Jeans "off-the-rack" Woohoo!
 

Hubby and I went gallavanting today, on a just-for-the-heck-of-it driving and shopping trip. On the way home, we stopped at a Fashion Bug store. I thought I might be able to get a few tank tops for summer, and possibly some knit capris or bermuda shorts. I really didn't expect to find bottoms that fit, and definitely didn't expect to fit into jeans. I was so excited to find a pair of jeans that not only fit, but looked great. For first time I looked in a full length mirror and could see the weight loss.

It was really exciting that everything I tried on fit, and most of it looked nice. It was really hard to narrow down my choices to what I could afford. It's really going to be nice to be able to buy in stores and not have to order online and hope for the best.

I ended up with a navy pair of knit capris, the jeans, and three tank tops. Very exciting.

That's awesome:D Congratulations.

:congrat: That is fantastic. I bet you feel like a million bucks :)

Well done!!!

It really gives you a buzz when you can go into a store and buy something nice that fits now and does need to be altered. Great stuff.

:hug:

Right on! Keep up the good work, I know you work really hard!:carrot:

Hooray! That's wonderful!! :cheer:

Awesome!!! I am so happy for you!!! :dance:

i know the feeling! according to my doctor's scale, i lost 42 pounds in the past year. according to my own, it's 44. i'm now wearing regular misses clothes for the first time in years.

Congratulations! :bravo:

Your dedication and hard work are paying off. I'm happy for you.

Awesome job! You have come so far and are an inspiration to me and countless others.

Although...was it just me, or did anyone else look at the title and wonder "who's Jean? And why is Kaplods writing about her?"

I blame night duty brain, sorry!

congrats kaplods! wishing you more success, you deserve it.

GOOD FOR YOU!!! OMG I got sniffly reading this. What a wonderful wonderful thing. I am so happy for you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is a really big deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

being a smaller size is always great!

Yay! Congrats!! I love Fashion Bug!

I'm a bit surprised at just how excited this has made me. It couldn't come at a better time, because I was starting to get discouraged because the jeans I have are falling off me, but when I ordered two pairs of jeans in the size smaller from the Roaman's/Woman Within catalogs, they seemed like maybe two or three sizes smaller and fit too tight. It was a different style of jean, and there's always a bit of a gamble when ordering online. I bought them on a really good sale, so I couldn't return them. Although tonight I tried them on, and I was able to zip them (which is really weird, because I haven't lost any weight since I tried them on the first time, so some of the weight must have redistributed). I'll probably try to sell them along with my other too-big jeans at our local resale shop. From past sales, I'm pretty sure that I can get at least another new pair of jeans from the sales.

I have two pairs of jeans that I'm considering trying to alter myself, or see what it would cost to have professionally altered. I'm skilled enough to take in most blouses, but when it comes to taking in pants, it's about a 50/50 gamble. I tried to take in my favorite pair of jeans a month or so ago, and I botched the job badly enough that I had to throw them out - and those jeans didn't have pockets).

I have to say it came at the best possible time. I was a little overly optimistic about the extent of my recovery from the pneumonia. I told my doctor at my last visit that I felt like I was nearly back to my normal, and he warned me that there was still a fair amount of recuperating that I would have to do. I didn't realize how much strength and stamina I lost until I started being more active, and found how easily I ran out of breath and strength. After a 30 - 40 minute grocery trip to Walmart, I was exhausted and worse the next day my hamstring muscles were outrageously sore. Sore from a grocery store run? Yikes.

It felt so much like a giant setback that I was getting really bummed, thinking about how much work it was going to take just to get back to where I was last fall, strenght-wise. Even today trying on clothes, I did try on a lot of them relatively quickly, but just getting in and out of the clothes was turning into an aerobic activity - by the time I was done, my face was red, hot and sweaty and I was severely out of breath, like I'd been running. Still, having some nice clothes to take home, was a great way to cross the finish line.

I was really tempted to buy a swimming suit too, because they had some gorgeous suits, but I don't really need one. I have a perfectly serviceable (if a bit butt-ugly) black and white two piece. However, by the time the suits are on sale for the season, maybe I can get down another size.

I have decided to start wearing my pedometer again (I got out of the habit this winter when I got sick). I guess I've been avoiding it because I haven't wanted to see just how much endurance I've lost. I always get so discouraged with any sort of backtracking.