This post was inspired by Jeans Day earlier this week. It’s a fundraising day in BC for the BC Children’s Hospital. I have just moved back to BC this week, and it happened to coincide with Jeans Day, so why not write about my experience with one of my favourite clothing items at the same time?

From the time I became a teenager, I have loved jeans. Many things have changed over the years, but the biggest difference is definitely my waist size. The largest jeans that I ever owned had a waist size of 62 inches.

62 inches.

Even at 62″, they were still quite tight. I probably would have been more comfortable in something a little larger, but honestly I couldn’t find anything bigger than that at all. My mom used to try and help me find clothes, lamenting about how hard it was to find clothes that fit. You know what, I think that’s a good thing. Back then, I was definitely frustrated about it, but as I have changed my life around, I recognize that there’s absolutely no reason that clothes that large need to exist.

However since they do exist, and people do wear them, I would just like to write a small note to any jean manufacturer out there.

Why, oh why, do you make the legs of the jeans practically as big as the waist itself? I used to complain about this all the time. Yes, my waist was massive, but who in the world has ankles that are more than 16 inches wide?!? Every single pair of jeans that I ever tried on had HUGE legs on them. It looked as if I were wearing an entire heavy curtain of material around my legs. I hated the elephant legs on every pair of jeans.

I realize that everyone is different, and every body shape is unique, but I would have a hard time believing that there are enough people out there with elephant sized ankles to fill all of the stupid jeans that companies keep making.

Today, I went out to my favourite store, Old Navy, to buy a new pair of jeans and they are a size 36. It’s a pretty huge difference to be sure. My favourite thing about buying jeans these days, is that I can finally buy slim jeans, so it actually looks like I have two separate legs instead of walking around like a perfect example of a burlap sack.

I will note though, that even when you are searching for smaller waist sizes, those stupid elephant-esque leg jeans still exist, and I will never stop being annoyed with them. Once I found the perfect pair of jeans, I made sure to take note of their exact product code so I can always purchase the right pair in the future.

Now that I am wearing a more average size, and I can finally have those slim legs that I always wanted from my jeans, I feel so proud and I feel like I look so damn good in them. I never want to experience the hardships of finding the right pair of jeans at a size 62 ever again. I do however, plan on finding a pair of those some day when I am done losing weight and stepping into them to see how much I have really changed over the years. I look forward to that!

This year alone, I have bought 4 pairs of jeans, and each one of them has been 2 inches smaller than the last. I typically only buy one at a time, knowing that I have losing weight at such a steady rate, that it is completely pointless for me to own more than one pair of pants at a time.

Occasionally it has been annoying, only having one pair of pants at a time to wear, especially when it gets dirty and I have to do a quick wash so I can have something to wear the following day. But at least I spend less money! I’d rather save a little money to be able to afford a new pair that’s a bit smaller when I need it to be than have multiple pairs to donate when they get too big.

Losing weight is an expensive thing to do, and if that means only owning one pair at a time, so be it!