Rediscovering My Style After Losing 60 Pounds
The Style Reset
The discipline. The workouts. The calorie counting. The diets. The before-and-after photos.
But no one talks about what happens when it’s over.
Last year, I was diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome). Since that diagnosis, I have lost nearly sixty pounds. Getting diagnosed was a journey in itself, but so was losing the weight I had struggled to lose for years.
If you have PCOS, you know that weight loss often isn’t as simple as “eat less and move more.” Many of us deal with insulin resistance, meaning our bodies don’t respond to insulin as efficiently as they should. To compensate, the pancreas produces more insulin, and those higher insulin levels can make it easier to store fat, particularly around the abdomen, and much harder to lose it.
For years, I blamed myself. For the longest time, I convinced myself that this was just my body type, that I lacked discipline, that I wasn’t trying hard enough, that I didn’t have the athletic gene (despite playing sports my whole life). And that every failed diet and trendy workout routine felt like proof that everyone else had a secret that I didn’t.
Getting formally diagnosed didn’t magically make losing weight easy, but it gave me something I hadn’t had before.
More than a year later, after losing nearly sixty pounds, I have realized something else. The hardest part wasn’t the weight loss. It was figuring out who I was after it.
One thing about me is that I’ve always loved fashion. From a young age till now, fashion has been a big part of me. I grew up in a fashion household, where it was normal to talk about trending colors, styles, and designs. But somewhere along the way, during my excess weight gain, something changed. I started feeling extremely self-conscious and anxious in my own skin.
I have always been a chubby kid, but as I got older and things didn’t fit me the way they were supposed too I started rejecting fashion. For the longest time, it just wasn’t fun for me.
For the longest time, I was so focused on losing the weight that it never occurred to me I would face a new obstacle once I lost it. Learning how to dress myself, and my new body.
One of the first things I have realized throughout this journey is that my body changed faster than my mindset did. For months, I had still been seeing the version of myself I had been seeing for years.
Naturally, in the past five to six months, every time I went shopping, I would reach for the large size on the rack. Even though I was losing weight, I had convinced myself that I couldn’t possibly fit into a smaller size. Every time I would go into a fitting room, I would often catch my reflection in the dressing room mirror, surprised at the person looking back at me. Often thinking to myself, how the actual hell did a size small in this mini dress from DVF actually fit me?
One of the biggest challenges I have faced with losing weight is thinking that I was bigger than I actually was.
It wasn’t that I couldn’t see the number on the scale. I could. It was that my mind hadn’t caught up with my body. I had spent a large chunk of my life viewing myself through one lens, and changing it took far longer than changing my weight.
Rediscovering my style has become a part of that process. Once I overcame this regressive mindset, it has been smooth sailing since then. Like when I was a kid, fashion felt fun again.
I slowly began to adjust to my new body. I started shopping more. Something that I hadn’t really done in years, because nothing would fit me.
Caring about trends or constantly buying new clothes didn’t excite me per se, but getting dressed did. In recent years, shopping began to feel like more of a chore than something I enjoyed. I would walk into stores assuming most things wouldn’t fit me the way I wanted. Instead of looking for new pieces, I began to look for pieces that hid me.
Now, for the first time, I found myself lingering in stores for a bit longer. I tried on silhouettes I had never considered before. I became more intentional about what I was buying, paying attention to quality, fit, and how a piece made me feel rather than simply whether it covered the parts of me I was insecure about.
Since then, I have started to become more adventurous with my style. I started experimenting with patterns, shapes, silhouettes, and trends that I never expected to fit me.
For years, getting dressed meant blending in. For the longest time, I gravitated towards oversized clothes, darker colors, and familiar silhouettes because they felt safe. I wasn’t expressing myself; I was trying to hide.
But recently, after losing weight, something shifted. I found myself reaching for pieces I would have never considered before. Strapless, sleeveless, sheer, mini-dresses, maxi-dresses, halter-neck. I realized I stopped asking, Does this fit me? Does this feel like me?
Over time, shopping has become less about buying clothes and more about discovering my personal style. Every outfit I have tried on has taught me something about myself. Some trends didn’t suit me. Some did. Others made me feel more like myself than I had in years.
For the first time, I realized that my wardrobe wasn’t built on insecurity. It was built on self-expression. I don’t think I have changed the way I dress. I changed the way I saw myself.
People often think the biggest transformation in a weight-loss journey is physical. For me, it was deeper. The biggest transformation happened for me the day I stopped dressing to hide myself.
A year later, my closet looks different. My style has evolved. My hairstyle has changed. I have started taking riskier chances with pieces I never thought I could wear, and I have actually enjoyed getting dressed in the morning.
Losing sixty pounds gave me a different body. Rediscovering my style gave me something far more meaningful.
It gave me permission to finally see myself the way I deserved to all along.
Baddie before, baddie after! Thanks for sharing, you’ve made amazing progress ✨
So proud!!