Have you ever gone shopping and found that despite your body not changing dramatically over the space of the day, your size is varying from store to store?

There has been a lot of debate in the body positivity community about clothing sizes, which anyone who has been clothes shopping on the high street can see is inconsistent. 

As someone who is a size 12, I've found that in some stores I usually slot into a size medium, while in others I can't squeeze my bum into the XL.

And then magically in a third store a size 10 dress zips up comfortably. I mean really, what's that all about? 

Body confidence coach Michelle Elman has taken to Instagram to prove that sometimes, the size on the label really doesn't mean a damn thing, in the hopes of helping women realise that that a numeric tag really isn't something we should be paying too much notice to at all.

'I found a dress in my cupboard the other day that I had since I was in sixth form. The dress is a size 14. I bought it 5 years ago when I was a size 12. Now, I'm a size 20. And yet, I still fit it,' she captioned the powerful post.

'Which just proves that NUMBERS DON'T MEAN ANYTHING. So are you really going to let a change a dress size dictate your day? Are you really going to let an increase in a number affect your mood?'

 

A post shared by Michelle Elman (@scarrednotscared) on May 29, 2017 at 8:07am PDT

'Same dress. Still comfortable. Still beautiful. (In fact, I think I look better and happier now!) A higher dress size doesn't mean: – you are less beautiful – you are less worthy – you are less lovable – you are a worse human – you are a bad person – you are a different person AND it doesn't even mean you have a bigger body,' she continued.

'You could go up a dress size by simply changing stores… (or countries). You can change dress sizes because of the time of the day or simply due to whether you are on your period or not.'

'If you look at your cupboard and you find it harder and harder to find something to wear because of a change in clothing size, I have a great solution for you… throw out all clothes that don't fit.'

 

A post shared by Michelle Elman (@scarrednotscared) on May 13, 2017 at 11:09am PDT

'Looking at your wardrobe shouldn't be something that makes you feel insecure and sad so make sure everything in your wardrobe fits!'

'Numbers don't matter. Not the number on the back of your jeans, on the scale or even the number in your bank account. You are not a number.'

So if you don't fit into the size you feel is most reflective of your body, never fear. Think of your 'size' as more of guideline than a hard rule, because beating yourself up over something so inconsistent truly isn't worth it.