I bought a pair of red capris with little sailboats on them from Frenchy’s.

Which already feels like the beginning of a cautionary tale. (It is!)

I’m not a newbie to Frenchy’s because cafe shifts do call for inexpensive clothes you don’t mind ruining, but the smell in there?

That weird musky Frenchy’s smell mixed with larger than life dust bunnies floating around the corners of the changing rooms means that I'm not taking my shoes off in the changing room. HARD PASS!

Absolutely not.

So naturally, I held the cute sailboat pants up in front of me estimating whether they’d fit or not and thought:

“Yep. Those’ll fit.”

Reader, they did not.

Turns out… they were men’s pants. Which honestly explained the luxurious pockets.

What are men carrying around in there?

I could fit everything from my purse into one pocket and still have room left over.

Those pockets go halfway down my leg. (Maybe all the tees and scorecards for golfing...?)

These pants definitely give a golfing vibe.

But I was already invested because these pants were SO cute.

So I washed them.
Dried them.
Put them on.

And immediately realized the crotch seam was fighting for its life.

Every squat made the situation worse.

These were not sit-down pants.

These were standing pants only.

And by standing, I mean aggressively yanking them downward every six minutes while pretending everything was fine.

I wore them for an entire shift at the cafe.

Ten hours.

TEN.

I spent the whole day discreetly excavating two pounds of fabric from regions where fabric, in my opinion, has absolutely no business being.

And here’s where the story becomes very Nat:

I didn’t put them in the giveaway bin.

No no. That would’ve made far too much sense.

I washed ‘em and put them back in my closet.

Because apparently part of me believed my body was eventually going to wake up one morning and say:

“You know what? Let’s reorganize the entire pelvic region for these sailboat pants.”

And every few months…

I try them on again.

Including yesterday.

Still restrictive.
Still riding up.
Still standing pants only.

Repeatedly forcing these cute pants to work with my body when that's clearly NEVER going to happen... because... well, anatomy... is where I can very easily segue this #weirdandwitty email into my eat well, live better message. (which I just named the other day, while I was wearing pants that fit and, therefore, my brain was getting enough oxygen.)

Standing on tiptoes to pull these pants off the very top shelf in my closet every few months and see if my anatomy has rearranged itself yet, feels a lot like what we had to do to stay healthy and fit.

Forcing ourselves to follow elaborate systems that are cute but in theory make actual life wildly uncomfortable.

The perfect example of this??

Meal prepping.

The perfectly portioned containers.
The fridge organized like a lab.
The three-hour Sunday reset routines.
The energy levels of women who apparently meal prep, work, parent, answer emails AND hydrate properly.

Now, if you love a weekly meal prep and you love every minute of it… get on with yourself!

The rest of us will be staring into the fridge trying to remember how long that mystery container has been wedged into the back corner. (yeah, just throw it away — container and all.)

Here’s what I truly believe:

“Healthy eating (and healthy living) should support your life — not become a second unpaid job.”

Because some of our constant exhaustion is from trying to force ourselves into routines that simply do not fit the reality of our actual lives.

I believe this so whole heartedly that I had to sit down and write about it in a blog post:

​Why I’ll Never Meal Prep Like the Internet Tells Me To.​

I’m sharing the flexible systems, realistic habits, and simple approach to eat well without spending Sundays pretending to be a small-scale food production facility.

This is my absolute new favorite post!

I may even have to press ‘record’ on one of my walks to elaborate further… stay tuned for that.

For now, read the full post here → Why I’ll Never Meal Prep Like the Internet Tells Me To​

Nat — your standing-pants-only anti-meal-prepper

P.S. Got an item of clothing you hold on to for no other reason than it’s cute? Hit reply and tell me the details… I read every single response.

P.P.S. Warmer weather = walking season ☀️

If you're ready for a realistic way to move more without turning your life upside down, Stride Series is my simple 30-day walking program built for real people with real schedules.

Grab it here → Stride Series​