The cupboard is no longer bare

My shopping excursion yesterday was, on the whole, successful. The morning was the most successful. I bought a jacket I'd been keeping an eye on - a $200 winter jacket on sale for half off - as well as a number of pretty and professional shirts. The afternoon was not so fortuitous as I became increasingly tired and desperate to secure a pair of pants or shoes that fit.

Pants have always given me trouble and, like pantyhose, care not a whit as to my size and were just as ornery now as they have ever been. Though I told pair after pair that they darned well better fit this time, alas, none of them listened and continued - resolutely - not to fit. They were either too small, too big, or too "look at my pantylines!"

The quest for shoes faired no better. Just about every single pair that I tried on was either too tight across the toes or too loose in the heel. After a sales girl at Aldo earnestly assured me that the shoe I was trying on was supposed to feel like an excruciatingly tight metal clamp, I conceded defeat and headed to Walk In Comfort where I found a pair of black nondescript Rockports that fit reasonably well. Though not fancy or exciting as I would have hoped, they're good quality, leather, and should last.

Troubles aside, I'm happy with my purchases (the best of which is this darling little black hat) though my shopping isn't quite done yet. After removing tags and organizing everything into my closet today, I see I need more casual shirts and sweaters. And of course the pants. I only found one pair that fit well enough but I need more than that. After a few days of rest and recuperation, I should be back at it, wandering the Sears clothing racks looking for that elusive beast - the pant that fits.

Thirty-first Weigh-in

It looks like my little camping buddy left and took a roommate with him. I'm down 1 lb this week. I'm getting close to my next weight goal and it's exciting! As for the meeting, I confess I wasn't paying as much attention as I usually do. I arrived late and was sitting in the back on a stepstool because it was so packed in there. I couldn't see my leader's face, so it was hard for me to listen. I'm weird this way, but I need to see a person's face in order for their words to sink in.

Afterwards, I went shopping!! And boy am I tired. And I'm not even finished yet! I'll post more later as to how it went.

Well that was fun

I just finished weeding my closet and drawers. Take a look at the aftermath:



Yes, those lonely clothes hanging out on the right side of the closet are all that's left of the clothes that still fit me or are too dear to let go of. Of the clothes that I purged, the best clothes (about 3/4s of it) will be going to a local women's charity. As these clothes are still quite wearable and in good condition (some are not even a year old!), it's hard to part with them. But, I kept reminding myself that they would give someone else pleasure if I released them back to the wild.

On a lark, I decided to find out how many pounds of clothing I was liberating. So, I hopped on the scale with a laundry basket full of the clothes, did a quick calculation and came up with 28lbs. Yep. 28lbs of clothes. Almost as much as I've lost! And in case anyone is wondering what 28lbs looks like, here it is:



Add 10lbs more to include the cat.

Yup. That was definitely fun :) :) :)

The Cupboard is Bare

I can hold off no longer. My wardrobe choices have dwindled to one pair of jeans and a few summer shirts. Everything else is either too big, too old, or too ratty. Even my shoes are needing replacement. The cheap barely year-old peeling-at-the-toe ratty black pleather shoes just don't seem to go with my new sense of self-esteem anymore.

So, this weekend I'm off to indulge in my most anticipated excursion of the year. Fall shopping for clothes. Squeak! I plan on buying as inexpensively as I can – after all, I'll be going through the same wardrobe replacement process in about half a year's time – but I'm not going to scrimp on the shoes.

Here's what I plan on getting:

• Black leather shoes: good quality that'll last and go with just about anything.
  
• Winter jacket: nice and warm for the skiing I plan on doing! If I can find an inexpensive fall jacket, I might get one of those, too.
  
• Sweaters: as many as I can afford, I get so cold nowadays without my padding.
  
• Long-sleeve shirts: pretty and professional for the office and grocery shopping. I must look good wherever I go!
  
• Pants: two pair and again, for the office/glamorous grocery trips.
  
• Underwear: and not in the two sizes too big I accidentally bought the last time.
• PJs: you know your nightgown is too big for you when you bend forward and everyone can see everything from your bosom to your slippered feet.
  
• Scarf: purely for frivolous reasons. Some people love shoes, I love scarves.
  

We'll see how much I can actually afford but it's always fun to dream! I plan on hitting all the stores with sales/inexpensive buys as well as some secondhand places.

Tonight I'm going to ruthlessly go through my closet and start a donation box. I'm going to keep those pre-WW jeans of mine (the ones that caused a near wardrobe malfunction the other day) as a memento though. There's a few sweaters that might pass muster, too. And I might even weed out my scarf collection. Everything else though? Donate, donate, donate!

Six pounds of camping

When I got back from camping on Monday, I weighed myself on my home scale. I wasn't surprised to see that I'd managed to gain 6lbs in only three days. I was reasonably certain that most of those 6lbs could be attributed to the symptoms of having eaten poorly: upset stomach, bloating, and water retention.

Fortunately, I was right. Five of those pounds are gone again, leaving a lone pound hanging around and generally getting up to mischief. If he sticks around for official weigh-in this weekend, I'll consider myself lucky before I run him out of town.

Hopefully, my lesson is learned. Even if I wanted to eat bad food, my body is clearly not used to it anymore. The three days it took me to recover is warning enough!

Camping hangover

Ugh. So I've just spent the long weekend camping and fun though it was, I ate entirely the wrong things. Yesterday afternoon and today I'm really suffering from the bad food I ate. Sugar hangover, upset stomach, all the hallmarks of eating badly, I got 'em. The only saving grace is that I walked a LOT. Still, it's back to basics this week!

Even with camping, I still made it to weigh-in on Saturday morning. I'll be waving my magic blogger wand and posting it shortly.

Thirtieth Weigh-in

I'm down 1.8 lbs this week which has broken the trend of the past three weeks. Whoohoo! My leader also noticed my new jeans and complimented me on them. I guess it wasn't too hard to notice as I'd been wearing pretty much the same clothes to weigh-in for a month straight! Anyways, she brought it up in front of the meeting and asked me to share with the other members how many sizes I went down. That felt good :)

The meeting topic was about reviewing the Weight Watchers booklets. Which is a good thing. I occasionally crack them, but I confess I don't recall everything in them. As soon as I get some time this week, I'm going to read all of them again, back to front!

I also plucked up my courage and passed along the kindness a member did me last week - I complimented a lady on her progress. She's been in meetings for as long as I can remember and she really has done phenomenally well (over 70 lbs lost!) . I hadn't seen her much during the summer, so when I saw her again, it was amazing how much she had changed and how good she looked. So, I told her so and she seemed really pleased. That also felt really good :)