Monday, May 4, 2009

Back in Black

On Saturday, surprised to find myself alone in the car while running errands, I decided to stop at the mall and find myself a black shirt. See, me and Leslie Sansone have been power walking and firming for a while now. She marches away, spouting all kinds of wonderfully optimistic and upbeat praise for the fact that I've made the first good decision of the day by getting in a workout, and I smile and nod as the sweat pours off me. After 30 minutes of power walking and 30 minutes of firming and toning, I turn off the DVD feeling righteous and uplifted.

It helps that I've lost a lot of inches. Within the first couple weeks my clothes started getting looser. Now I can't even wear one of my skirts to church because it slides right off of me. Even my favorite jeans can be pulled off with a firm tug. It's enough to make a girl giddy, except for the fact that I'm not losing the lbs. I tell myself that it took a lot of years to put on the baby weight, it will take a while to get it off.

Meanwhile, I've got a waist again. Since my only usable church skirt is not a solid, neutral black, I needed something to wear with it that didn't also sit like a tent on me. And so I found myself walking briskly into J.C. Penney and perusing their offering of black blouses. I found one that looked likely and went to the dressing room, knowing in my heart of hearts that it just wouldn't fit, that I would look in the mirror and shudder in horror. But, surprise of surprises, not only did it fit over my trouble spots but I looked SKINNY! I was so sure that I was looking into a trick mirror designed to make you look skinnier (and I seriously wouldn't put it past them. Think of the increased sales!) that I kept dodging around and trying to find the spot that showed the real frumpy me. Finally, I just accepted it, walked out and bought the blouse (which happened to be be 50% off. I mean, how much good luck can a girl have in one day??). With a bounce in my step, I went back to my car and finished my errands.

The question burning in your minds is this: so was it a trick mirror? When you got home, did you try on the blouse and realize that whatever vision of thin you saw in the mirror at the store was not, in fact, representational of the real you? The answer is: no. Whoo-hoo!

I'm no supermodel. Okay, I never was; but I'm happy to see that exercising is not actually a meaningless torture. I feel good and it sure is nice to drop a size or two. Now if I could just stick to eating healthful foods in reasonable quantities... My downfall is portion control. Sigh. I'm getting there.

I just had to share that moment of triumph.

4 comments:

Lyn Milne said...

I'm proud of you and envious both!

Shanna said...

Woooo Hoooooo!!! You rock!!!! So proud of you! We need a girl's night to play. LOL!

motherof8 said...

Hooray for you!

MKShelley said...

Congrats!!! That's a huge success! Pounds mean nothing... they really really don't. It's ALL about the inches. Trust me there, because I just gained back like 20 of the 35 pounds I lost, but my body is bigger inch wise than it was before the weight. I would rather be 15 pounds heavier and look the way I did before than I do now. Ugh.

P.S. I need your address so I can send you the book. You're going to hate it. I'm so excited! Be prepared for Aruna though, and KNOW this is NOT a book for children, or teenagers, or good citizens. ENJOY! To be honest, I couldn't put it down... and yes.. i do actually still hate it. It's strange, I know.