Do you fit in to last winter's clothes?

Gretel Hallet, came on our Chocolate Fairy Training last year and is running workshops in East Anglia.  If you live in the area and would like to attend a Beyond Chocolate course, Gretel would love to hear from you!  Meet Gretel.

At the end of last week, winter came at last. The area of England where I live was suddenly in the grip of icy winds and around 5 inches of snow (that’s around 12cm for those of you who are decimal), and it was cold! Up until that point, I’d been happily layering up my summer clothes as the weather had been so unseasonally mild. But winter was now here with a vengeance and I knew it was That Time.

That Time: aka the heart-sinking, stomach churning moment where I go up into the roof to retrieve clothes I put up there at the end of the last cold/hot snap.

That Time happens twice a year. Every year I put away either very warm or very flimsy clothing to await the advent of the next appropriately cold or hot stretch of weather. And get out the ones appropriate for the season ahead.

That Time usually involves me hurtling into a major body hating panic spiral as I unpack the clothes that I know fitted me last year. I hold my breath, suck in my stomach, and attempt to squeeeeze into last summer/winter’s clothes.

Only it didn’t happen quite like that this time. Things have been different for me recently. I no longer lurch from low weight to high weight any more. In fact, I still wear clothes I’ve had for around 3 years, which make me feel good and which I put away and get out again and enjoy wearing all over again. That [terrifying] Time has become instead a time of rediscovery – I rediscover old friends I’d forgotten about – oooh, that cuddly jumper that I loved so much last winter – oooh there’s that flowery, floaty top I wore all last summer!

What I’m finding now is that, from one season to the next, my body changes very slightly and I think that what’s happening is that it’s finally settling back into a shape and size that is right for me. So my clothes, from season to season, fit slightly differently in different places; which makes the rediscovery process even more fascinating. But they all still fit.

Any why has it all changed so drastically? Well, around 3 years ago, I ‘found’ Beyond Chocolate, thanks to the wonders of amazon.co.uk, which suggests books it thinks you will like based on your previous purchases. My previous purchases had all been diet books, and so Amazon (bless its little cotton socks!) suggested the Beyond Chocolate book.

And I haven’t looked back (except to see how things look on me from behind, in my full length mirror, that is!). I have stopped yo-yo dieting and bingeing and I’ve stopped alternately starving and stuffing my body and between us we are working it out so that we can reach a place we are both happy with.

I would prescribe a dose of Beyond Chocolate to anyone who gets out the LBD in fear and trembling at the start of every Christmas party season – think how wonderful if would be to get that dress out in every confidence that it will look just as great on you this year as it did the year before...and the year before that too!