5 Ways to Dress a Postpartum Body Without Breaking the Bank
Throughout our lives weight fluctuation might be something we deal with, but during motherhood it is inevitable.
Many women go from a shape they’ve been used to since teen years, to a constantly-changing pregnancy shape, to a new post-baby shape. The latter shape can take years to settle into. With the stresses of motherhood, on-and-off breastfeeding and having more children: it can take years to feel like you’ve found your new self.
While these weight and shape fluctuation years are happening, it can feel really hard to get dressed. Many women lose themselves to athletic wear because it’s a way to feel ease everyday’athletic wear just fits! But if you want, there are other strategies you can use to keep a sense of yourself while this fluctuation happens’¦that won’t break the bank.
First things first
Please, please, please, try on everything you own. You don’t have to get rid of any of it, but you do need to sort it. Keep only what fits right now in your closet. The rest of your wardrobe pieces can be stored in a bin outside your closet marked by size so you can pull them out if you ever need them.
This is extremely important so you can see what you actually have to wear! If you keep everything you own in your closet you’re just tricking yourself into thinking you have more to wear than you actually do.
Buy exactly what you need
If you’re weight fluctuation is extreme at the moment, this is not the time to be flitting around in the clothing department. Decide exactly what it is you need to get by for now. Would two bottoms and five tops do the trick for a while? This is a great time for keeping the most minimal of wardrobes. Solid neutrals will be your best friend’that way no one will know you’re wearing the same pieces over and over.
Rethink alteration advice
Alterations can be expensive and continuous alterations cause clothes to lose their shape, so altering pieces while your weight is fluctuating might not make the most sense. Instead, pick and choose the pieces that make you feel happiest and alter them once your weight and shape have settled.
In the meantime, you might find it’s a better use of your dollars to buy a minimal amount of inexpensive clothing that fits and donate or store those pieces when they no longer work.
Stretch it out
Not just in athletic clothes’in all your clothes. If a garment is stretchy you’ll get more comfortable wear out of it for longer. For example, a pair of jeggings might look and feel good for fifteen to twenty pounds in either direction rather than a straight denim pair of jeans, which will be good for less than ten pounds.
Know your current beauty
This is so so important! No matter where you are on your journey it’s important to your self-esteem to feel good now. Show off your current assets by wearing clothing that actually fits. You will start to receive positive feedback from others immediately, which will only encourage you to keep things up.
