Holy. Shit.

Yeah, I know.  Curse central.  :)

So, my girl Jill (not Michaels) and I have been kind of been collaborating on this weight loss thing.  She's trying to drop the lbs, I'm trying to drop the lbs...it's a natural progression that we would try to drop the lbs together.  We spend a whole lot of time chatting about recipes and myfitnesspal and working our buns off (literally and figuratively).  So, at the end of this past week, we were talking about how you can tell you've lost some weight.  The thing about losing weight by eating well and working out together is that sometimes it's hard to know for sure that you've lost weight.  The scale doesn't always show your success when there's a workout involved.  Thank goodness for the growing muscles, but the frustration of not seeing the numbers go down can be a bit irritating.

You have to learn to trust what the 'ol body is telling you in these kinds of instances.  You have to look at how your posture has improved from all the locust yoga poses you've been doing.  Notice how you don't need lotion/water/butter to get a ring off your finger.  See how an over sized sweater you've always loved just looks frumpy now.  Flex those biceps and show off the triceps that you didn't even know existed.  Feel how your jeans are filling out, instead of bagging on your non-existent ass directly out of the dryer.  The very hot, clothes-shrinking dryer.

One of the most startling things for me has been really seeing the number of notches I've put into my belt.  I haven't worn a belt for as long as I can remember.  The plain truth is that pants were always too tight to warrant a belt.  Never had a need for it.  ...aaaaand, no one except the plus-size stores sold the belts I'd need to be wearing.  Man, that sounds just sad to say it out loud.  Anyway.  After I lost my first maybe 10lbs, I bought myself my first belt.  I wasn't ready to trade in my now-too-large pants for a smaller model.  The most logical thing for me to do was get a belt.  The only belt I found that I liked well enough to spring for was a brown leather number from Old Navy - on clearance and in a size that was too big.  So, I had my in-laws bring over a leather punch that they had, and popped three new holes in the belt.  I figured that two of them would be too small for a while, cut off the end that I wasn't going to use, and called it a day.

Some people save a pair of their gynormous pants so they can shimmy into one leg once they've hit their goal. Some people take a million pictures along the way.  Me?  I've got that belt.  And that shirt that I still can't wear.  I decided when I punched the fourth hole in that belt that I would hold onto it and use it as my guide.  As my giant pants leg to shimmy into.  I have visions of me needing to loop it halfway around myself again someday.  I see it tied instead of looped.  I can't wait.

I've punched four more holes in that belt.

Back to the beginning of the post.  I was telling Jill about the belt, and showed her last night.  I love positive reactions, and she gave me one!  It's pretty nice to be reminded every once and a while that you're doing something good.  Thanks Jill!!

Oh, and in case you were wondering - the number of inches between the original hole I used (for the record, it was the SMALLEST of the original three!!) and the one I'm currently using (the smallest of the remaining!) is five and a half inches.  FIVE AND A HALF INCHES!  How dang crazy is that?!

Anything exciting to share, my five or six readers?  :)  How do you keep track of your losses?

Grateful for stuff!

Hiya, kids!

Welcome to the final Grateful post for May.  Side note:  I can't believe it's June tomorrow!  Where the H did this month go?!  I'm fairly certain that it got blown away with all this bloody wind.  I thought it was May, not March, man!

