The dressing rooms at Target are surprisingly well lit. This is a surprisingly good thing because Target dressing rooms also feature two mirrors on opposite walls angled perfectly for me to check out my back muscles. When I used to stand in the Lane Bryant dressing rooms, I was grateful that the room seemed to be lit by the glow of an iPhone. I looked at my morbidly obese reflection in the same way I would view a car accident on the side of the road, not really wanting to look but staring anyway. Now here I was years later, in Target, trying on a sports bra, flexing my whatever-the-back-muscles-are-called for at least two minutes, thinking “Damn, I look good.”
It was a good reminder, because someone snuck into my apartment and switched my dumbbells with heavier ones. I know that eight-pounder was not that hard to lift last month. I’m sure neglecting my upper body weight routine has nothing to do with it at all. I’ve been distracted with my new YMCA classes and my running schedule, but I do not want to lose my beautiful upper body muscles. I’m quite pleased with the way everything above my belly button looks (yes, even the underarm flab). I don’t want to lose the definition I’ve worked so hard to build.
There are times at home when I look in the mirror and think, “You really could stand to lose those last 10 or 20 pounds. If you wanted it more you could actually do it.” But thankfully there are also days when I go to Target claiming I will only buy a pair of socks and end up buying $80 worth of sportswear because I think I look cute in it. This may very well be the secret to exercising. Buy yourself cute activewear! Run outside so everyone can see how cute you look in it. It was rather ridiculous how long I stood there striking poses and admiring my biceps and punching towards the mirror. It was completely vain and self-centered and self-indulgent and telling this story will only make me sound like a Narcissus to be loathed by the entire Internet, but I’m glad there are days that I like what I see in the mirror. I hope every girl or boy has days like that, no matter how fat or thin they are.
Soooooo, in conjunction with Everlast, I’m offering you the opportunity to win a free tank top! I know, this has gotten rather ridiculous. It’s the 3rd giveaway in two weeks. You either think I’m a total corporate whore or that I’ve started stealing things off the backs of trucks. The latter is not true and hopefully neither is the former. When people ask me if I want to give away free chicken and water filters and tank tops, I can’t think of any good reason not to. I didn’t even write the first few paragraphs of this entry for the contest. I just started writing an entry and suddenly realized it would make a good segue.
Everlast sent me three double ribbed tank tops in the above photo, a small mint rush (green), a medium berry blast (pink), and a large legend blue (purple). (They did not send me the models, which is good because I cannot afford to feed and clothe them.) The price tags say $20.00, but they are normally priced at $16.99 on the Everlast site (though it looks like they are on sale for $9.99 this week). To enter, leave a comment telling me about an outfit that made you feel pretty. Contest ends 11:59p.m. on Thursday, February 14th. One entry per person, no duplicate entries please. This is open to international folks as well. Please specify what size you would like. If you want more than one size, post them in order of priority. For example, if you say you only want the small and are drawn after a person who already grabbed the small, you won’t win anything and I’ll draw another name. If you’d said you want the small first and the medium second, you’d get the medium. This is the last giveaway I’m going to do for awhile, so get posting!