My son is getting married in less than 3o days; for the past 6 months, I’ve been on what we jokingly call the #bearteamwedding diet–trying to get into the best shape possible before the event.
Of course, I’m at least ten pounds away from my original goal–and probably won’t be there by the wedding, but there’s no question I’m fitter, trimmer, stronger and more compact that I was six months ago.
What’s cool about this right now is not only that I’m going to keep working on my fitness all through 2016–I still want to roll my weight back to what it was in 2003–and get my body fat percentage down–and do pull ups and…but that I’ve hit that critical moment when I fit back into smaller, standard sizes. (When I was heavier, I was never quite big enough to fit into the 16W clothes; but the clothes available on the high end of the regular spectrum, the 16s and 18s say–were kind of scarce overall when I shopped.)
Now that I am a 12/14 or a M/L, rather than an XL or 2XL, I can go into a department store, as I did today, try 15 dresses on, and have 14 of them actually fit.
Being able to find 15 dresses I liked all at the same time is something it was hard to do at the larger size (unless I did all my shopping online and took a guess as to how things might feel/fit); having so many of them seem possible because they actually fit well, especially around my now much-smaller waist, was thrilling.
(Non-scale victories, yeah!)
So I ended up with two dresses, one for the rehearsal dinner, and one for the wedding, and they are both great. I also have a little fun dress for the post-wedding after-party, where I pretty much plan to dance my ass off for as long as I can hold out.
I also cut all my hair off this week, into the kind of short crop I haven’t had since–yep–2003. My logic was that I wanted to show off my emerging cheekbones and rediscovered chin–and also less hair means more working out because there’s less up top to balance out the bulk below–i.e., motivating for those planks, squats and sit-ups.
For me, shorter hair, also means more make-up, and a more intentional style; standing in the department store dressing room, trying on one dress after another, all of which actually fit-made me remember a timer when I really liked clothes (though I have never liked shopping).
Being a smaller size brings me back to what I looked liked before, for a really long time before I piled extra extra pounds on, and it feels damn good to see my size going back down the other way–only with way more strength/fitness/muscle and toning this time.
This is a marathon, not a sprint, and I am totally into it.
My son is getting married in less than 3o days; for the past 6 months, I’ve been on what we jokingly call the #bearteamwedding diet–trying to get into the best shape possible before the event.
Of course, I’m at least ten pounds away from my original goal–and probably won’t be there by the wedding, but there’s no question I’m fitter, trimmer, stronger and more compact that I was six months ago.
What’s cool about this right now is not only that I’m going to keep working on my fitness all through 2016–I still want to roll my weight back to what it was in 2003–and get my body fat percentage down–and do pull ups and…but that I’ve hit that critical moment when I fit back into smaller, standard sizes. (When I was heavier, I was never quite big enough to fit into the 16W clothes; but the clothes available on the high end of the regular spectrum, the 16s and 18s say–were kind of scarce overall when I shopped.)
Now that I am a 12/14 or a M/L, rather than an XL or 2XL, I can go into a department store, as I did today, try 15 dresses on, and have 14 of them actually fit.
Being able to find 15 dresses I liked all at the same time is something it was hard to do at the larger size (unless I did all my shopping online and took a guess as to how things might feel/fit); having so many of them seem possible because they actually fit well, especially around my now much-smaller waist, was thrilling.
(Non-scale victories, yeah!)
So I ended up with two dresses, one for the rehearsal dinner, and one for the wedding, and they are both great. I also have a little fun dress for the post-wedding after-party, where I pretty much plan to dance my ass off for as long as I can hold out.
I also cut all my hair off this week, into the kind of short crop I haven’t had since–yep–2003. My logic was that I wanted to show off my emerging cheekbones and rediscovered chin–and also less hair means more working out because there’s less up top to balance out the bulk below–i.e., motivating for those planks, squats and sit-ups.
For me, shorter hair, also means more make-up, and a more intentional style; standing in the department store dressing room, trying on one dress after another, all of which actually fit-made me remember a timer when I really liked clothes (though I have never liked shopping).
Being a smaller size brings me back to what I looked liked before, for a really long time before I piled extra extra pounds on, and it feels damn good to see my size going back down the other way–only with way more strength/fitness/muscle and toning this time.
This is a marathon, not a sprint, and I am totally into it.