You Can Be Fat OR You Can Be Tall

I know I've talked about my struggle with weight and my current life as a Weight Watcher, but I was thinking about the specific challenge of being both abnormally tall and overweight.


First of all, think about how many women you know who are 6 feet tall or taller. How many do you know? I know myself, and I've come across a few others, but not many.  Being tall is not all bad and it isn't all great either. In school I dealt with being taller than 90% of the male population. That was always made for an interesting time. Boys hated that I was taller than them and insisted that I was taller than 6 foot because "I'm 6 foot." Yeah, sure you are. I wore ballet-type shoes to prom my freshman year because I was at least 4 inches taller than my date.  But on the other hand, I can reach the top shelf at the grocery store.


As the years went by and I started gaining more and more weight, finding clothes went from being difficult, to near impossible and expensive. Apparently it is okay to be tall and it is okay to be fat, but you can't be tall and fat.

There are just very few options for tall people who are overweight. Shirts weren't that hard to find, although sometimes I felt the hem line wasn't long enough and when I would sit down or bend over, my lower back would show. Well, shirts were okay as long as I didn't try to get long-sleeve shirts. They are never long enough.


Pants were (and still are) the big problem. At 6 foot tall with most of my height in my legs, it's hard to find tall pants to begin with, but to find them in plus sizes becomes almost impossible. Most of my pants had to be bought at Lane Bryant at an average of $60 a pair.


Once I lost some weight, I was able to buy pants at JC Penny for only $20. Just as good of a quality pant, but at a third the cost. I'm really looking forward to dropping a few more sizing and not having trouble finding clothes anymore. And if I can find clothes at a third the cost... that's another great bonus!