They say that food shopping on an empty stomach isn’t a good idea (“Why did I come home with 4 bags of Cheetos?”)

But no one ever points out that shopping when you are pants-busting-full isn’t the best plan either, (“Celery! Yum!”)

Either way you’re coming home with crazy stuff so finding a nice middle-feeling is the best way to go.

It’s no different when you’re shopping for jeans. Go full-and you’ll end up huddled in the corner of the dressing room clutching the size you were yesterday tossing the words “liquid diet” around; go feeling hungry and you’ll risk bad judgment calls like slipping around the corner in your underwear just to grab a better size so you can get out and get some food.

Let’s just make it a hard and fast rule that shopping for anything (but most especially jeans and food) requires a happy medium between meals.

Especially when shopping for something that’s going to fit around your problem area (which for most women is the thighs and butt) go when you are happily in between meals, have lots of energy, and have plenty of time (take it from me, shopping for “the perfect something” last minute is as close to feeling like a contestant on a high dollar game show as I’ll ever want to be.)

And make sure that when you shop, you do so with an open mind. Don’t just try on the jean style that’s been covering your dairy air for the past two decades. Give other styles a chance.