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RadioMD Presents:HER Radio | Original Air Date: March 5, 2015
Host: Michelle King Robson and Pam Peeke, MD

It's all about her. Her body. Her mind. Her wellness. Her sex. Her relationships. Her aging. Her beauty. It's HER Radio starring acclaimed entrepreneur and women's advocate, Michelle King Robson and leading women's health expert, the "doc who walks the talk", Dr. Pam Peeke.

PAM: I'm Dr. Pam Peeke with Michelle King Robson who's on travel.

So, let's talk about one of my most favorite topics: how to dress after weight loss when you're thinner and ready to date. What are you going to do? Well, I have with us our "go to" stylist. Lori Ann Robinson is a Los Angeles based image and fashion consultant and multiple Emmy-nominated costume designer. Lord knows, we need the costumes, Lori.

So, alright. Let's get right down to it.

LORI: Let's do.

PAM: First of all, welcome back to HER Radio.

LORI: I'm thrilled.

PAM: Let's just talk about the big mistakes. You know, as an expert in basically weight management, I have watched the wildest things happen. From one end of the spectrum, I have women who refuse to leave the black shrouds and the brown shrouds because that's what they've been doing for years—shrouding. And then, I have women on the other end of the spectrum who are 50 and who want to dress like they're Miley Cyrus now that they've dropped 50 pounds.

Okay. So, help, Lori.

LORI: Well, first of all, the shroud wearers out there need to drop the idea that their body is still the same. They've got to get rid of their "fat eyeballs" is what I call it. The fat eyeball syndrome where they still see themselves at whatever it may be: 45, 50, 60 pounds heavier and they can't wrap their head around the fact that their body has changed. So, they're not servicing themselves well.

We know, Dr. Pam, difficult it is to lose weight, especially when you get into that certain age bracket butf you've got to drop the shrouds and start wearing clothes that define your body. Now, I'm not talking going the Miley Cyrus route and shopping in the teen departments either because I see that often, too, with clients. They think they've lost a little bit of weight, so it's time to go to the junior stores.

That's not it. Just because you lose pounds doesn't mean those numbers come off your age, too. You need to make sure that you're wearing clothes that are still age appropriate, but you just go down sizes and maybe you can add a few more trend items into your wardrobe because you are going to have that body that can wear those trend items now where before when you were heavier, it may not have worked for you.

PAM: Yes. You know what? I love this. This is such a rich topic to me. I could talk about this forever.

LORI: And, I could, too.

PAM: But then, my producers would fire me. But here's...And, you didn't have to laugh that hard either, Lori.

But here's the deal, okay? So, you've got women who, for years, many of them many years, have been heavy and they have what I call—you call it "fat eyes"—I call it "fat head". Your brain just thinks that way and you're used to people looking at you like you're invisible or maybe with that look of nastiness and back and forth and disregard and all of a sudden, you're now the center of attention. It's a freaky experience.

I actually made up a rule, Lori, and I said, "For every 25 pounds you drop, it takes roughly a year for your mind to catch up with that." That means that there's going to be a transition period during which you're going to be gradually adding in--instead of radically changing everything overnight--what you just said, Lori, and that is what I call transitional clothes. Okay. Can we switch out the shrouds for, okay, how about a belted dress? The belt part helps you because it reminds you you've dropped the weight. You don't want to be gaining a bunch more, so kind of like a little monitor there. At the same time, it's just one dress. I didn't ask for an entire wardrobe.

LORI: Exactly.

PAM: Lori, can you help us with some more transitional changes for women who are mentally and physically adapting to this new life?

LORI: Well, my key point here is to wear things that have a little bit of stretch in them. I'm not talking polyester elastic waist pants, here, but things that are knit. Those will be more forgiving as you lose weight. You won't have such a huge bagginess going on with a knit fabrication versus a woven fabrication as you lose weight. So, yes, you can belt things in, but you can't belt a dress in that you were, say, 60 pounds heavier and then you take that dress and you try to belt it in.

Again, you're not going to look your best doing that. You're better off discarding that dress and starting new with something and the stretch really goes across the board. Make sure your jeans have a little bit of stretch in them because as you lose the weight, it's basically what is it, Dr. Pam? It's about 10 pounds for every dress size is sort of the norm and everyone loses weight in different areas. We all have different ways in which we lose our weight. So, your bottom half may not lose as quickly as say, you're upper body. You have to take that into consideration and start to work with those areas that lose the quickest. It might take twenty pounds before the bottom half is going to be a smaller size.

Buy a small core wardrobe as you're losing. You know, a few key pieces. On the areas that you're not losing quite as quickly on, you can have a little bit more in those areas. Then, those in which you are losing quicker, buy less in that area. So, just kind of break up your silouette—your top and your bottom and go from there.

Then, add color in because if you were heavier, most likely you were, again, wearing those shroud dark colors. Nothing is going to make you feel worse than wearing those dark colors all the time as you lose weight. You've got to start to lighten and brighten up especially if you're going to start to date. Men are attracted to color--not tons of black and brown and navy blue and gray.

PAM: Oh, I thought it was money. Oh. You're saying color? I thought it was money.

LORI: Well, green. They're attracted to green.

PAM: Green! That's right.

LORI: Yes. They're attracted to green.

PAM: That's excellent.

LORI: Put some color around your face. Now, that's what they're going to be looking at, anyway, especially if you're sitting across from them in a restaurant or whatever. You know, they're not going to be looking at what color pants you have on, they're going to be looking at your face. So, put that better color up around and it'll just lighten and brighten you up because you spent a lot of time and effort taking this weight off. So, you want to make sure that you look and feel your best. Wearing the dark, dark colors all the time is not going to serve you very well. So, get in there, do the clothes that have a little bit of stretch. Get a core wardrobe going that you can easily mix and match. It can be small, Dr. Pam. It can be only 9 pieces and I teach my clients how to do this all the time—how to build a wardrobe--and you get a lot of different outfits out of those 9 different pieces as long as you follow a system correctly like I teach. And accessorize. This is the time to really accessorize because you can change out the look of outfits in an instant with the correct accessories.

PAM: And, be bold and be courageous out there.

LORI: Be bold. Yes.

PAM: Quite frankly, I wish we could all have Lori right there with us at home. I'm kidnapping you, Lori, so you should know that.

LORI: That's okay.

PAM: But, you could go to a store, talk to a stylist and they have these people who will sit down with you and go over color and stuff because so many women out there have no idea what color looks great with them.

LORI: Exactly.

PAM: And what's really going to work well for them because if you've been living in shrouds and "hide it" clothes is what I called them, then it's just never going to work. So, go out there and get some help.

Now, more importantly, we've been talking to Lori Ann Robinson who is our "go to" stylist fashion consultant. Her website is LARConsultants.com. Look her up to be able to learn more.

Again, get on over to a stylist close to you. You can go to almost any department store and there's someone there who could really help you. Spend some time going over colors as you become more bold as you are thinner and ready to date and dressed for it, too.

I'm Dr. Pam Peeke with Michelle King Robson.Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. Stay well.