Shopping Spree

My in-laws were in town last evening and I finally took my MIL up on her offer to take me shopping. Even before I started losing weight, she wanted to take me shopping. Given that she's like a size 8 or 10 and I was a 20, I always turned her down with the excuse "I'm not all that into shopping" because I was embarassed to try stuff on in front of her AND for her to know what size I was.

Once I started losing, she began to ask again. This time around I would tell her "when I get to goal we can go" partly because I was still self-conscious, but also because I didn't want to get all these great clothes that would (hopefully) be too big a month or so down the road since I was still loosing. I had some pants and capris to transition into as I got smaller, thanks to a coworker, and I bought some inexpensive shirts along the way.

With the cooler temps this week and a freezing office, however, I found myself in need of pants that actually fit. The ones I had been wearing were about a size too big and were hanging on me. It's been too cool to wear the capris that actually fit well. Plus, after clearing out my closet of sweaters and tops that were too big, I discovered I didn't have many left that were suitable for fall, let alone winter. So I told my husband that I was ready to cash in on that shopping trip, even though I'm still 10 pounds from goal.

His parents were on their way through town last night so we hit the mall and went shopping at Penney's and Dillards. All in all, I ended up with 2 pairs of pants, 3 tops, 2 sweaters, and a jacket (not a coat jacket...a 'fashion' jacket, if you will). I can wear two of the tops by themselves, or under the sweater or under the jacket. Each of the tops goes well with both pair of pants, too. So I can get quite a few looks out of everything, which is nice. I'm going to buy a few more pairs of pants, hopefully this weekend, since I need more than two. She probably would've bought more, but I was feeling greedy as it was. ; ) I also need a winter coat since mine from last year is WAY too big!

I'm wearing one of the outfits today with a pair of ankle boots, so I'm standing about two inches taller than normal (at a whopping 5'6") today...but I feel about 6' tall since I'm walking proudly and feel like a million bucks. =) I've received several compliments from my coworkers, too. It's amazing how great I feel when I'm wearing clothes that FIT! lol...

Speaking of fit...I'm finding that shirts, in particular sweaters, that fit almost feel snug. I think it's because when I was bigger, I bought stuff to cover up and hide my body...so I was probably buying clothes in a size bigger than I really needed. So now that I'm buying the right size, they feel weird. Does that make sense? Have you experienced this?? A couple of the things I bought I pondered whether they were too small....until I tried on the next size up and they would hang on me. My MIL and the saleslady both said how nice they looked...and I agree, they look nice...but they feel a bit weird. But then again, both items are more "fitted" than I'm used to wearing, even the one sweater, so that could be it, too.

I went online and found some of the items to show you. The purplish top (2nd photo) is the one I have on today...only I bought it in a different color combo. Mine has dark brown, tan, black, and cream instead. The paisley printed top is much prettier in person, believe me! It goes under the sweater, which is a burnt orange, and under the brown jacket, too. And the pants I have are in the color shown and a darker brown. (I wish my legs were as long and lean as the model's are!) Not shown is the jacket, a button-down crinkle dress shirt, and a basic brown cable-knit sweater.

Tomorrow is weigh-in and although I think I'll be up slightly from the weight I was 2 weeks ago at my last official weigh-in, I'm down from where I was last weekend, which is a good thing. I'll check in later this weekend with the official results.