I am just so happy! I don't feel lousy and tired and icky and sluggish anymore. That's a NSV, right??

One of the best ones I think

Yesterday, for the first time, I felt normal. My BMI is still in the obese range, but I looked in the mirror and didn't see a fat girl. It was so nice.

And, I wore a button up shirt completely buttoned for the first time in a long time. That was also nice.

1. I had to up my handweights from 3 to 5 pounds.
2. We're 1/3 through October and I have so far avoided Halloween candy. (very scared of the beginning of November when it all goes on clearance though)

I went thru my closet today an got rid of all my clothes that I haven't worn in awhile and the one's I never want to see again....getting ready for the new me!

I haven't had an nsv in a while and this one took a few days to sink in that it was a victory.

I was in Tractor Supply the other day and passed the display of thermal underthings they have out for winter. I like to wear thermals under my dress during the winter and all the ones I had from the last years were so big I donated them. So I pick a pair up and decide if I want to spend $6.99 right then. My first thought is that I better buy them they casue I might not find "my" size if I wait too long. Then it hits me- "my size" is plain old XL not XXXL like it used to be. This is just a regular size and I won't have any trouble finding them and I actually have time to see if they are cheaper at Walmart. Well, last night I go to Walmart and sure enough they are only $5 there- so I rather excited like place them in my cart. Made me feel really good to buy something normal!

Yesterday I ran in a four mile long race - not bad for someone who's obese

I resisted eating any of the massive slab of chocolate mud cake delivered to our office today. It was hard, but I didn't give in!

I went out for birthday dinner with my son at a burger joint he picked, and I had chicken fajitas with no tortillas and only ate part of it. The whole plate was only 570 calories! I feel so proud I did not go nuts and order a burger!

I completed a strenuous 4.5 hour hike yesterday in which two occasions I had to climb over large fallen trees carrying a 45lb dog (she has very short legs) and a dozen other occasions where I had to lift her up or down spots that where really high. As tired as my legs were last night, I was still able to turn out a 3 mile run this morning.

Edit to add, while it may be more of a scale victory, I am only 4lbs away from being overweight!!!

This morning I decided to go upstairs and try on one pair of the really small size 16 jeans I bought in 2003...I now only have 2 old pairs of jeans I still can't fit into. (As an aside, I bought a pair of size 14 misses Gloria Vanderbilt jeans about a month ago and held them up to these...they are the exact same size.)

I tried them on about 2-3 weeks ago and I could barely pull them all the way up but they were no-where close to meeting.

Well! All this weight that's decided to melt off the last 2 weeks on my scale seems to have done something!

I was able to pull them up pretty easily. Then! I was able to ZIP them!

Now, they look like crap. There's no way I could go out in public wearing them. But! I can get them on! And they ZIP!

I think they will be ready for public consumption sometime in the next month!

Then I will only have the one other pair of 16 jeans, which are even smaller, left to fit into. They are Tommy Hilfiger, a very very light blue, almost white. Extremely glamorous. They used to magically make my legs look very long and my butt look extremely small, via some kind of Hilfiger magic.

When I started this journey last year I was very unsure as to whether I would EVER be able to wear these jeans again. They had lived in my basement since 2003. I used to look at them and not quite believe I'd ever been able to get my massive self into them. They were literally the width of one of my legs.

And they are going to FIT before the end of the year. Heck, they might even be baggy.

Things like this make it all worthwhile.

And another one, from yesterday. Some of you may have read my thread about the party I went to thrown by my dumb friend who was mad I wouldn't eat/drink with her (she's a size 0 btw).

Well, her friend took a lot of pictures at the party, posted them all to Facebook, and tagged them. (Which is a huge social gaffe, never tag people without their permission!) Surprisingly enough, I didn't have to untag myself out of any of them. Even the 'bad' ones were OK, and the good ones were pretty amazing.

I sent the best one to a friend of mine who used to be a size 24-26 and is now a size 4-6. She immediately wrote back and said 'OMG, if I didn't know what size you are I would have thought you were a 12!' She doesn't really give people compliments, so this was kind of a big deal.

I haven't posted in awhile...mainly because I slipped, gained 10 pounds in 2 months and felt like a total failure at the the weight loss game. But, I had an NSV yesterday (first time in a loooong time) and I wanted to share! I have been lurking though and I'm so inspired by everyone's success and perseverance. I want to get back in the fun!

We went out to dinner for my brother's birthday and I actually enjoyed myself at the restaurant. I didn't neurotically plan beforehand (which, for me, equals limiting myself to something I don't want while there and inevitably binging afterward) and I made smart choices and did not binge when I got home! I did eat some of the appetizer and bread, but only about half of my entree (stopped because I was full..what a concept!). I had eaten lightly all day, picked something that looked relatively healthy (pasta in a tomato sauce with grilled chicken and veggies) and didn't eat past the point of feeling stuffed. Which I usually do when I go out to eat. I'm trying to shift over to maintenance and I think that means enjoying the rare dinner out without being a neurotic mess (not to say that people who carefully plan dinners out are neurotic! that only applies to me!). I didn't go to bed feeling like a stuffed sausage from too much food and I woke up this morning feeling quite proud of myself!

I bought a pair of sixze 12 lululemon pants today! I have NEVER fit anything in that store since it moved to my city! Yeehah!!

The only pair of shorts I own became too tight last year around this time. Yesterday, I put them on and they fit, no struggle to zip or tightness around my thighs!