Fat Suit

So I weighed myself today and the scale read 179.6! Honestly, I haven’t been weighing myself much recently because I had switched my focus from losing weight to going for longer rides on my bike. As of today, it has been 10 days since I rode my bike…I’m itching to go. The problem is that I’ve recently started another adventure and it has slowed my bike riding. It has kept me from the bike because it takes time, but more significantly it has killed me physically. The Achilles tendon that hurt so much the time I went for a run is hurting again, but generally my legs are sore and my entire body is tired. It is this new thing that is also driving the new weight loss. Because it is pretty demanding, at least for someone my age, it also is helping me with my fitness and, more importantly for my bike riding, my endurance. I’ll go on a ride tomorrow morning, after a bit more rest, and see how it feels. But once I get used to my new thing, it is really going to complement my bike conditioning.

The few pounds I’ve lost in the last couple of weeks brings my total to 27 lbs—I am getting closer to my original goal of 30 lbs. Losing those pounds comes with lots of benefits, most importantly improving my current and future health. Now I should live longer and be healthier. That is good because I still have almost a decade until my oldest starts college and 15 years until my youngest is done. I have a lot of earning to do and I can’t be slowed down my bad health.

There is, however, a downside to losing weight—my clothes don’t fit me anymore. Oh, I hear you…you’re saying. “Boohoo, poor guy lost enough weight that his clothes don’t fit.” I know you are thinking this is just another not so thinly veiled attempt to brag on myself for losing the weight. That is true (This is MY blog after all, so it IS all about me), but there is more to it…hear me out.

Mark Twain is famously quoted as saying “Clothes make the man. Naked people have no influence in society.” Twain’s bit of social commentary is as topical today as it was a century and a half ago. Right now, however, I am thinking about it not so much in the sense of class, consumption, and material display, but more in terms of how clothes affect what people see.

I still wear the clothes I have…the ones that are now too big for me…well, because it is what I’ve got. I am not a big shopper and have never been overly concerned about my appearance (as anyone who sees me on a daily basis can attest), so running out to go clothes shopping just hasn’t bubbled to the top of my horizontal to do list. Plus, I have other economic fish to fry. If I am going to spend money, it is going to be on a new road bike and the gear to go with it. I’m ready to make that commitment to biking and ready to ride using proper equipment. As Clembob told me, “You’re doing the right things; you are just going about it all wrong.” Clothes aren’t really on my radar.

My wife has told me 100 times over the past couple of months that my clothes are too big. Still, it wasn’t until I had taken my shirt off to get ready for a shower that she realized how much my body has changed. So, the age old question applies here…”Do these clothes make me look fat?” They are clothes that fit me as a fat person. I am still that person; there is just less of me. Still, if you look at me in my regular (albeit ill-fitting) clothes, do you still see the guy that was overweight? Are my clothes serving as a fat suit? If I got new clothes that fit my body properly, would it be more obvious that I have lost weight? Would you see me differently…respect me more…be more likely to listen to what I have to say…idolize me more?

It is an interesting question and would make for an interesting social experiment. I should go buy new clothes that fit and see if people react differently to me. Unfortunately, I want a new road bike more than I want new clothes so I won’t be testing this idea out any time soon.