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After my daughter is born in January, I am planning to go on a weight-loss journey. During the year before I got pregnant with my son, I gained a whopping 40 pounds. Life was crazy then; I was not healthy. After my son was born, I lost the baby weight but still kept much of my regular weight. Then the weight started creeping up again. I gained another 25 pounds in the 18 months after my son was born. Then I found out I was pregnant again.

During this pregnancy, as in the last one, I have gained only about six pounds at the 32-week mark. Still my total weight is at 204, and I can say honestly that I never thought I would see that weight on the scale. There were times when I would have been shocked to know I would ever weigh more than 150 pounds.

At any rate, I have promised myself that I would lose 70 pounds after this delivery. One of the questions that brought up for me is how I will manage to create a wardrobe that fits and works with the weight loss. I do not want to spend a small fortune on clothes just to find out that I have lost enough weight in a few weeks to move down a size or two. At the same time, spending all of that effort on losing weight hardly seems worth it if you are hiding behind too big sweat clothes.

Had you asked me before this weight gain experience if I felt physical appearance was important, I would have told you no. That is because I never knew what it was like not to be able to fit into the latest trendy clothes. I had the option of wearing those clothes, and now I do not.

So, I have spent a good deal of time thinking about building a wardrobe for rapid weight loss. I think it is important to have a plan in place before I begin the regimen. For starters, I have nixed the idea of just wearing my regular clothes for a while. I went through my wardrobe and tossed anything I did not think would flatter me in my first few weeks postpartum. Those pieces are the base of my wardrobe.

I also decided, as I believe you should if you are undertaking such as journey, that I will stick to having seven outfits that I can wear comfortably at any one time. Now, if you are a bargain shopper, you can scour secondhand stores and discount retailers to find those seven outfits for little money. I have been doing a little investigating on that end. The secondhand shop near us sells most items at basic costs. Shirts are $2.50; pants are $3.00.

The problem with secondhand stores is that they, of course, require a lot more planning. You have to sift through the racks to find clothes that are flattering. Many of them are not based on size. They use a more arbitrary system, such as color coding, which makes it even more difficult to find what you need. With that said, you should plan to spend an entire morning or afternoon in these stores if you want to build even a short-term wardrobe from them.

My plan of attack is that when I need a new size, I will go to these secondhand shops by myself and spend time looking. One of the best ways to make sure you are making good choices in these stores, especially if you have not been into fashions recently, is to take pictures from magazines with you. Cut out a few photos of fashion trends you like and then use them as a guide while you are shopping.

Use accessories to build wardrobes that will work with you. Right now, large bangle-type bracelets and larger pieces of jewelry are popular. Buy a few of these pieces so that you can dress up basics at each size level. You will be able to keep the same accessory pieces so that you may be able to buy just a couple of new shirts to fit a new size instead of needing to buy clothing that will stand out.