Catching Up

It's been a week since I last posted, and I've got a lot to report!

Things are going pretty well. I'm still losing but it's slowed down to a more sustainable pace. I feel my energy level going up every day, and I've become pretty comfortable with food choices.

What I'm Eating:

I've definitely developed a routine in terms of daily eats.

Breakfast: high fiber oatmeal or an egg scrambled with a piece of turkey. I eat about 1/3 of the oatmeal and all of the egg.

Lunch: two ounces of turkey, a piece of babybel cheese and a slice of tomato. Or, sometimes I have a small amount of tuna or chicken salad.

Snack: Muscle Milk Lite for protein.

Dinner: Salmon or boca burger, or a piece of fish, or a scrambled egg.

Snack: two cucumber rounds with roasted red pepper hummus.

I have been eating out more but still manage to make pretty good choices. Half of a half of a turkey sandwich, or an egg white omelette usually does the trick.

What I'm Doing:

I have been shaking it up a bit exercise-wise. Still walking, and I must say, I'm kicking ass. I can do a lap in about a minutes, so thats about 20 minutes for 2 miles. Then, on cardio days, I do the eliptical for 10 minutes or a mile, whichever comes first.

Yesterday, I did the weight circuit for the first time. It took me forever to get through it because I wrote down the settings and weights for all of the machines. Hopefully, it will go a bit quicker next time. I am definitely feeling the workoout today; my ass is sore, and my arms are killing me. I realized that I have the upper body strength of a baby duck. So, I'm starting slow, just about 30 pounds on each machine. Hopefully, it will get easier.

What I'm Wearing:

The clothing situation is starting to get interesting. Things are definitely looser; I was walking into work the other day with my hands full, and almost lost my pants. Same thing almost happened at the gym. Stretchy skirts and dresses work well; they're big, but they still look okay.

Now for the good part. I had a flip flop blowout this weekend so I went by Old Navy to get a new pair. As usual, I walked in and headed straight for the flip flop wall, not pausing to look at any clothes. Now, this is where my friends and followers who haven't had weight issues might get a bit confused. Old Navy didn't carry my size, so I never really bought clothes there. Sure, a men's sized sweatshirt here or a men's sized teeshirt there, but I didn't even look in the women's section.

After I got my flip flops, I started to head to the registers when a pair of jeans caught my eye; they were dark blue, and super cute. Suddenly, I heard my mom's voice in my head, "Jennifer, you need to buy some new pants! Just go try some on; you're smaller than you think." See, I've hesitated to try anything new since I started losing. I just didn't want to be disappointed.

This time, though, I grabbed a pair of jeans in the biggest size they carry, and marched purposefully to the fitting room. I charged into a room. I threw the jeans down, took off my cargo pants, and shoved my feet in to the new jeans, all in about three seconds. I slid them over my thighs; hmm, they weren't tight. Over the hips; whoa, they went right up. No jumping or squeezing or wiggling. Then, miracles of miracles, I zipped and buttoned them right up. BUTTONED THEM RIGHT UP. I stared at myself in the mirror, and then the biggest, brightest, happiest smile I've had on my face in a very long time spread across my cheeks. I had on a pair of jeans from a normal store. A pair of jeans without a W on the tag. Normal jeans. It was then that I realized that THEY WERE TOO BIG. Not only was in a normal pair of jeans, but I was in a normal pair of jeans that WERE TOO FREAKING BIG!!!

So, it was at this point that I went into a semi-delirious state or ecstacy. I got a cart (A CART) and just starting throwing stuff in it and taking it to the fitting room. I started with another pair of jeans in a size smaller; they fit! Then I thought, maybe its a fluke, just these particular jeans. So I grabbed one pair in all six styles, and they all fit! It all fit! Sweaters, tshirts, coats, skirts, khakis all fit! I went crazy; there were tshirts and fleece jackets and jammy pants aflyin'!

Don't worry; I came out of my fugue before I got the charge card out. I put everything back, except the jeans. Of course, those went home with me. I need to get them altered; they're too long. And when I do, I am going to rock those jeans bigger and badder than Springsteen on the cover of Born in the USA.