My gi makes me look fat.

I rather like how I look in a keikogi, and in white in general.

I practice yoga full time as well. My "other uniform" is quite - um... small - in comparison to a keikogi. I see plenty of myself in a mirror every day and maybe I am desensitized to it. Although I do not train in front of a mirror in the dojo. I train with all boys. I'm proud to be the only girl on the mats. I do wear a modest (and very affective) sports bra under my jacket in case of any wardrobe malfunctions. However, my jacket seems to stay just fine. I tie my obi rather high, right at my ribs. It stays, the jacket stays and I like it there. I am of the "all waist and no legs" body type and the boxy jacket sort of makes me look like I have no shoulders. But I figure it's a training uniform, and I wear it with pride.

Wear your gi with confidence. It's not your body (the way you look) that your uke should be paying attention to anyway.

Mark Peckett wrote: I don't know how long you've been practising, Victoria - but since you joined this forum quite recently I'll assume you're new. Beginners tend to tie their belts at their waist, and it does tend to make men look as if they have very long legs, and women look as if they have a large bust. Just a suggestion, but try tying your belt around your hips with the knot firmly at your one point, and then tug your jacket down underneath. This might help. I hate mirrors in the dojo because they make the light shine off my bald head!

With all due respect, please do not advise a woman to tie her belt accross the hips. That just doesn't work for women, i've tried it
The whole pile of belt, hakama, pants just ends up at your waist anyway, because is the closest narrow part of the body, and it is quite uncomfortable. But i would say, that is the advise every guy in a dojo should get, its quite fashion forward too.. i guess

My gi makes me look fat too Victoria. It is by far the least flattering outfit in my entire wardrobe. Luckily I am having far too much fun on the mat to care all that much and I am really happy and quite vain ( in a modest sort of way?) in general and figure I look awesome anywhere anyway .
My hair also won't stay in its pony tail during training and I quite often look as if I have been dragged backward through a hedge while rubbing my face in beetroot. Flattering.. NOT. Good thing I like to larf at myself.
However, we do have a mirror in our dojo and it's the best mirror ever. One side (the left) does a true reflection and the other side (right) is a super stretch slimming mirror. You look about 10 kgs lighter!! Fantastic!! So when I do catch sight of myself looking like a grinning stuffed scarecrow (and care- which is not often) I just sidle over to the right side of the mirror and feel even better.
Now before everyone gets all concerned that this is not a deep or meaningful approach ,I just wanted to express a lighter side to this subject and just have a poke at my own triviality with concerns to wardrobe and appearance in todays society, particularly for women.

Have a blast training everyone,

Azz

Does anyone think we should merge this forum with "The Spirituality of Aikido" or should we just go practoce?

Possible (hopefully somewhat humorous) Solutions:

1) Wear a larger gi so the waist appears smaller.
2) Practice long enough to wear a darker belt than white.
3) Before you tie your belt, take hold of either side right at the front and extend to squeeze the middle like Mulan when she first dons her dad’s outfit in the movie. It will loosen up by the time you’re done stretching...
4) For keeping the belt down below the waist, build up enough substance around the belly to form a ceiling for the belt to help you keep it down. As you breathe during practice, and it slides up, push it down again. (Possibly counterproductive to looking as thin as normal in a gi...)
5) Sandy, Love the hair.

Carrie Campbell wrote: 2) Practice long enough to wear a darker belt than white.

THAT'S why my gi makes me look fat: HORIZONTAL STRIPES!!! Thanks for solving the mystery, Carrie!
Sensei, may I wear this nice seersucker gi with the vertical pinstripes?

BTW...to add to the litany: when my training advanced enough that I was taking larger rolls, my glasses started falling off. I informed my husband that I was going to look into getting contact lenses for training. Ever practical, he asked "why don't you just get the band that attaches to the eyeglasses to hold them on?" I replied "I don't want to look like a dork!" (apologies to the guys who wear them...) "Now wait a minute," sez my dearly beloved, "you are out there all red in the face and sweaty and your hair limp with sweat and stuffed into heavy white cotton that makes you look 30 pounds heavier than you are...and you are worried about how you look?!" To which I could only quietly and politely say, "well...yes, I am!"

Janet Rosen wrote: "well...yes, I am!"

Some of us know better than to ask ...

I have 20/200 vision and severe astigmatism. I figure the first thing that's going to happen in a real life scrap is my glasses will go flying so I never train with glasses. Since I don't know what I'm missing it does not bother me. OK, so I have trained a few times with glasses but within minutes the sweat was so think I really could not see at all so had to take them off anyway.

Lots of times I've had to help folks locate their contacts ... some of them pop them into their mouths for a quick rinse and then pop them into their eyes ... disgusting.

Robert M Watson Jr wrote: Lots of times I've had to help folks locate their contacts ... some of them pop them into their mouths for a quick rinse and then pop them into their eyes ... disgusting.

Eww, gross.... I use soft lenses, they don't pop out.

Uck.. me one of my old boyfriends used to do that. He actually swallowed one once!

I hope this doesn't violate the commercial posting rule - I'm just a fan/customer, and since we're talking about women's dogi...

http://www.bujindesign.com/ is having a holiday sale. 15% off most (all?) products, including their women's dogi. I have the medium weight one, and love it.