Trigger Clothings

Kyra Williams is the leader of a sparkteam where I am a member, she is also a blogger at kyrawilliamsfitness.com. She periodically sends mail to us [members] on some important topics, this caught my attention and I am willing to share it on my blog.

Enjoy the piece from a Guest Blogger

Many of us have an idea what the term, “trigger food,” means. It’s a food we generally can’t keep in our house because we may eat all of it. For many of us it’s nut butter. If we have one spoonful, we are having 12 more. It’s a food that may spark an entire binge session then causing us to have a lot of feelings of guilt and low self worth. It’s a food we just can’t keep under control or causes some kind of emotional reaction. 

Well trigger clothing is the same idea. It’s the jeans we continue to keep in our closets thinking that “maybe they’ll fit if I do enough cardio,” or the bikini we looked great in a decade ago, before kids or before we grew a butt. For me the item of clothing that really stands out is this pair of white shorts I had for a long time. When I was doing more cardio Before Crossfit, I used to wear these shorts ALL. THE. TIME. 

The last time I made an attempt to wear them was this past January. They had recently been washed so they absolutely no give to them and I had been squatting quite frequently in effort to get stronger and build more of a butt. I was at a friend’s house in Florida and realized how bad they looked and how uncomfortable I felt so I quickly took them off and changed and flew out the door, no problem. But I got home and tried them on again because I just wasn’t ready to accept that my FAVORITE shorts wouldn’t fit. I mean, over the course of the past year and a half since beginning Crossfit I knew they had gotten snugger, but I wasn’t ready to admit that I had outgrown them. 

I have spent years of my life getting smaller. When I was 22 I was squeezing my fat into size 8 jeans because I refused to wear double digits. Those pants continuously ripped until I finally started exercising. When I started lifting weights and eating clean I got as low as 117 pounds and I think somewhere around a size 2 – 4. Here I am, ten years later and these size 6 shorts are too big and I’m 140 pounds. 

At that moment I knew I had to do something drastic – I couldn’t take these terrible thoughts of self doubt and frustration anymore. I decided to donate the shorts. I added them to the shopping bag that lives in my closet that I take to Goodwill every few months. There are more white shorts out there that I can buy that fit me well and don’t make me feel bad about myself. (I have found two pairs since then.) 

I adore Crossfit – it’s really fun and I’m getting good at it. My body is changing because of it though. My lats and my shoulders have gotten much wider because of it, but I’ve gotten sooooo strong. The feeling I get from hitting a lift or doing something I’ve literally NEVER done before in my life (like clean and jerk more than my body weight) is such an incredible feeling, it beats any time I’ve slid on shorts to go out with friends. And my legs are getting bigger along with my butt. I mean, since I started Crossfit about two years ago I’ve gone from 130 – 135 to 140 – 145. The scale doesn’t bother me, it’s just an observation I have taken notice of. But my body has changed so much and some of my clothes just don’t fit anymore. 

The whole idea of “trigger clothes” is something I’ve been thinking of since a client of mine grew shoulders and some of her dress shirts didn’t fit so well – I asked her if these shirts upset her, but she loves her new shoulders and her muscles, why not get new shirts? I finally took that advice myself. You will almost NEVER see me wearing jeans. They just don’t fit and they are so uncomfortable to me, why force myself to wear them? I know the whole time I’ll just be feeling self conscious. 

Why let an article of clothing or an outfit dictate how we feel about ourselves? Maybe you loved those shorts at one time, but do you love hitting PR’s more? Do you love how you look naked but those jeans really just set you off and put you in a bad place? Why do that to yourself? It’s time to let them go. There are plenty of more clothes out there that will look amazing on you and accentuate all the right things, you have to give yourself the opportunity to find them. So whatever is in your closet that continues to taunt you (hint.. if you’ve had it for a year or two and you still can’t wear it) get rid of it. 

Do you have trigger clothes? 

What trigger clothes are you getting rid of? 

How has it made you feel to get rid of those clothing items?