A jeans compromise

Monday was a snow day. No one was expecting me so I stopped at the mall on the way to work.I thought I'd work on my goal of a new pair of jeans and three shirts. Despite the efforts of many a fashionable friend to steer me towards some very fancy jeans, I ended up at Ann Taylor. I was looking for Lucky, and since there isn't one in that mall, I headed for Bloomingdales, but was sidetracked by AT. I ended up buying a pair there. I feel sort of like a boring mom, but for four facts. 

1. I really don't like shopping with friends, but I think for this new jeans purchase I must go with a very honest friend. The sales girls are just not dependable and in fact they're annoying by the very fact that they're 15 years younger than me.
2. I want to lose 10 more pounds first and keep it off for a while (will this even happen?)
3. I can wear jeans to work and want a less-stylish pair for office use, and a more trendy pair for out of office use.
4. This is not the time to be spending $200 on jeans.

So my AT jeans and I left the mall and departed for work. They're just fine - great for work, and if I end up not liking them in a few months they were so cheap I don't even care. I was able to go down a size. Every time I try clothes on, even new ones, I'm amazed at the size variety. For the record AT is larger than Banana Republic. So this pair is a bit snug, but the size above was huge, and hopefully these won't be snug for long.  I think I could lose 10 lbs and they'd still fit!

I also tried on about 30 shirts. Finding 3 shirts is way harder than I thought it would be! I used to have a very good sense of what looked good on me but the colors this season are so weird - off brown/gray things...and I'm trying to buy a couple items that aren't quite so BORING. I feel like a mom-robot in solid color v-neck t-shirts and jeans or capris. I tried on some shirts at BR that were really cute, but only found one in my size in a color that was even ok. That was black, and I would have preferred a different color but it was all they had left. I still have a problem of my arms and thighs making things tight that would otherwise fit perfectly. This is where losing 10 or even 5 more pounds would do wonders. So I wanted shirts to be reasonably priced, flattering color, interesting shape, not too tight in arms, and of course long enough in arms. This proved quite difficult! Actually that's fine, as I'd rather buy one nice shirt every so often and slowly build up a wardrobe over time, as opposed to a quickie, expensive, trendy pile of clothes that I don't love. It's just hard when my base wardrobe is so pathetic. And now even the newer shirts I've bought in the last 2 years are too big and make me look heavier than I am. At least when I came home I threw out 2 shirts to make room for the 2 I brought home. At a later point, I'm going to get rid of all clothes beyond a certain age (5 yrs?) even if I like them - just out of principal. First I need some replacements, but eventually that will happen! My goal is a very small, edited wardrobe where I love every item. One day I will even get rid of the old t-shirts I use to exercise in and use real work-out clothes. But this is not top priority. OK enough brain-power on this topic.

On a food note - things are going fine except at dinner last night. I went to dinner with the family, including mom and brother. I tried to enjoy myself and not be neurotic, but then I ended up feeling badly about how much sushi I ate. I don't like to let dieting affect my social life - extremely limited as my social life is. Must work on that. I think I went about 4 points over my daily total, and I really could have not done that if I'd tried. Oh well.