Fifteen inches gone

I’m so glad I’ve been taking measurements! It is such a great motivator when the inches drop off. The scale doesn’t always move, so it’s great to have that other motivator in the form of a tape measure. Alas, I don’t have that third great motivator — photos!

I weigh in every Monday morning. Now, I confess, I also sneak peeks at my weight in the middle of the week. But the only weight I consider “official” is the Monday weigh in. But I only measure once a month. Well, even that’s a fib. Two months ago, I got very disappointed when my monthly measurement showed very little change even though I was losing weight. I did not want a repeat of that disappointment last month, so I skipped the measurements.

So this month, when measuring time came along, it was really a two-month measurement, not one. Oh boy! What a difference two months can make. Totaling all my measurements, I lost 15 inches. Woo-hoo! Of that I lost two inches from the waist and two inches from the hips. I even lost half an inch on my wrists! I’m also really seeing the difference in my clothes. The 24 slacks are swimming on me. I’ve already donated all my 24 blouses to GoodWill. I have to keep the 24 slacks, because I only own two 22 slacks (which even those are beginning to be a bit big!)  I have a collection of size 20 slacks and blouses that I’m just dying to get into. No, these aren’t 20’s from when I was skinnier. Frankly, I don’t even remember ever being a size 20. No, my mother has lost quite a bit of weight recently and she has boxed up her size 20’s for me. And, alas, I am at the ripe old age where my mother and me actually now share the same taste in clothes. Oh, the pain!

After the great rush of joy from losing all the inches, I rushed to try on a size 20 pants. I could not believe it! I actually could get them over my fat butt and all the way on. Granted, I looked like a stuffed sausage in them, but before I started my journey, I couldn’t even get them part way up the hips. This is a great victory.

Now, if I could just get over my fear of taking pictures of myself in front of the mirror. I bet taking monthly photos would really be an inspiration to keep going. But darn it, I hate posing in front of the mirror. Even with 15 inches gone.