Short, relatively small women in long-term maintenance

Yeah, I do the portioning thing in restaurants, too. I often don't take it home, though. Sometimes I'm not going straight home after a restaurant, or other times it's the sort of food that doesn't reheat well and would just go to waste. I've gotten a lot more comfortable simply leaving food over on my plate and sending it back. I used to feel really guilty about doing this, but now I figure it's going to waste either way so better in the trash than on my hips.
(Having said that, I'm super supportive of restaurants who have programs to donate unused food to shelters and to offer smaller portions upon request.)

Old Navy / Gap / Banana Republic (yep, it's all the same company) is pretty much the only e-tailer offering petites clothing with good shipping and returns in Canada. Too bad their quality has gone way downhill these past couple of years, and the styles -- which used to be classic and, in the case of Banana, work-appropriate -- have gotten much more casual. It's getting really hard for me to find anything that I can wear to the office there anymore.

Ann Taylor/LOFT sizes often work for me too. I wish we had them here.

I've gotten over feeling like it's unfair that other people can eat more food than we can and still maintain. That's just a recipe for me to be bitter and angry. I choose instead to look at it as a bonus: We can eat less food and still feel as full and satisfied as other people do on more food, which is great for the budget. I probably spend half as much on groceries each month as a full-sized man would. Not to mention, I can get a bit tipsy on far less alcohol, which is also great for the pocketbook. Focusing on the positive here.

Clothes shopping just plain sucks, though. I'm bitter about that for sure.

Shoe size... I used to be that nice, easy-to-find standard size 6. Since losing the weight, my feet appear to have shrunk a bit and now I'm more like a 5.5, which sucks 'cause it's a much harder to find size. I also have extremely narrow feet, so most shoes slip right off my feet. 5.5 Narrow is a size that doesn't exist anywhere; I asked the one store in Montreal that carries narrow shoes and they said they simply don't know of anything that comes in that size, period, so basically I'm SOL. What I find frustrating is how many stores have stopped ordering size 6 altogether and gone straight towards starting at size 7, arguing that "well, people's shoe sizes have gone up lately". It seems like everyone these days is carrying shoes for wide feet, but nobody's catering to narrow ones.

Still, I love shoes, so I've figured out ways to make them work for me. I look for Italian brands (when I can afford them) 'cause they tend to be made narrower. Certain other brands, like La Canadienne boots or Naot sandles, are also made narrower so I know they work for me and tend to go back to them. I buy boots or shoes with straps, which stay in place better than mules or pumps. My favourite trick is to add these sticky inserts on the balls of the feet of most dress shoes; they add cushioning and help keep the forefoot in place, making far more shoes wearable.

RunRutheeRun wrote: »

My calories are higher than someone who would be 20lbs lighter but I'm at my happy place and I'm slim. I feel as you get older that thin is not a good look, I have my curves in the right places and am happy as a pig in muck LOL

If that's you in your profile photo, then you certainly don't need to be 20lbs lighter. You look great!