Happy Birthday DC Hound! Hope you had a really great day.

Happy Birthday DC! I'm so proud of you...and I hope you are very proud of yourself! You've made amazing changes and are starting your 40s off on a great foot! I hope you had a fantastic day!!!
:celebrate::celebrate::celebrate::celebrate:

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear DCHound
Happy Birthday to you.

Your post gave me goosebumps. I'm just so incredibly overjoyed for you.

Oh and how wonderful it must feel to have spurred your sister into taking action. You are truly an inspiration to so many, but to see it in your very own sister. Wow. Just wow.

Your forties are going to be fab-u-lous!!!!!!!! Forty and fantastic. Forty and phenomenal. Forty and feeling fine. :D

:woo::balloons::balloons::woo:

Thank you everyone, y'all are so wonderful.

I am also very happy to report I met my goal today ~ which had been to fit into a size 16W by June 1st. Well, I headed over to Catherine's and Lane Bryant today and tried on a pair of size 16 jeans. THEY FIT!! They are a bit snug to be wearing in public but I could get away with it if I had to. So of course I bought them (and a couple shirts besides!). I was a size 32 eight months ago.

Thanks everyone!! It's been the best birthday EVER.

Forget the goosebumps. Now, I'm literally tearing up.

I wonder how many people (outside of 3FC) realize just what a HUGE thing this is. And what a GREAT, FANTASTIC, indescribable feeling it is - to go from a size 32 - to a size 16. I'm fairly certain, most people can not relate. I only have 1 acquaintance in my *real world* who has shed just about the same amount of weight as myself. If it weren't for this place, I really feel like no one else *understands*.

:carrot: Way to go DCHound. Happy, HAPPY birthday indeed! :carrot:

Happy Belated Birthday, DC! And, Congratulations on the size 16's! :carrot:

Happy belated Birthday and Congrats on all of your success!!

Congratulations!!! Happy belated birthday, and what a great present you've given yourself!!

Dammit Robin! :D You went and made me sniffle at work. :hug:

Heck, I'm not sure I can relate ~ and I've done it before! Well, 28 to a 16 in 1999-2000.

In a way it's not so much the size/number difference. In August 2008, when I started this journey:

- I was too fat to shop at Lane Bryant. The ONLY places I could buy clothes that sort of fit were Catherine's, Big Dog, and Modell's Sporting Goods (the men's big and tall section). 5X.

- I hadn't worn a pair of blue jeans since August 2004, when I busted my last pair of 28s. I never bought any in a 30 or 32 since I knew they would just look horrible and be uncomfortable.

- I hadn't put on a pair of dress shoes since January 2005 (and that last time about killed me, I couldn't walk the next day). All I EVER wore was tennis shoes or slippers. I wore ugly tennis shoes to work EVERY DAY in 2007 and half of 2008. Ugly polyester dress pants and tennis shoes. :(

- They had to special order a shirt for me when we had our office bowling party because the regular tshirt place only went to 3X. They got me a 5X and it was so tight I had to wear a sweatshirt over it. Our office manager was really annoyed since she had gone to the trouble and expense of getting me one. But it was obscenely tight. And I felt horrible. (Last night I wore it for a nightshirt and it HUNG TO MY KNEES and FLAPPED IN THE BREEZE.)

- Right after I began this journey I started organizing my old, small clothes to use as motivation and I found the last set of really nice lingerie I'd bought before I gained all this weight. I looked at how small it was (38DD, 7) and really couldn't believe I'd ever been able to fit into it and looked good. It was like a dream ~ a blur. Now, I look at my one pair of size 32 khakis and wonder how I ever fit into THEM! Again, it's like a blur!

- Last night when I was buying those 16s I tried on six Lane Bryant 14/16 blouses. I bought three of them. I didn't buy the other three because THEY WERE TOO BAGGY. They were too big!! They made me look larger than I am!! They were only about $8 each, but I opted not to spend the additional $16 because I want to look GOOD! Any other time, I would have bought them just because I could get them on my body and they were inexpensive. Now I realize, I deserve to look GREAT and that means buying clothes that FLATTER. If it doesn't look GREAT I don't buy it now!

Y'all have NO IDEA how much I wish I'd KNOWN THIS STUFF EARLIER. Maybe it would have motivated me to start earlier. Maybe I wouldn't have spent the last five years super morbidly obese.

And; I'm one pound away from being "obese" now. :)

Happy Birthday to you! I loved reading those, DC. It is a HUGE thing. Or rather, a small thing!

happy belated birthday DCHound!! so proud of you!!!!!!!! you truly are an inspiration to so many!