Fall Style: Blazers and pants

I may have mentioned in my Closet Purge post that I am wearing a lot of blazers and suit-like outfits these days; mostly it's due to having so many meetings these days at work, but blazers are also an easy cop-out on weekends to having to buy more fall jackets.

This is what I wore yesterday:



Pretty much everything is from Gap or Old Navy. The cobalt blazer is this one, the pants are the modern bootcuts, and the button-down is actually this military style jersey. I've decided I like this better than a stiffer cotton button-down, which tends to square my torso off in terrible ways.

But the parts of this outfit that make it interesting, IMO, are the necklace and the shoes. The necklace is what Gracie over at Fashion for Giants teasingly (and affectionately) calls the "blogger necklace", the colorful statement style that has definitely been making the rounds on many blogs. I picked two of them up as part of a Groopz deal that Kimberly from Fab Finds under $50 linked to a while back, and I've been wearing both all summer, and getting many real-life compliments on them. Even though the turquoise is a summer color, I used the inspiration from a Nordstrom display to wear it for fall too.




(Next time, I am going to try it with my trusty striped blazer.)

The other item of note are my flats. I have been thoroughly unimpressed with the shoes out for this fall; I've bought many and returned just about all of them, only keeping one pair of black studded flats so far. But these flats have been sitting in my closet for a few years now, an impulse purchase from the Ann Taylor Factory outlet, picked up for about $10. They've been mostly unworn because their style hasn't quite fit with my dress obsession or any casual looks on the weekends. But since hurting my back last week I've been wearing mostly flats with shorter-length pants, so I pulled them out and gave them a try. Good thing I didn't purge them; they look professional and cute with my new blazers look.



All in all, I thought this worked well for the season. I was actually one of the better dressed people at my meeting!



(Our new fish doormat says hello. A birthday gift from my parents to my fisherman-husband, heehee.)

Optical Illusion

I don't have much to say about this one, I just really liked this outfit from Wednesday.



On the days that I've been skipping (see: Tuesday), my outfits have pretty much been like the one above: straight-leg pant, long cardigan, heeled bootie, layering top and either a long pendant necklace or a scarf. It's a look that covers all the parts I want covered, and gives the optical illusion of making me look leaner than I am right now.

In contrast, we have the outfit I wore on Thursday.



I finally managed to wear the button-down under a dress! (Hrm, the collar appears be tucked under more than it should have been.) I've worn this dress before, but most of the pattern was covered up under a cardigan. I am really in love with the pattern -- up close, the top part makes my shoulder line look stronger than it is -- but looking at the whole thing like gives me pause. Maybe that wasn't the right belt?



On the plus side, it had some really nice flow, and I loved the grey tights and black Vince Camuto boots with it. On the minus side, it is not nearly as slimming as Wednesday's grey pants and gold cardigan combo.

I am trying to make my peace with that -- do all outfits need to be optical illusions, or can I live with the fact that sometimes I just look heavy? I don't know the answer. I see other bloggers wearing their curves and shapes with pride, and I am torn between envying them their freedom, and silently re-dressing them so they look slimmer in the camera. ("Oh, that would be perfect if you lost the belt!") It's a vicious circle; as confident as I am about who I am, I feel more comfortable in my clothes when I think I am fooling the world in an optical illusion outfit. Then I feel bad for copping out like that, that I should be proud of myself no matter what size I am. But I'm not, and I don't want to be this size. So I change back into an optical illusion outfit, and I stop beating myself up.

See what I mean by a vicious circle? Oh, the terrible things we do to ourselves with negative self-talk sometimes!

Anyway, I worked another optical illusion to my advantage yesterday. This was dinner:




We ordered salads and pizza, our weekly too-tired-to-cook meal.  (How do I know it's weekly? The delivery guy complimented the way we redecorated the living room. He has been to our house enough times that he noticed the change. Yep!) So I dumped the salad out of the container and put in a nice big bowl, and I put the pizza on a smaller plate. And it worked; I ate the half the amount of pizza I normally would!

It also occurred that I probably need to stop fighting the weekly pizza ritual so much, and find ways to work it into the Foodstyle so it is a regular indulgence instead. Repeating the trick above will be a good start, and replacing the salad with a healthier one will be a second. I don't like their salad anyway. I bet if I mix up a bag of chopped lettuce and veggies the day before, when I have cooking energy, I could dump it into a bowl just like I would if I bought the bag at the store. Hmmm, that would work!

What tricks do you have for including unbreakable habits into your meals? Any optical illusion outfits you like to wear?