• I'll start with crossing a little something off my bucket list.  That little something being going to Gasthof's!!!!  I've wanted to go there since, you know, I was 21.  I've just never gone.  Thinking about it now, that's friggin' ridiculous.  I decided that I wanted to pitch a tent right then and there and live there.  Some day, I need to live in Bavaria, baby.
• Next, I'll give props to Mr. Sunshine.  Not the junky show starring my favorite Friend, but the warming ball of gas in the sky.  The last couple of weeks have tottered between being junk and being glorious.  Much like today.  It was beautiful for a while there, and now it's total ass out there.  Back to the sunshine.  I love that I've gotten not only my first but my SECOND sunburn of the year this weekend!!!!!  Bring on the melanoma!  (sidenote:  JOKE)  There's just something I adore about that sun kids.  Maybe I'll check out the Vitamin D like my friend Megs did.  Maybe my obsession with the sun and warmth in the warm months, and my moody blues in the colder months have something to do with that?  Who knows.  For now though, I'm going to just going to try to soak up as much of it as I can.  Also, I'll start using sunblock, I promise.  Burns are dumb.
• Gardening!  HELL of a workout.  I'm still a sore mutha from Saturday and Monday's gardening shenanigans.  (sidenote:  TOTALLY worth it!  My babies are all planted!).
• Related:  The crazy stuff you can find at garden stores!  I went to one out here in the boonies, and I found some awesome stuff!  From an 8-foot, $700 metal giraffe to a 6" banana plant to about 20 kinds of tomatoes.  My current favorite thing that I found at said garden store is a CURRY PLANT!!!  I'm so freaking stoked.  I was poking around in the herbs, looking for rosemary (found it!) and grabbed what I thought was rosemary.  NOPE.  It was stinkin' curry!  I love herbs because you just rub those leaves and you can smell it for hours.  I was salivating for Indian for the rest of the day - despite all the dirt and soap from gardening and washing it off.  I could smell that curry all afternoon, and I loved it.
• The Amazon MP3 store.  I love using one of those song "hearing" apps and then finding it on the Amazon store.  It's soooo convenient.  Which my little bank account is saying "PUMP THE BRAKES" to, but meh.  I love music, and I love that I can download it from the application to my phone.  Read also:  all the way to my computer.  Woo!
• My cooky hubby.  That guy just knows what he's doing with food.  Oh, PS - that's "cook-y" as in, he likes to cook.  Not a typo of "kooky."  ha.  He has totally pulled off smoking lately - he's a kick ass dude.  However, all that delicious meat isn't so good for the waistline, you know?  His amazing food is helping me practice portion control like very few things before it has.  :)  Yet another thing about that guy that's pretty cool.

Okie dokie!  That's what I've got for this week.

Oh, also?  I'm .4 lbs away from emerging on the other side of another "10."  WHAT UPPPPPPP!?

Number two:  I CANNOT find a swim suit!!!!  I need something that's not a halter, and isn't a million dollars.  I've tried roughly 15, and I just can't find a single one that I like.  UGH.

Holy. S.

So, I'm not big on giving too many specifics about myself, since this is a totally open blog.  I'm not thrilled about the idea of giving too much away.  You know, things like where I live, names, etc.  I'm not to that point of bloggy openness yet.  :)

Also included in this little list are little personal items like weight, measurements, etc.  Part of it is that I don't like to make myself too transparent (I'm a woman of mystery.  ha!).  Part of it is probably that I just don't want to deal with saying a lot of things out loud in type.

One of those little items is my actual clothing size.  I'm about to break the rules and just put a little more than I want to out there, but I'm just really excited about it.  It sort of feels worth it to say write it.  Without further ado, the reason I'm writing.

It's been a while since I've been able to walk into your average Old Navy and just buy a pair of pants off the rack.  Too small.  By more than just a little.  Ish.  I don't even like saying it.  Writing it, whatever.  I've been able to wear shirts from most "regular" stores, but not pants.  No way.  AND, I suppose I should point out that shirts haven't exactly been "lose" or "well-fitting" either.  But today, not only did I buy a swim suit (that doesn't fit right - my lovely lady lumps do NOT look awesome in that bad boy.  BUMMER) and a cute linen shirt, but I bought a pair of jeans.  They're just a small bit too tight for my comfort, but DANG if I didn't buy 'em.  A regular pair of jeans.  NOT a plus sized pair of jeans.  Off. The. Rack!

This is awesome.  I'm far more pumped about being able to buy a $22 pair of jeans than anyone should ever be, but whatever.  I'm so much more motivated to keep this thing going than I was before.  I mean, this is HUGE!  I'm so much closer to my goal than I really realized, and that's really exciting.  Without even really noticing it, I've lost enough weight to be only a few pants sizes closer to where I want to be.  I just can't wait till I'm able to say that I'm even closer in a few weeks.  By the time sister T gets married next year, I'm going to be thin enough to actually look DECENT in a bridesmaid dress!!

