I have perfected my stay at home uniform: sports bra, tank top, running shoes, and of course, yoga pants.
I’m all about activewear when caring for little ones because, duh, it’s a physical activity (I’ll have to write another post devoted just to that point).
I have a few varieties of yoga pants to choose from: cropped, full length, high-waisted cropped, and high-waisted full length. I would stick with black, but my husband begged me for some variety, so I have added army green, deep purple, and a floral print option to keep it interesting.
Yoga pants are life, but I also want to point out that I do not ALWAYS wear yoga pants. I actually love fashion, and pre-mom, I only wore yoga pants to yoga. Back then, I wore pencil skirts.
Back to now: I have found that it helps to set some rules so that I don’t go overboard. My fashion sense is clearly based on practicality these days, but practicality can easily become laziness. I never want to feel like I’m just not trying anymore.
Here are my self-imposed ground rules:
I do NOT wear yoga pants:
- On Sundays
- Special Occasions
- While in Europe
Here is the breakdown:
Sundays
On Sundays, I always dress my best. Forcing myself to really make an effort weekly makes a huge difference in my mental state. Usually, I go with an a-line dress, a cardigan, nice shoes, pearls, and a floppy hat. In other words, a stark contrast to my look for the rest of the week.
Special Occassions
Special occasions include things like date night and girls night out, where I’ll usually slip into a LBD and heels. Then there are funerals, where I basically wear the same thing (weird).
There are also daytime special occasions, like weddings, showers, and graduations. When these types of events come up, I go with some variation of my Sunday outfit.
Throughout the entire holiday season, I’ll usually wear sweater dresses with tights and boots, or jeans and a cute sweater. To be completely honest, I can sometimes sneak Lululemons into an outfit, but I give myself a pass because I’m not using them as activewear. If I’m going to a holiday party, a red or purple cocktail dress. Come New Year’s Eve, I pull out my sequined cocktail dress.
The holidays go out with a bang and pretty soon I’m back in my leggings and loving it. By the time winter is over, I’m usually feeling pretty over yoga pants. But they are so comfortable that I am tempted to fall back into the groove. I pull myself out of the funk by wearing only dresses the entire week leading up to Easter.
Europe
Now let’s talk about Europe: Everything is different over there for me. I even have a different personality. I’m shy and quiet, believe it or not. AND you won’t catch me in shorts, hoodies, sneakers, or YOGA PANTS.
For the most part, I’m in cork wedges. I stick to classic looks like jeans and a striped white top or a wrap dress.
I really do love yoga pants, and I’m glad they exist. I like them even more when I mix in the right amount of higher maintenance looks. I did the math, and I spend somewhere between a quarter and a third of my life not in yoga pants, and I think that’s a pretty good balance.
