OMG Rachel!!! Look at you, am I reading that right? 141 lbs? Wow, when did that happen? You're about a minute away from hitting your goal. That's just absolutely, positively, incredibly marvelous.

Anyway, I LOVE the dress. And in a size small to boot. Time for some updated pics.

Thanks Robin! Yup, I am officially one pound away from the goal I set for myself last year, and 134 pounds ago. I haven't been focusing too much on losing weight in the last 6 weeks or so because I've been training for a marathon (which is coming up in 2 weeks), so my appetite has been up and I felt that fueling the extra miles was more important than losing weight at this point. But the scale gods have still smiled on me - I keep edging down.

You're probably right that new pictures are in order...I'll have to get one taken in this spunky new dress when it arrives - maybe I'll post it with a photo from the marathon, so stay tuned!

Carolyn -- Indeed, they are, though they're not the reason I bought the skirt. I'm not especially goth in itself, I just go with what strikes my fancy (and yes, I like black, fat or not ;)).

I was a HUGE fan of "fall fashions" back when I lived up in DC. But there really isn't much "fall" in Florida and it's too hot right now to wear the typical "fall" apparel. Fall styles are really cute, though and pretty classy - blazers, cords, light sweaters, vests, and overshirts are all lovely.

I went shopping a little over a week ago and bought these jeans. No, that isn't me wearing them :lol: I just ganked it from the Nordstrom site. Knowing my camera whore ways, I probably WILL eventually take pics, though! ;)

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I'm okay with brown and gray. Olive green and brown can look good together, as do gray and black.

HOWEVER, as a general rule, my fall colors are like my winter and my spring colors, which are also my summer colors:
BLACK, BLACK, AND MORE BLACK! :D I've been a fan of black for years, even before I ever got fat. It's just a sexy color. I also like pink, but it must be accessorized with black.

Oh. I'm not a "goth" chick - just a "rock" chick. I'm not allergic to the sun, nor am I "dark" enough to pull goth off properly - I smile too much ;).

Kery, that skirt is adorable, and so are you!

Rachel - LOVE that dress. Hope it fits.

Oh how I love Ann Taylor and Ann Taylor Loft! I instantly become smaller just by walking through their doors :rofl:

Bought several pairs of pants (buy 1 get one half off), some tops on sale, and used my $25 coupons from the summer :)

Now my problem is shoes...back in my fat days, I could always buy shoes. It was the only thing I could buy without tears in a dressing room. Now I can't find shoes and who knew I'd lose a shoes size? ( And 10 year old shoes look pretty dated anyway :dizzy:)

Mel

They really are the worst. They're the only store where *I* magically turn into a size 4. It's silly.

I can't believe you lost a shoe size Mel! That's incredible. May I ask what your high weight was?

I'm planning a trip to TJ Maxx and Burlington Coat Factory this weekend (2 hour round trip). I need a winter coat and some winter-worthy workout clothes. I imagine I might find some other things as well. I love shopping. It's probably a good thing they keep all the stores so far away from me. :)

Thanks. ;)

And I second the black thing. I don't know why, it's just a color that appeals to me. I would wear it at my highest, at mt lowest-in-between--I didn't care. I'm naturally fair-skinned but not too much, with clear eyes, and it tends to enhance those attributes in a nice way, I think.

(I must admit it also makes lots of things convenient for me, since I don't own a washing-machine and have to go to the lavomatic nearby: at least I don't need to wash four different batch of different colors each time. :lol:)

Kristy, how was your shopping trip to TJ Maxx (my current favorite store) and Burlington Coat Factory?

Kerry, black is the only color I don't wear! Or at least I have very, very little of it in my closet. I just don't think it goes with my very dark brown hair.

I decided not to go last weekend. We have a 4 day weekend this weekend, so I thought it made more sense to go on Monday instead. This way bf gets to come with me and do some shopping also. I shall report on my purchases when I return. :) I have looooooooooongggg list though.

I was always into clothing when I was heavy, and in fact I dressed so well (nipped in blazers, flared fitted jeans, low cut tops) that I think many people didn't realise just *how* big I really was.
But now, man, I'm a clothes FANATIC. I'm even getting into high fashion - can't afford it of course, but I enjoy looking at the images which I never did before because it was just too upsetting!

I dress in mostly vintage fashion, and let me tell you it is unbelievable to go into the vintage stores I used to only be able to buy scarves in and find that at least half the stuff is too BIG for me! And you know those vintage clothes are cut small too! My biggest problems now: 1) clothes storage! my house is tiny and I have about 6x the amount of clothing I had before, sometimes it can be hard to put together an outfit cause I don't know where everything is and it's about 80% black which doesn't help! 2) stopping myself buying things. When you're big, and you find something that flatters you and looks good you have to buy it immediately because it's so rare. Well, these days, it seems nearly everything flatters me and my budget can't afford that! So I'm having to limit myself to essential items, truly exception items, items missing from my wardrobe, or something for a specific occasion.

