Shopping for clothes

I may have mentioned before that I really hate clothes shopping; consequently, I hang onto clothes until they are totally worn through.  This is particularly true of my winter coats, which I believe are coming up on 10 years old.  Somehow I am particularly tough on dress shirts, usually wearing them to the point they rip around the elbows.  It has been a real problem for me with the emptying out of the middle range of department stores (J.C. Penney's, Hudsons (not Hudson's Bay) and Sears, which has been reduced to a ghostly presence in Toronto).  For some reason, Hudson's Bay (and Macy's if I happen to be shopping in Chicago) have decided to cater to the youngest, slimmest customer and 75% of their shirts are slim fit.  I realize there are exceptions, but the younger employees I run across take business casual to a whole new level, and that it is the older, overweight middle managers (like me) who are still wearing dress shirts, so I truly don't understand this marketing strategy.  I guess the contempt that fashion designers have for average women has now crept over to average men as well...

But of everything I hate getting dress pants the most.  I basically can only get the largest size that is sold in regular stores.  (Honestly, I don't even know if Toronto has a Big and Tall men's clothing store, which is where my father often shopped.)  I had been holding off for the longest time, but then my last pair of wearable black slacks developed a "zipper problem," so I had to go shopping last night.  One store had absolutely nothing in my size.  I did find grey and black slacks at Hudson's Bay.  They fit, though they are a bit snug, i.e. I am a bit too fat to really wear them.  But this is as best as I am going to be able to do for now.

I guess this is the sign to finally get serious about exercising again and ideally lose some weight.  I'm going to go swimming tonight and also aim for next week, but I know that I won't really get in a lot of exercise until I start biking to work in the spring.  I still am snacking too much at work, though it is mostly fruit.  I'll just have to make an extra effort to avoid sugar.  I would say that being off soda for a couple of months has helped a bit and that my blood sugar seems to have stabilized a bit, which will make it a bit easier to try to cut back on processed sugar.  But it won't be easy!  I only have so much will power, and I often feel I have given up on so many other things that I go too easy on myself in the food department.  But I can't go on like this, especially if I want to be able to buy clothes off the rack.  It's time to turn over that new leaf...

Update: I did make it to the aquatic centre.  It was pretty crowded and maybe I actually would be better off at Matty Eckler.  I started off in the whirlpool area, waiting for a few people to get out of the medium speed swim lanes.  That was a mistake, since they keep the lane swim area quite cool (definitely colder than Matty Eckler!).  I managed to get in 5 laps, which was pretty good considering that it was still fairly crowded, I am out of shape, not having swum in 6 months or more and I am kind of exhausted in general (on the edge of getting sick again I think).  I also avoided temptation slightly by not buying any cookies at Shoppers even though they were on super sale.  If I can keep moving more and more to confining my work snacking to fruit and perhaps crackers or, better still, rice cakes, and keep up at least some moderate exercise, maybe I'll be feeling a bit better by the time spring hits and I can starting riding my bike more seriously again.