Look back on 2007
At the beginning of 2007, I weighed 190+ pounds, and most of my clothes were sized to fit a 165-pound self. Even my super-stretchy pants that fit me at 36 weeks pregnant were too tight to be worn in public, and supposed-to-be-baggy sweaters made me look sausage-like. My mom got me a bunch of work clothes, so I'd look halfway decent, and the size that fit best was an 18.
Mid-May, I weighed 197, and had no shorts that would fit over my thighs as we went into summer.
My goal at that point was to lose 52 pounds in 52 weeks, and be at normal BMI by the end of May 2008. My super-secret stretch goal was to lose 50 of those pounds by the end of December 2007, because I've never lost much weight between February and April, and to maintain that loss until May. Then somewhere along the line, when I knew I had a good chance of making the 50-by-December goal, I revised to 70 pounds by May.
So now the end of December is upon us. And I'm down 50 pounds by trendline (which lags the scale quite a bit, but it lags by enough that it always goes down or maintains, rather than going up and down, which is why I pay attention to it), and nearly 55 by the scale.
In my closet, I have one pair of khakis (size 12) and a pair of plaid-ish dress pants (also a 12) that fit and are appropriate seeing-clients clothes. Maybe 4 more pair of work pants (2 12s and 2 16s) that wouldn't fall off of me, but are enough too big that they look it. Three pair of jeans (2 12s and a 15) that fit well, plus a pair of Taiwanese jeans sized LL (maybe the equivalent of an XL? The English on their labels is really inscrutable.) that are wearable but manage to be unattractively tight in weird places. Maybe some skirts in the closet at work. Sweaters disguise a multitude of ill-fitting tops, and I like big tops, so I didn't sort that stuff.
Also in the closet, an assortment of cold-weather dress clothes that won't fit for at least another 10-15 pounds (so about the time it gets too warm to wear them). No smaller jeans - I gave up on anything smaller than a 12 long ago.
I've got 15-20 pounds more to go, so there will be no intermediate-weight clothes buying except in the case of dire need. My giant spreadsheet says it'll take me until mid-April to lose those pounds, assuming I stick with my current methods rather than opting to maintain. (The giant spreadsheet starts on November 1st, and so far I'm about 1 pound lighter than it thinks I ought to be.)
I've fallen out of the excercise habit, somewhat due to the house being cold and damp, the outside being cold and damp and dark, and this nasty sinusy thing I picked up from my plague-ridden sister. Must fall back into it once I recover.
Have not fallen out of the good diet habit. Lots of protein, lots of veggies, a decent amount of fiber, not too many refined white carbs.
My mom has hereditary low cholesterol (she can eat anything and not exercise and her cholesterol doesn't change). My dad has hereditary high cholesterol (also unchanged by diet and exercise - but he had some sort of special scan done, and his arteries are squeaky clean, despite the cholesterol). Every time I've had my cholesterol checked, it's come up high, but there's always been an excuse for it - I was pregnant, I was nursing, it wasn't a fasting level, they squeezed my finger to get the blood drop... My diet is as good as its ever been, not pregnant, not nursing, so I'm going to go to the new walk-in clinic and get my cholesterol and blood sugar levels tested. (Hey, only $39 and no office visit charge - I'd pay at least that much to the lab, and more to the doctor who ordered the paperwork, going to a traditional doctor.)
So all in all, a good year.
Good for you!