I still haven't gotten around to taking a good follow-up picture of myself to show how things are looking since the pic of me in October in Europe.  I'm working on it.  :)

Just a quick note

On Tuesday, I wore the shirt that I wore to interview at my current job in 2007.  IT WAS BIG.  It was actually a small bit snug on me when I interviewed, so I'm totally over the moon.  I also realized that I've lost roughly 25lbs since December!  Yeah, I know that's not a whole lot in the grand scheme of things, but it's been coming off steadily and hasn't come back.  That's kind of awesome!  I'm not entirely certain what my weight was when I first started all this, but I definitely feel like the "since December" weight is what I've noticed most.  I love it.

Since we're chatting about clothes, I'm going to keep going.  For the first time in...HISTORY, I think! I wore a skirt to work.  Me.  A skirt.  This super cute red and white toile number I got for a whopping $6 at the same place where I got my love-of-my-life jeans.  And I got a ton of complements on it, so even thought it's kind of big (SCORE!!!), it's going to stay.  Since I only paid $6 for the thing, I'm pretty much okay with getting it tailored down the road a bit.

That's about it for now.  Spring planting and cleaning and sprucing has been taking up most of my evenings, so I've been lame about posting once again.  I'm hoping to get an update pic sometime - maybe in the world's greatest jeans?!  :)

Anyone else out there have any success stories??

G-g-g-grateful!

(to the tune of  "Ch-ch-ch-changes" natch)

Here are some things I'm grateful for this week!

• Lynda from my gettin' skinny class.  I'm willing to admit that things were slipping.  I wasn't paying too close attention to making sure everything was tracked and logged.  But, now that I'm back on the wagon of having her check all my logs, I'm back on the wagon.  Oh, and I'm down 5 or 6 pounds already.  WHAT UP?!!!?
• Ice cream makers.  Yeah, I know.  Not exactly on the 'ol "diet" plan, yeah?  True, but seriously.  I'd rather eat my homemade ice cream, full of all the things that I know are in it, than some random chemical/ingredient list.  PLUS, we can make low-fat frozen yogurt and get our fruit on.  Pretty dang excited about it, if I can be honest.  :)
• My cat PePe.  LAME.  I get it.  But he's so stinkin' cute!  He's sleeping up against my leg right now, keeping me warm.  It's nice.  Plus, he makes life more interesting most days.  He's got an obsession with being outside.  He's even all about going outside when there's snow on the ground.  But not when he's been tossed in the bank (we call that "cat tossing").  He's a huge Tom, but he has the voice of a kitten.  Very expressive and vocal fella.  Gotta love him!
• Amazon MP3.  I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I LOVE the App on my 'ol Droid.  They have a Free Song of the day, and it's totally expanding my musical pallet.  I like it.
• Making plans!  I've made summer vacay plans already, and I'm so excited!!!  It involves two of my favorite girls, some sun, and PLENTY of beer.  :)  Lite, of course...ha.
• Chobani yogurt.  I love that stuff.  I wasn't sure how I would feel about Greek yogurt, but it turns out that I LOVE it.  SO much more filling than your average, run-of-the-mill yogurt cup.  That baby and some great grains (see, Lynda!  I listen!!), and I'm in business all morning.  My favorite?  That would be the lemon.  YUM.  Makes me pucker and smile all at once!
• Myfitnesspal.com!!!  I love that site.  Actually, I guess I should say I love the site and the app on my phone.  Since I eat a lot of the same foods, it's really convenient to just click the little button and add it to my little food diary.  It's so perfectly easy to take care of my tracking there.  Remember when I mentioned my new fave website?  Yeah, this is it.  Prepare yourself for a full on post about it later...

I think that I'll cut it off there...after all, I'm old and it's bed time!  :D
Heart you all!!



Psst - I feel as though I should mention that, for all the items that are on here there are no sponsors or perks or whatnot.  It's all just how I feel about the things I mention!