A year and a half ago I was inspired by Marie Kondo’s books “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and “Spark Joy” to finally get my closet clean and organized.  While my closet did benefit from the organization part of her message (I now fold my clothes into tiny little squares) – I was a total failure at only keeping things that “spark joy”.  It’s hard to find stylish clothes when you’re a bigger person, and they’re often more pricey… so getting rid of something because it didn’t “spark joy” seemed frivolous to me. I cared less about joy and more about having something to wear.

 

This past weekend I decided to take another crack at the Konmari method because my bedroom and closet were in dire need of decluttering.  As I started folding my bathing suits into origami cranes I realized that they sparked a much stronger feeling than joy… they sparked loathing.  And that’s when I decided that I wasn’t going to wear any of them ever again and threw them in the donate pile!

 

I’m going, to be honest – it was a little scary to get rid of something that still fits, and I almost pulled them out of the donate bag.  But my time on the Med-Fit program has changed my thinking about weight loss… I know I can lose this weight and I’m developing the tools that will help me keep it off.  That’s a pretty great mental shift!

 

I’m confident that I’m heading in a direction where I won’t have need for those swimsuits by summer, and that realization helped me see my closet with new eyes!  I got rid of jeans, shorts, jackets and shirts – anything that didn’t spark joy. I finally got it! Those clothes I refused to give up before were like chains holding me to my identity as a fat person – and gave me little room to see myself as anything else.  I’m more than my weight/size and I deserve to be surrounded by things that spark joy… and so do you!

– C

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Dr. Angela Tran