#20: Losing Weight is a Lifelong Endeavor, Loving You Is Too

The few pieces of clothing I ordered from an online store arrived, so I took them to the bedroom to try them on.

First, I tried on a white long dress. It took me quite some effort to get into it, and I couldn’t zip it up no matter what, so I asked Lin Zhiyi to come help.

While zipping it up, he said to me, “Try to suck in your stomach.”

I used the abdominal contraction technique taught by my fitness coach: take a deep breath to fill the abdomen with air, then exhale forcefully, lower the ribs, and squeeze out all the air from the abdomen. After such efforts to contract the abdomen, wouldn’t it work?

However, the zipper wasn’t giving me any face. After Lin Zhiyi’s hard work for a minute, the zipper was still stuck in place.

“Maybe the bra padding is a bit thick; I’ll change to a thinner one,” I said.

“This is the worst time A-cup has been blamed,” Lin Zhiyi said seriously.

“After having the baby, it upgraded to B-cup...” I felt a bit embarrassed.

“Haha, Xinbao did well,” he didn’t hold back.

“...”

After changing my bra, the zipper of the white long dress still refused to budge.

“It must be because I ate too much tonight,” I tried to give myself an excuse.

“Eating too much every day makes you fat, not going to the gym means you can’t wear clothes…” My daughter Xinbao gleefully improvised a song on the spot.

“This dress must be a design issue; I’ll try another one, I’m sure I can put it on.”

I wasn’t about to give up.

I changed into a blue dress, and after a struggle between my flesh and the zipper, I still lost.

“You should have bought a larger size!” Lin Zhiyi was getting anxious for me.

“...” This is already the largest size,” I said.

He was speechless.

I then tried on a light yellow long dress. Lin Zhiyi said, “This is the moment to witness a miracle!”

“...” Can wearing a piece of clothing really be as complicated as performing magic?

“Ah! This zipper works!” I exclaimed happily.

“Congratulations! You actually got it on,” Xinbao said.

“Because this one is designed humanely, with hidden buttons next to the zipper that can be adjusted freely. Your mom adjusted it to the largest button.”

“...” I glanced at Lin Zhiyi, don’t reveal the truth, okay?

Finally, I changed back into my usual clothes, feeling very comfortable, and couldn’t help but sigh, “Life was so cruel to me just now! Now I finally found my confidence.”

“Isn’t it you who’s being cruel to the clothes?” Lin Zhiyi said.

“...” Is this guy trying to sleep on the couch tonight?

On the eve of “Singles’ Day,” I added my favorite items to the shopping cart in advance.

But I was hesitating over two pairs of pants and couldn’t decide which one to choose, so I asked Xinbao to help me decide.

“Which pair of pants do you think looks better?” I asked.

“They look about the same!” She said after a glance.

“Look carefully at how they fit the model. Which pair do you think makes her look slimmer?”

“Don’t ask me this question,” Xinbao said.

“Should I ask your dad then?” I said.

“No need to ask him either, ask your own fat,” Xinbao said seriously.

“...”

Did little Miss Xinbao inherit Lin Zhiyi’s sharp tongue?

Perhaps I’ve developed immunity to family teasing, but Lin Zhiyi and Xinbao’s sharp tongues didn’t push me onto the path of fitness and weight loss. I still used work as an excuse not to go to the gym.

Until this happened—

One weekend, I pulled a pair of pants out of the closet and tried them on, but the zipper around the waist wouldn’t close no matter what.

I asked Lin Zhiyi to help, and after a quick glance, he said, “Give up struggling and face the truth. Forcing the zipper will only pinch your flesh.”

I said in confusion, “That’s not right! These pants fit perfectly when I bought them last year!”

At the same time, I lamented, “I haven’t even worn them once, how did they get smaller?”

“Either lose weight or give them away,” Lin Zhiyi suggested.

Afraid that the style would be outdated by the time I lost weight, I gave the pants to a young girl at work.

The next morning, the girl told me, “Big Sister Dà Níng, I tried on those pants and couldn’t wear them. I’ll bring them back to you tomorrow.”

I said, “Are they too small?”

She said, “No, they’re big. The leg part fits well, but the waist is too loose, they would fall down when I wear them.”

“...”

This was truly a cosmic blow!

Finally, I understood why Lin Zhiyi liked playing this game recently—whenever I finished eating and leaned against the wall reading a book, he would pinch the flesh around my waist as he passed by, singing, “Three circles to the left, three circles to the right, pinch here, pinch there. My wife is chubby, so fun.”

To be kinder to my clothes… no, to be able to wear more beautiful clothes, I returned to the path of fitness.

One night, I was doing an exercise a private trainer taught me to strengthen my back muscles—pressing my body against the wall, holding a one-kilogram dumbbell in each hand, raising my arms along the wall, then lowering them, repeating the motion twenty times per set.

Lin Zhiyi walked over, looked at me, and said, “Your form is wrong.”

As he spoke, he came closer and pressed his hands against my forearms raised against the wall.

I thought he was correcting my form, but unexpectedly—he pressed my forearms and kissed me like that!

What’s with this surprise wall-dunk while exercising?

Though I complained that he interrupted my workout, my heart was as sweet as honey.

After a month of working out, colleagues said not only had my posture improved, but my fashion sense had also improved, and my outfit index had increased.

In fact, to look good in clothes, you first need a good figure. I remember not long after Xinbao was born, I dragged Lin Zhiyi to the mall. I tried on many clothes, and every time I tried one on, Lin Zhiyi shook his head and said, “It doesn’t look good, like maternity wear.”

Later, I realized it wasn’t the fault of the clothes; it was my fault for being too “shapely”! As Lin Zhiyi put it, round (tear).

If you have a good figure, you naturally have more choices when picking clothes. When dressing, it’s generally better if the top and bottom complement each other, like a loose top with tight bottoms or a tight top with loose bottoms.

When I shared my clothing insights with Lin Zhiyi, I added, “Having a good figure is the foundation, just like we first become the best version of ourselves. Then find complementary partners or friends, and life will be more harmonious.”

Lin Zhiyi said, “According to you, Ma Yun and I are quite complementary.”

“How so?”

“Ma Yun has money but no time, I have time but no money.”

“...”