Day 31: Little Victories

I had two happy moments today, that suddenly made this whole diet and exercise thing seem worthwhile. No, I didn't have a "1" as the first digit of my weight yet. When that happens, y'all will probably hear the whoops and shouts from all the way up in Canada to all the way across the country in California and Oregon. And my friend Nanni in Puerto Rico, if you listen closely you will probably hear it too.

No, today was two smaller victories. It's hard when you're trying to lose weight to see it actually coming off. I mean you can see it in the numbers on the scale and the measuring tape. But because the changes happen so slowly it's hard to see them when you look in the mirror every day. I keep hoping that one day I'm going to wake up and look in the mirror and see a thin person there. Sometimes I wonder if I will even be able to see myself as a thin person. You get so used to thinking of yourself one way and it's hard to change the perception. And this is a lifetime of perception to change here.

Anyway, on to my happy moments. The first happened at work. I was standing by my boss's desk talking to him about some things and he remarked that you could tell that I've lost weight, he could see the changes. Awwwww... Now I've worked for this man for 17 years. He's seen my weight go from about 180 to 250 and now as it is slowly going down again. Of course his wife has him really well trained. He notices when I color or cut my hair or when I'm wearing a dress (which doesn't happen often) and will remark on it. but it was nice of him to notice the small changes that are happening too.

My second happy moment made me dance around the apartment (which I'm counting as exercise!). Before the Blogger's Cruise back in February, I bought two strapless dresses that had very structured tops (read: boning). One was purple and one was blue. They were on sale so the prices were really good. I figured I could bring them on the cruise for the formal nights. There was one small problem. I couldn't zip them up all the way. I could zip them until just above my waist but no further. This was really frustrating since they were my size. But I guess since they didn't have any "give", they just weren't going to go. Instead of returning them, I put them in my closet until the day when I could get the zippers all the way up. Well, that day did not come when I needed a dress from my friend's wedding in March. That day was today!

I'm starting to think about what I'm going to pack for my cruise and even though I haven't lost as much weight as I thought I might need to get the dresses on, just for sh*ts and giggles, I pulled the purple dress out of the closet. I asked Scott to try and zip me up and suddenly a choir of angels singing the "Hallelujah" chorus appeared in my bedroom. (Now I have a pretty big bedroom, but when you get the whole heavenly host in there too, it gets a little crowded and I'm a bit claustrophobic, so it wasn't the pleasant experience one might expect.) The zipper reached the top! It was snug but not overly tight. I could breathe. I could sit. Excited, I pulled the blue satin one out. Bingo! Same deal! Hooray!

It's these little moments that make it all seem worthwhile. It certainly made it much easier to motivate to pull on my exercise clothes, knee braces and sneakers and go walking tonight!

Tomorrow is my last day of work for the week. I haven't decide yet whether I'm going to take my laptop on the cruise. If I do, I will try and blog. But no promises. So if you don't see any updates from Thursday night on, don't abandon me completely! I'll be back on Monday!