In the Zone

I took this dress to Nordstrom to be altered after my last wearing. It's a fabulous dress, but it was a little too loose around the waist and chest. The tailor kept pulling it in, and I kept telling her I wanted to be able to fit a blouse under it. In the end, she won; when I picked it up a couple of weeks ago, it felt a little too tight, and zipping up under my arm when I was in a blouse was a struggle. I was disappointed, but I didn't want to take it back and have her fix it. I was embarrassed to admit I was too fat for how much she had taken it in.

So it hung in my closet for a bit while I stewed. I finally gave up on the idea of a button-down blouse under it. and wore it again with a layering tee instead. For NOW -- we shall see what the Foodstyle brings in the coming weeks; I may get a button-down under there yet!



I really do love the dress. Next time perhaps I will be brave enough to style it with some color; both times so far have been black-and-white variations. Not that there is anything wrong with that!



The bigger news is, as I have mentioned, the Foodstyle. I am In the Zone, in that moment when dieting/eating right is effortless, your motivation is high, and you're not frantically missing all the "good food" (i.e. junk food) you could be eating. It took me a long while to get here, so I am doing my best to keep myself here. I am eating very well, I'm tracking my foods nightly, I'm getting tons and tons of water in naturally -- my body is craving water so I'm refilling my water bottle at work all day long.

People, I am voluntarily and willingly taking my daily multivitamin. Alert the media!

I'm also not depriving myself; if I want a chocolate covered pretzel, I have one. But I only have one, and I don't let it derail the rest of my day. This change in attitude is the one that most represents being in the zone; when I'm not, that chocolate-covered pretzel is my gateway drug to a whole day of candy-snacking and usually culminates in Taco Bell for dinner. When I am in the zone, the pretzel is a savory treat that I enjoy to its fullest, and then I move on. Yesterday for example, our boss bought us pizza for lunch after our annual gift-wrapping party; I ate two squares of cheese pizza instead of the lunch I had brought, but my afternoon snack of two clementines came from my lunch box, and then I polished off the rest of the lunch (squash soup and a turkey sandwich) when I got home for dinner. It's amazing to realize that; to see in vivid clarity how much power my attitude has over what I eat and therefore what I weigh.

My goal during this month is to keep it going during the holidays, to not use the excuse of traveling or stress or parties to change my attitude. There are plenty of ways to still enjoy myself and yet get 5 fruits and veggies in every day.

Speaking of which:
1. I spotted this recipe for mixing grains with pomegranate seeds over on This Mama Cooks. Doesn't it look and sound amazing? I think I need to make that for next week, right alongside the holiday blossom cookies I will be making for the family Christmas party. Gotta keep that balance going!

2. Is it just me, or are clementines especially tasty right now? I prefer big, thick navel oranges, but they're too tough this early in the season. The clementines are right at their peak -- their more delicate skin tears away easily, and they're so flavorful and soft. Winter citrus is just one of my most favorite things to eat in the world; I still resent the winter I was on Medifast and couldn't have any oranges. Oranges never hurt anyone!

What's your favorite fruit to eat right now?

Outfit Catch-up

Gotta do a little catchup so I am ready for Stripes Week this week! I am determined to a daily outfit post this week for it. I love me some stripes.

This was Wednesday last week:



Doesn't my sister-in-law (and mother-in-law by proxy) have great taste? This is the scarf she picked out for me as a birthday gift from my MIL. Love the pinks and browns -- it's an infinity scarf too, which I am enamored of lately. Of course, I had to wear it with my new wassal-colored sweater from the Gap.



Funny how different this sweater looks depending on the colors I pair it with? This time I went with a pink LOFT layering tee, brown NYDJ ponte skinnies, brown suede BOC clogs, with the scarf as the centerpiece.

For St. Patrick's on Thursday, I went with the only green-ish top I have and a daisy/clover necklace.





Black WHBM ruffled cardigan, black Gap modern bootcuts, teal Lauren Conrad top from Kohls, black Franco Sarto Deer heeled oxfords, black ribbon as belt. I've been on a belting kick lately. As evidenced by Friday's outfit too!



Kimi's comment on my list post about my button-downs reminded me that I hadn't been wearing my gingham-checked ones very much so I decided to remedy that with a showing on Friday. Kimi also mentioned that they are a pain in the butt to iron and they wrinkle fast in the day. This is true, but they are that crinkly fabric so they're not really supposed to be super-smooth, so I don't spend a ton of time ironing it, and I prefer to wear them as a layering top under something. That said, these LOFT cotton pants in olive also wrinkle up terribly, so the combination of both made me look like a raggedy bum by the end of the day. Next time, either the top or bottom has to be a wrinkle-free material. Lesson learned!



I finally got a good wear out of my red-brown-purple color-blocked Nicole Blessed shoes! I think I've only worn them once this winter. The remaining pieces of the outfit are a black AT Factory cardigan and a brown Kohls belt.

And that was my week!