Apparently the UK average size is size 16, so I’m bang-on Mrs Average. I’m a 14-16 thanks to the generous portion of boobs I have, I have a small waist, long legs, broad shoulders, and a good butt. I’m pretty lucky I guess. I guess you’d say I’m an hourglass, although a little top heavy.

But this is what gets me - even though I can look at myself and think I’ve got it pretty lucky, I don’t FEEL it. I don’t FEEL average, I don’t FEEL normal, I feel big – huge even.

There is a lot of discussion about magazines/movies etc making women feel not good enough, even driving people to anorexia, but I think the root is far more basic than that. I think the average high street design house has a hell of a lot to answer for. After all, THESE are the people who clothe most of the nation.  

It’s become a massive issue in my life, it stops me from shopping, I can’t bare the thought of going into the shops, as I leave feeling like a monster. I leave shopping until I absolutely HAVE to go, then I’ll run in to a few reliable stores and grab the first thing I can. I hate it!! I don’t know how women find spending the day shopping fun.

If you take a standard rail of, let’s say dresses, it will be filled with a couple of size 6′s, several 8′s, loads of 10′s, less 12′s and only a couple of 14′s and maybe a 16* or two. I think this is quite representative of the designers discriminatory view of what size we should be. Rather than designing clothes for the population, they design what they want regardless to whether it will fit people! Why does this annoy me? Because Ms Average UK is size 16 which means that most of the time it seems that these are the first sizes to run out. Does this sound familiar, you find a shirt you like, go through the rack for your size to be confronted with this – 6, 6, 8, 8, 8, 8, 10, 10, 10, 10, 12, 12, 18, 24! It annoys me so much.

A further proof to this is the fact that shop mannequins are about size 10, indicating that said stores clothes look the best on small girls.

Further proof – Small, Medium, Large sizing. This drives me mad – at an average size 14-16 I have to take a large and HOPE it’s going to fit, quite frequently it doesn’t.

The thing that makes me furious and has actually rendered me in tears is the “one size fits all” designer. One size fits who? It’s the most ridiculous thing, I dare say even a size 10 woman would struggle to fit many of these. Who are they kidding, what are they trying to achieve? Is it just laziness, why can’t they do a full range of sizes?

This is clearly something that I’ve thought about thoroughly – I should have, it’s been getting me down for my whole adult life.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I look at other women in the change rooms at the gym, I’ve seen quite a lot of women naked one way or another, and I’m always left with the same conclusion, my body is okay, it’s actually pretty damned good, I look better than most of the women I see naked. Gok would be proud of me, frankly, I look good naked!

So why do I feel so bad about myself, why am I made to feel like I’m so big, why am I made to feel I don’t deserve nice clothes, why do I feel I’m only able to buy boring, shapeless clothes why am I made to feel I’m not worthy unless I’m a size 10?

I can’t be alone in this?

* I’m not even touching on the discussion of the limited number of stores who stock size 16 plus, which is even more difficult and I’m so grateful that I don’t have this added worry.

More recently Hubby and I have both been making concerted efforts to reduce the impact our lives have, and actually when we started listing it, we do quite a lot, here are some of the things we do:

• I make my own surface cleaner using vinegar, rosmary, mint, dishwashing liquid & essential oils
• We recycle as much of our rubbish as possible
• Our recycle bin is a large cardboard box a toy came in
• We avoid buying bottled water when out if possible, and when we do we buy a large bottle, not two smaller ones – it’s not hygenic to reuse these bottles by the way, so avoid doing so by taking water with you when possible
• We reduce the packaging we consume by buying the largest size possible of whatever we’re buying
• I use a face washer (flannel) instead of cotton pads or cleansing wipes
• My cleanser is Sorbolene Cream in a 500ml pump bottle, it lasts me about 4 months (and only costs about $AUD4)
• We have an e-cloth mop which doesn’t use cleaning chemicals
• Our council don’t recycle yoghurt pots, so we buy the largest size and spoon it into a bowl instead
• We try to buy European wine to reduce the impact of the transportation of Australian wine, South American wine etc
• We try to buy fresh produce in season so we can buy locally
• We try to refuse shopping bags where I can, and usually have a bag in my handbag which I can use
• We put on extra layers or open windows instead of turning up the heating/using fans or air-conditioners
• We try to use bars of soap instead of pump soap
• We only run our dishwasher when it is full
• We have a half size dishwasher so use half a dishwasher tablet each time
• We avoid accumulating too much “stuff” We’re culturally conditioned to want a lot of “things” but do we really need a lot of versions of the same items?
• We have a limited supply of tupperware, but use it in place of plastic wrap & plastic food bags as much as possible, we try to use pyrex if possible

Interestingly, we’ve found that by trying to reduce our impact on the environment, we also reduce our impact on our budget.

What do you do to reduce your impact?