{"id":39,"date":"2012-04-19T01:27:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T01:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/on-dressing-rooms\/"},"modified":"2018-04-21T17:22:22","modified_gmt":"2018-04-21T17:22:22","slug":"on-dressing-rooms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/2012\/04\/on-dressing-rooms\/","title":{"rendered":"On Dressing Rooms."},"content":{"rendered":"

What is it about a trip to the dressing room \u2013 be it to try on a swimsuit, a bra, a pair of jeans \u2013 that ignites such fear and trepidation in the heart of a woman?  Must it always be an experience we dread? I went downtown today to shop.  I needed two things: a dress for a party we\u2019re going to and some new Spanx to wear under said dress.  I\u2019ve been doing my Paleo diet now since the end of February and quite honestly, I\u2019ve never felt better.  I\u2019m sleeping so soundly I\u2019m not hearing any children waking up in the middle of the night (which maybe is a good thing?), I haven\u2019t had any dizzy spells since I\u2019ve cut gluten and grains out of my diet (which I was having quite a bit before), I feel less bloated and more clear-headed \u2013 and yes, OF course \u2013 there\u2019s the whole inches lost thing.  So you would think that I would be in a good self-esteem place right now, right?  Some new clothes, compliments from friends and my loving husband\u2026I\u2019ve even bought some \u2013 gasp \u2013 shorts.  Shorts, which I would never have felt comfortable in before.  What, exactly, is the problem? I read this<\/a> very interesting article on Forbes.com today.  Working moms vs. Stay-at-home-moms\u2026the perceptions, the assumptions we gather from each other just by the clothes that we wear to our jobs.  Working moms?  Dressed up in a suit or otherwise sharply pressed outfit.  Stay-at-home-mom: yoga pants\u2026more specifically Lululemon yoga pants, of the $98 variety.  Now, I\u2019m not knocking my dear friend Lulu.  In fact, if you know me you know I might have a teensy problem when it comes to their delicious clothes.  However, it got me thinking.  As I go about my day and see the various women in my life, am I to assume that each and every one of them is thrilled and unbelievably happy with their bodies?  What are my perceptions, and what is reality?  Do they see flaws?  Are they thinking I wish I had bigger boobs.  I bet she<\/em> never has to worry about filling out a fantastic little black dress. I wish I had a flatter stomach.  I bet she<\/em> doesn\u2019t need to wear Spanx. I wish I had arms like her.  I bet she<\/em> spends hours in the gym to look like that. I wish I didn\u2019t have cellulite.  I bet she<\/em> doesn\u2019t have cellulite. I think if we are honest with ourselves, we\u2019ve all had thoughts just like these.  And I\u2019ll also bet that the girls you\u2019re wondering about are thinking the exact same things about other girls, or \u2013 gasp \u2013 you?  It\u2019s a vicious cycle that will probably go on and on.  And maybe, just maybe \u2013 they\u2019re not thinking of you at all.  They\u2019re so wrapped up in the noise of their own stuff they haven\u2019t ever noticed that maybe your thighs do touch and maybe your boobs are a little saggy after breastfeeding two babies.  Maybe you do have a constellation of stretch marks across your stomach.  But, do they really see?  And do they really care?  Maybe they\u2019re worried about what you<\/em> see when you look at them<\/em>.  I\u2019d venture to say it\u2019s probably the latter.  So maybe we should give each other, and ourselves a break.  Maybe if we\u2019d all stop thinking about our flaws at the exact same time we\u2019d all be having a lot more fun.  So, back to the dress I tried on.  It was darling.  Right up my alley.  Made my legs look fantastic.  But I couldn\u2019t get past how un-Madonna my arms looked in it.  So I went back home with my new Spanx and no dress to wear over them, hanging my head in defeat and this close<\/em> to climbing up out of my shame spiral via a big fat bag of pretzel M & M\u2019s. Don\u2019t worry.  I didn\u2019t cave.  But I\u2019m still feeling kinda down in the dumps about the whole thing.  And that stinks. I\u2019d like to get to a place in my life where a visit to the dressing room doesn\u2019t ruin my whole day.  Here\u2019s hoping.  Let\u2019s all end the day with a nice, gentle, loving thought about ourselves, shall we? I will do the same.  Or, try to, at least.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is it about a trip to the dressing room \u2013 be it to try on a swimsuit, a bra, a pair of jeans \u2013 that ignites such fear and trepidation in the heart of a woman?  Must it always be an experience we dread? I went downtown today to shop.  I needed two things: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1159,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39\/revisions\/1159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/almostjuliet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}