Are your LEGGINGS making you fat?! Based on a true story.
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**Update** I wrote this in 2019 pre-COVID. I did NOT follow my own advice which you will read later in the blog and I gained 11 pounds during the pandemic. Read on to see why and what to do about it!
It was Friday night. I had not been out in what seemed like an eternity and I was actually looking forward to it, at least initially.
I had Beyonce's “Homecoming” album on as I was getting ready, having a glass of wine, trying to channel my inner queen bee….
…And then it fucking happened.
Something so insidious that I didn’t see it coming, it overcame any sort of joy I had about going out. In fact, it caused me so much angst and frustration that I didn’t even want to go out anymore.
I approached my closet kinda nervous. This happens when I haven’t gone out for a substantial amount of time and I have to find an outfit to wear. I looked at my jeans and they looked back at me and said, “not tonight babe.” You know that feeling…a premonition where if you decide to put jeans on they might feel a lil snug.
I picked out the jeans of least resistance — the ones that I knew fit.
UNTIL TONIGHT.
OMFG.
They don’t fit.
Jeans, by nature, are tight, we know this, but you also know the difference between tight and TIIIGGGHHTTT. You feel it in your thighs — that extra pull, that extra tug. literally bursting out the seams. You feel it in your waist, that muffin top just got a little bit more muffin topppyyy.
I put them on, got to the zipper, and began jumping up and down wildly. Suddenly a vivid memory of myself as a sophomore in college at a Kappa Sig frat party jumping up and down to House of Pain’s “Jump Around” infiltrated my brain.
“everybody jump”
“jump, jump, jump”
Someone, please sign me up for a Plyometrics class. I can’t stop jumping and my jeans are not still not cooperating with me.
Next up I tried doing a yoga pose that also doubles as a stretching technique to loosen jeans until you rip the thigh (did that in college, really good for the ego). It’s called Warrior 2; only I was not feeling like a goddess warrior, I was feeling like a busted can of biscuits.
The only valid conclusion I could come up with as to why my jeans were so tight was because they were dried on high — which speaks more to my mental state than an explanation for my jeans not fitting.
After tending to the flesh wound that was the result of the zipper getting stuck on my skin (aka fat roll) from trying to suck it in, I realized I had to have a come to Jesus with myself. “Marcella, sweetie, you have gained weight. Your jeans no longer fit.”
“Fuckkkk!!!”
I thought. How did this happen? I mean what? It couldn’t be the bottle of wine I down almost every night since Trump took office, or perhaps the fact that I haven’t seen a gym in at least 3 months.
And then it f-ing occurred to me.
It’s not the wine or not getting to the gym. I mean, that is part of it… but there is something much more cryptic at work here; something that just flies under the radar, something you never think about.
OMFG.
IT’S MY LEGGINGS!!!
MY LEGGINGS ARE MAKING ME FAT!
I wear my leggings every day. Every. Single. Day. And when you wear elastic waist pants, aka leggings (leggings is just a fancier and more likable version of the term “ELASTIC WAIST PANTS” )— when you wear those consistently every day over time without doing a literal gut check, you do not realize that you are slowly but surely putting on some extra pounds; they suck you in (the good ones), but they also make you DELUSIONAL. I have aptly named this phenomenon the elastic waistband pant crisis or “EWPC” for short and BEHOLD, I have come up with a solution!
To combat “EWPC,” it begins with DENIM!
Your jeans are your friend. They will remind you that “ohhh wait a second honeyyyyy” (said in her best Jonathan from Queer Eye voice).
You have been gulping down too much wine and ingesting too many tacos; your jeans, if worn daily, would NEVER have gotten you in this predicament. Your jeans are like that friend that keeps you in check, tells it like it is; you may not want to hear from them but you know you need to.
Leggings, on the other hand, don’t care. They are your bestie, your comfy dominion, but the problem is they put you in a place of sheer denial, and if haven’t had to put on jeans in a couple of weeks because you Netflix and chill every weekend, work from home, and now COVID, a few weeks of wearing leggings and you may find yourself in a real pickle.
To remedy this and to ensure none of you have to go through this wretched experience that leaves you feeling like a straight-up walrus, I propose the following solution:
“DENIM DAY”
One day a week, you wear denim, as in JEANS. NOT Spanx denim jeggings or anything with an elastic waistband. JEANS, with an actual button and zipper.
Wearing jeans isn’t just for you, however.
It’s for your ride-or-die leggings. You simply MUST give your leggings a rest.
Pick a day of the week, put on your “going out” jeans and a sexy, grown-ass woman top, and own how fab you are, and then you thank those jeans for reminding you to not go ahead and have that 4th glass of wine.
The reward for the most uncomfortable day of the week: over time you will no longer have to worry about that bumble blind date or night out with the hubs or girl’s night out, where you put your jeans on only to have to squat like you are in an Olympics trial for weightlifting to get them over your muffin top; instead, you will simply slide those skinny jeans on and cheers to your cute ass self cuz you can still fit into those jeans!
Peace, Love, and Prosecco with a side of AG Jeans.
marce :)
thanks for reading!
