the source, but somewhere I heard that the average woman wears above a size 10...meaning there are a lot of woman that shop in a different place in the store...a shameful place....a broader shoulder, don't fit into society's frame of reference for woman place...a bad body image place.

Recently, I learned that a bad body image can lead to more overeating and falling off track when trying to be healthy. These separate sections in the store aren't helping.

So why can't stores just shelve everything together? Why do we even have to call them plus sizes?

Not everyone who wears plus sizes leads an unhealthy lifestyle, "plus" sizes imply something irregular and could be contributing to the national eating disorder in America.