What Not To Wear

Are you familiar with this show on TLC (The Learning Channel)? Oh, it's a good one.  It's totally an I AM WOMAN show. Women get turned in by their friends or family for the way they dress, mostly...and if they are picked to be on the show by Stacy and Clinton, they go through a transforming makeover of clothes, hair and makeup.  BUT much more than the outward transformation, their heart goes on a journey.

Stacy and Clinton are gifted and experienced to recognize what women may be trying to hide internally by how they are dressing/presenting themselves or what they are not hiding (too much skin!) because there is a need not being met internally to helping women who are still in the same wardrobe from a decade or two ago because they don't want to "grow up" or moms who taking care of their children have stopped taking care of themselves, etc...the list goes on!

They take on women of all shapes, sizes, and dress and almost all of the women who undergo the hard words and care of Stacy and Clinton have a life-changing experience.  At the end of the difficult week, they are refreshed, excited about life, feeling more themselves than they have in a long time and therefore more free and confident, and shouting from the rooftops "I am beautiful, inside and out!"

Basically,  I LOVE this show. It's one of my favs.  I learn something from every episode and I am encouraged in multiple ways as a woman. After every show, I am more in love and awe of God in how he has made women. Seriously, women are dang incredible. There is so much depth. So much breathtaking depth.  It makes me want to know every woman on earth.

So, I have my own What Not To Wear story.  And I looove this story!

When I was in university, I gained 25-30 pounds. No good! I went from being a size 6 to a size 12/14.  So much for the Freshman 15, eh? I went far and beyond!  It mostly came down to bad eating, little to no exercise and an irregular sleep schedule.

It really crept up on me, slowly. I went to college skinny, and I graduated fat. Haha. BUT I honestly didn't think that of myself when I looked at my body or put on clothes.  I don't remember ever having the thought that I was overweight or unattractive. It just never crossed my mind.  I wore the common college attire of jeans and t-shirts, which hid my growing waistline (even to myself!) and I did little shopping in college (money was tight!) so I didn't really see my pant size increasing.  My mom, though, was probably the one noticing my pant size increasing as she did buy me new clothes here and there when I was in college.  I would come home for a visit, and she'd have a new pair of jeans or skirt (with elastic waist!) waiting for me.  Kind lady!

Well, after college I moved home to live with my parents for a few months before I took a job in Kansas City, Missouri that following summer.  I was working at my dad's office doing computer work.  He wasn't too happy about my dress.  I remember coming downstairs one of those first mornings to go with him to work.  My dad was dressed up as usual for work in trousers, a button-up shirt and tie...and me?? Haha...I had on a frayed long denim skirt, a t-shirt and my well-worn chuck taylors.  I thought I was dressed up with a skirt on, but he didn't seem to think so.  He banned me from wearing my chucks to his work place and that weekend he took me shopping.

Now prior to the week of working with my dad, my mom had said something a little difficult to me.  I was in the kitchen eating something desserty, and we got on to the conversation about my diet. I felt fine about my diet and still didn't think of myself as fat, just a little more heavier than I used to be.  I don't remember what my mom and I talked about...all I remember her saying to me was "Allison, you are overweight." Bam. Overweight?! That was the first time any one had said that to me, as well as that thought go through my mind.  It kind of made me mad. Hmm...Overweight? No, I don't think so, Mom.

But that statement -that true statement, I turned over in my mind a few times that following week as I looked in the mirror, pulled out old pictures of me, looked at the pant and shirt sizes on my clothes, and went to my dad's office wearing my old college attire...oooo, eeek, I finally saw what my mom had said - I was overweight.

So after all the above, my dad who has never took me shopping, took me shopping!  He even picked out clothes for me and waited for me outside the dressing room.  He was my Stacy and Clinton, giving me rules for what I can and cannot wear to his office.  For the first time in a few years, I was trying on form-fitting clothes. Whoa. I felt uncomfortable and I didn't like them, but I had to get them if I was to keep working at my dad's office.  And I knew I needed a wardrobe-upgrade, as my parents were also telling me. I wasn't in college anymore.  Time to grow up.

So I began to dress in these awkward, "nicer-looking" clothes to be more presentable at my dad's office, as well as feel more like a college graduate.  And here's the WEIRD thing...After a week of wearing these non-t-shirt, non-frayed, non-elastic clothes, I began to like them and I began to want to display my beauty on the outside more and more as a healthy-looking, better-dressed, hair-and-face-given-attention Allison.

It was amazing how my appearance on the outside began to affect me on the inside. I wanted to be beautiful on the outside.  I wanted to show that I cared.  I wanted to be healthy.  I wanted people to see the beauty God put inside me on display on the outside - through my joy, love and service, but also by the way I dressed my body and presented myself.

My mom and sister invited me to start walking with them and I did here and there, increasingly doing so.  I also began to eat healthier (less desserts and mocha lattes!) and drink more water.  My walking went from jogging, my healthier eating became my diet....and within a few months, I had lost most of my college weight!!  It was amazing!  You know those last 5-10 pounds are the hardest to lose, but over the next few months I lost them and I was back to my high school size - size 6!

I also met my husband that summer in Kansas City, after my mom and dad told me some hard things (though the right things!) because they loved me.  I wasn't overweight Allison when my husband and I met, and he said if I was (he's seen pictures!), he probably wouldn't have been attracted to me.  But because my outside was cared for, it TRULY let my inside shine even more!  Seriously, isn't that so amazing?

That is what I see on What Not To Wear - that as women care for their appearance and receive the truth that they're beautiful on the outside (and inside), the beauty on the inside is more freely expressed...and it is breathtakingly beautiful! They SHINE!

This is I AM WOMAN living...Displaying our beauty from the inside out!

If you're having difficulty displaying your beauty on the outside, try a few things...put on some mascara or play around with makeup, do an exercise video or go for a walk, go shopping with a girlfriend and work hard to find an outfit you looove (great tips on What Not To Wear!), go out in a pair of heels, paint your fingernails, take a long bath with bubbles....these are just a few ideas!  I know from my What Not To Wear experience, that those awkward, uncomfortable first few days or weeks of what you might think is being "girly" will actually be a surprising doorway into discovering how beautiful you are - looking it and feeling it - and the world will take notice of the I AM WOMAN shining around them, calling them to a better version of themselves and into the fullness God desires for them!!

Oh yes, I AM WOMAN!!!!!