I completed my first week on the Habibi Nourish Summer Series and overall it wasn’t as painful as I expected. The menu is quite yummy.  However, I was preparing for a concert and a family crisis arose for the entire first week. Aside from being a solo artist, I also play flute in Bunny Brunel’s Grammy-nominated band CAB—mostly I was hired for the Chick Corea tunes because they work so well with the flute. This last concert, which was on Saturday, August 17, 2019, was particularly stressful. I had to chart out music and re-notate it for my flute and I only had a a couple of days to do it.  Time-consuming and stressful with such a short window, it would be the first time I played this particular material—just think Miles Davis on steroids! And as I mentioned, I also have a solo artist career where I headline. Both these incarnations pose the biggest problems for me. I never have anything to wear.

Every concert (and there are a lot), I repeat the same upsetting pattern—none of my clothes fit me properly. And I really only have one outfit that looks halfway decent on me as a solo artist, and I’ve worn it way too many times. As far as CAB, that’s a more casual environment. I could pull off jeans and a stylish shirt, except there’s one problem, I don’t look great in jeans at the moment. Now if there were no cameras and video from random guests with social media, this wouldn’t be an issue at all. But I find myself cringing after every concert because someone in the audience inevitably posts a shot of me in the worst possible angle, plastering it all over social media. As a result of this painful act, before every concert it takes me at least an hour to find an outfit that flatters me.  So I end up with a mountain of clothes on my bed. It doesn’t help that I have a “fat” mirror spanning an entire wall, which is the last thing I see before exiting my house. Many times after feeling defeated from that darn mirror, I’ve gone back downstairs, rethinking my outfit… thus making me run late!

I used to be a runway and print model. I mentioned in the last Fashion Talk article, I was a size four only a few years ago. I’ve always been thin, and still tend to think that I am when shopping.  I just want to grab something cute off the rack without having to try it on.  How I miss those days.  But it seems like fashion has changed.  There aren’t many clothes that flatter curvy females. Many of the designs don’t allow for hips. If you are bigger than a C-cup, the fit is not quite right. I am not the only woman struggling in the world of OTR (off the rack).

Now, I don’t subscribe to the view of hiding in baggy clothes or gym clothes until I lose the desired weight. In fact, I think it is better if I feel good about myself while I’m in the process of getting fit. But the challenge has always been finding flattering clothing when I’m in-between sizes—and it’s slim pickings out there! I wrote about A-line cuts in a past print issue of Agenda. But these cuts are in the minority. And unless I pay for high-end designer labels, I’m fresh out of luck. Finding billowy sleeves on a blouse or dress is also like looking for a needle in a haystack. They’re out there but buried under everything else. I did notice more designs had sleeves for women’s dresses popping up after I complained about it in my first Fashion Talk article “Fashion: Does it Play Fair?.” But even when you go to the department store to the formal section, there are too few figure-flattering gowns for bigger sizes.  I am not even talking about Plus Size, but rather the sizes 10 and 12. One Designer that offers that option is Ralph Lauren, but again, these gowns are matronly. After a fruitless exhaustive search, I wrote another Fashion Talk article about learning to make patterns and sew my own clothes, if for no other reason than to have a better choice of appropriate stage outfits. (You can find that article in Agenda Summer 2019 Issue.)

That last two CAB concerts were hard in so many ways. I am the only female and because of it, I don’t have the luxury of not looking good on stage. I’m right smack front and center between the legendary Bunny Brunel and the guitarist. So I struggled to wear something that would flatter me. But hailing from a fashion model background, I failed miserably. And that’s where Habibi Nourish comes in once again. I am now in my second week, and in spite of my frantically busy schedule, I managed to get my grocery shopping done thanks to my chef hubby who also prepared the meals. In a future article about my cleanse, I’ll share with you my cooking fiascos and why I handed over the task to prepare my meals to my jazz musician/chef husband. Here’s a hint: coconut skin is not the coconut shell!

I am impatient. I want to see immediate results, but I will refrain from wearing only the black clothes section in my closet, the workout clothes, and the muumuus! Instead I will continue (in my second week now) to enjoy the savory yet healthy meals, while I daydream about one day soon pulling something OTR at Bloomingdale’s—and looking great at every angle on stage!  Visit: https://www.habibibodysport.com/nutrition-plans/    

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