The weather is perfect today, here in the Florida panhandle! I was enjoying my morning walk so much I went for an extra 10 minutes! Woohooo! I'm gonna make that the new amount of time I walk for the rest of the week.

After I got home I was feeling great and thought to try rummaging around my closet for some old clothes. I found my favorite pair of jeans, which I always thought slimmed me since they're a dark wash. I looked at the tag for kicks. Double-take. 26W?! I was convinced I remembered wearing a 24W at my highest weight. I put the pants on and had to hold the waist to keep them up.

I felt like one of those people in the success stories! Me, one of them? I can't believe it! I feel so wonderful and although I still have a significant amount of weight to lose still, I'm so proud of how far I've come.

I wore those 26W pants to Thanksgiving dinner in 2010 and now I can comfortably fit into 20W pants. I still can't believe it! Pinch me please!

Thanks so much to everyone who posts such encouraging words on this site. Ya'll keep me going! I can't wait to post my REAL success story so stay tuned!!

You feel like a success story because you are a success story! This is very exciting. You don't have to get to goal to reap the benefits of losing weight. Congratulations and Way To Go!

"It's a beautiful day here in the panhandle" (she says with a mocking tone). I just drove home from NC through the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia through (no lie) fog, downpours, heavy wind, sleet, snow and ice!! Through the mountains!

Congratulations on your success! You are a success! Hang onto the pants for later, you'll be glad you did. I threw out all my large clothes, but I hung onto just a couple of my very largest sizes, pants I remembered wearing quite well. Isn't it weird to put them on and just imagine yourself as you used to be, filling them in? Very surreal.

Enjoy your weather!! It's gonna get hot soon enough.

Good for you...what an awesome accomplishment!!

Thanks so much!! Getting all of this to sink in mentally is probably gonna take a while.

Haha! I didn't mean to brag about the weather. Just enjoying our very, very short span of spring before the heat sets in. I've been trying to wake up and get out walking earlier and earlier each week in preparation for summer. I can't afford a treadmill or gym membership so if I want to keep walking during summer I'm gonna have to get out there super early!

what "REAL" success????? 69 lbs is HUGE! 26 to 20 pants is HUGE!!! i'd hold a flipping parade!!!! wooohooooooo

Major congrats on your accomplishments! Definitely keep those pants for the pictures of you in them once you get to goal.

Also, I am even more jealous than most about your weather since Panama City is home and yet I am stuck in Arkansas and it was chilly and windy and slightly dampish here today.