That's right, y'all. Mama's rockin' skinny jeans today.
Probably not uncoincidentally, I got 4 more weight-loss affirmations -- one from a new person, three from previous commenters -- and was aggressively hit on by a stranger at Panera when I was in the middle of a business lunch with a co-worker. (Do guys try to pick up girls by asking for their Facebook profile pages now instead of their digits? Because that's what happened. Zero smooth points, Panera Lurker Guy.)
And yeah, that's right: I wore skinny jeans to work.
This has been a weird day.
I am finally starting to get comfortable with accepting compliments from people on my progress. It took a long time, but I've reached a place where I can actually own their praise and feel like I deserve it, and it has become part of what motivates me to keep going. The male attention, well... that's always been uncomfortable, and I can feel it's going to be a long while before I'm anywhere near OK with it.
My co-worker who was with me for that odd interaction laughed about it with me on our way back to the office, where we bumped in to another work friend who asked what was so funny. We told her what had happened, and then, the girls both started telling me I'd better get used to it, it's going to keep happening, blah blah blah. I've always sort of felt on the outside of the whole "male gaze" phenomenon. I sympathized with my girlfriends who experienced unwanted attention, harassment, assault, and/or feared these things or worse. I always felt immune to it because who in their right mind was going to have any interest in directing any of that at a fat girl?
I guess that all changes when you start fitting into skinny jeans.
Of course, most of it is harmless and probably even well-intentioned. I've just always been an observer of it rather than the object of it. It's still hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that random men are going to openly hit on me in public. I don't really believe that yet, I just keep hearing from my (biased) girlfriends that it's going to happen more and more.
This is why they should only make skinny jeans for skinny people! RFGs (Recovering Fat Girls) aren't prepared for this part of the thin experience yet! Well, if it does continue to happen, I'll have to start somehow programming my brain to think of it as another version of the flattering comments I'm finally starting to get used to.
Next up: leggings!