Out with the Old and Into the New... Almost

The actual pile of my clothes...
impressive, huh?

About six months ago, I decided that it was high time I stopped wearing clothes that no longer fit me.  Perusing my closet each day before work, I noticed that I was sorting through dozens of tops and pants that were no longer in daily consideration because they looked like I was wearing my big sister's clothes.  Why was I keeping them?  I never wanted to wear them again based on their sizes, so why were they taking up valuable closet  room?  I read an article about weight loss that said keeping old, too big clothing is a mental thing.  It's a safety net.  It's me not totally trusting  my ability to lose the weight and keep it off.  It's me allowing myself room to fail.  Ain't happening.  So, I decided it was high time that I got rid of the physical embodiment of the old Melanie.

It took about two hours to go through my entire closet.  I tried on every single item of clothing in it.  If it didn't fit me, it was gone.  I stood there, pulling pants and shirts off hangers, trying them on, checking out the mirror in front of me, and then hurling them into a pile on my bedroom floor.  And the pile got bigger and bigger and bigger.  If I had thought about how much I'd spent on all those shirts, skirts, pants, suits, sweaters, dresses, I'd probably have cried.  I tried diligently to sever the emotional ties to things I loved or items that were particularly nice and to remember that I could buy all new, beautiful, smaller things now.  Goodwill was about to hit the plus-sized mother lode.

Flash forward to a few weeks ago. I'd had a fight with my closet that morning and couldn't find a single thing to wear.  I literally stood in front of my still-pretty-well-stocked walk-in closet for several minutes, completely stumped by what to put on my body that day.  I'd try things on, look at myself, and reject them in disgust for some various reason that probably only I could see.  My sweet boyfriend was very patient with me and kindly suggested that we use that afternoon to do a little retail therapy/closet replenishment.  And who I am to argue with that?

I pride myself on my ability to not only look cute (most of the time) and make good fashion choices, but to do so in the most inexpensive way possible.  Call it frugal, call it cheap, I call it being smart, call it whatever you want.  But, I'm a girl who loves a bargain.  So, when we were in Kohl's immediately following my battle royale with my closet, and I spotted two super cute dresses for an amazing price, I couldn't resist.

I had a coupon and both dresses together ended up costing $30, when each was originally marked for $40.  They're exactly the same except the color and will look amazingly good with my pair of knee-high, light brown boots.  And maybe some leggings.  Or even a scarf.  And colorful earrings.  And bangle bracelets. I digress.  When I spotted them, I grabbed the size that I thought I could wear, eye-balled the very crowded fitting room and decided that I wanted nothing to do with it.  We were in a bit of a rush, meeting a friend and her husband for lunch, so I scooted up to the cashier, checked out, and we headed to the car.  Later that afternoon, I was giddy to try them on and show them off.

Cute, right?

Much to my dismay and slight surprise based on the size, they didn't fit.  I mean, they fit on my body.  I could button them.  If I inhaled and held my breath the entire time I was wearing them.  And sucked in every body part possible.  And didn't move my arms so that the buttons didn't pop open.  So, you know, they get on my body.  I was bummed, but saw an opportunity.

I decided that these two dresses would become Goal Dresses.  I'm probably 5-10 pounds away from looking freaking awesome in both of them.  So, I'm setting a public goal here and now.  A good weight loss goal is based on about two pounds a week.  If I start now, I should be able to fit comfortably into both of them by Thanksgiving.  So, hear ye, hear ye.  I will wear one of these dresses with my cute boots (and maybe some leggings, and definitely some trendy jewelry) on Thanksgiving Day.  And post the picture on this blog.

Goal #1:  Wear one of my Goal Dresses on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 22.
Total Weight Loss Necessary to Meet Goal:  10 pounds
Days to Complete:  28
Weight Loss Per Day: 0.3 pounds

Total doable.  Watch me.