I take my fashion very seriously, I relate it as being a direct expression of my mind, beliefs, ideas and what I stand for and am interested in. I dress in a lot of black and mostly monochromatically (I'm very into stripes), and have recently incorporated a Victorian/antique-meets-punk attitude to my fashion. A lot of people think I am a 'goth' but I don't adhere to those generalisations - and do not like vampires, have no interest in corpses, etc etc. I do quite like spiders and crows though, lol.

It has been so exciting for me to transform in this way, I've had many people tell me I am the best-dressed woman they know, which really means a lot. I get noticed a lot for my fashion, which I couldn't do if it weren't for my body. If you have an eye for it and the passion I highly recommend thrift shops and vintage stores for in-between-size shopping, as you can get things for not too much which won't fit you in a while. Also, I was really glad I shopped at thrift shops when I noticed how many mistakes I made - things I purchased cause I was so excited to fit into them that really weren't my colours or didn't flatter my figure on account of being too long waisted, etc. I made some mistakes of things I never wore that no longer fit me but thankfully they were all under $20, so I consider it a small price to pay for the joy of being slimmer!

Also, my mom lost a bunch of weight with me, and she totally does that thing you were talking about with the Talbots coats - she still doesn't have reality on how small she is (a size 4 hips and smaller on top and 5'1, so she's mostly wearing children's clothing for tops now!). She will often bring clothing to me to see what I think as a possible garment for her and it'll be far too large for ME. I guess it just takes adjusting!

Also, about the shoes - I lost 2.5 shoe sizes! I was a 9.5 when I was a size 22 (maybe 245lbs or so?) and now I'm a size 8 hips and my shoes a size 7, sometimes even 6.5. The shoe size thing is because my feet were always small/short but they were puffy cause of the fat so needed bigger shoes I guess. I grew into being overweight from my childhood so I never had a clue that wasn't my proper shoe size, it was quite a shock! I got rid of all my old shoes (which was ok cause they were mostly pretty comfortable looking, I couldn't carry all that weight around on heels ya know?) but I have bought a few pairs of irresistable size 8 boots which I wear with two pairs of socks. Ah boots, my life is complete!

I had an incredible shopping experience last weekend. In Maryland, we don't have Dillards but I was out of town and my hotel was next to a mall. I was ecstatic to see that the mall had a Dillards in it. They have some awesome sales. So I walked into the store and they were having a 30% off clearance item sale. A lot of the clothes were fall styles as well.

I bought about 20 items for $200. I bought 5 pairs of dress pants. One of the dress pants doesn't quite fit and will need to be hemmed but they felt so comfy and they were cheap ($8) that I figured it was worth it to get them hemmed. I bought other casual pants including my new goal pants, a pair of size 14 DKNY pants (for $9). I bought a few shirts for work as well as some casual shirts. I "splurged" on a Calvin Klein crochet top that was my most expensive item at $15. It is really cute though so I couldn't resist.

I will admit that most of the items I bought, I bought stuff that was a bit snug because I don't plan to stay at my current weight for too long. So I am hoping that the stuff I bought that fits well now will be too loose for me and the stuff I bought that is too snug will fit perfectly soon.

Hi nelie! Isn't Dillards the same as Macy's? Everything is on sale there now, too.

Welcome SugarSpunSister!

I have to stop shopping- except for shoes and maybe sweaters. My closet is stuffed.

Baffled- Pre-kids, I wore a size 6-6.5 shoe. My feet gained a half size with each kid. Post kids and at my highest weight which was somewhere around 185, I was wearing 8's. 65 pounds less (ok, I'm up two pounds so it's really 63), I'm wearing size seven shoes in virtually every brand. At least size creep doesn't seem to have affected shoes!

Mel

I need to slow down with the shopping as well. It's definitely becoming an "issue" for me. I keep justifying it by telling myself I have lots of catching up to do, but nevertheless, it just may be getting a tad out of hand.

There was so little for me to buy when I was 287 lbs, that now it's almost like I'm hoarding, for fear that there won't be anything further when I need it down the road. Especially with the shoes. My foot was so wide back then, it was next to impossible for me to find shoes that fit me and now that I can, I just keep on buying them ..... and buying them ..... and buying them. Oh yeah, and buying them some more. I don't even want to think about my credit cards bills. :fr::fr::fr:

Hi everyone! I got a little shopping while on vacation. A brown blazer at TJMaxx ... you could get worn out in that store! Whew for stacks of stuff! My current favourite is Academy Sports. They had racks of stuff for 2.88. I got four pairs of shorts.
In Old Navy I got a pair of brown tweedy knee pants. I have to fiddle with the length but rolled up to just at my knee is pretty good. I kinda like them.