Day 116--Oh this post is just FILLED with exciting informational moments. And pictures! And lists!

You know, it's just incredible that I am typing 'Day 116'. I have never done anything like this in my entire life except when I quit smoking 17 years ago. And I was so scared when I started on May 19th that I would fail, quit, throw it all away. Here I am going strong. Weird.
So yesterday I tried on all my sweatshirts and sweaters and THEY ARE ALL LOOSE yeah you read that right they are ALL LOOSE. I was dancing around my room with a heart full of joy. Everything looks so different on me! Last winter everything was T-I-G-H-T to the extreme. My gray sweater that I wore all winter(instead of a coat because my only coat is this gargantuan red calf length that screams EVERYONE LOOK AT THIS HUGE WOMAN) is big on me. Let me just cut this short and state that everything I own is big on me. A few things look TOO big. I smiled typing that. Who would have ever thought that Zaababy would have clothes that were too big for her? I have worn the same stained, torn, worn clothes for years. I have hated them all. Now when I get dressed in the morning it is so fun seeing myself in the mirror, checking to see how stuff fits different today. A big milestone will be passed when I can wear pants with a zipper in them.
Another milestone will be passed when I lose 8 more pounds. Technically 9. That will bring me to 299 pounds. I haven't weighed below 300 pounds for 10 years. I know it will happen this month. I hope it will.
The first weekend in October I am going on a woman's retreat with my sister and a bunch of women from her church. We are taking a bus. Zaa on a bus is not a pretty sight.

1. the bus bounces. a lot. which makes my womanly charms bounce. a lot.
   
2. the seats are super teeny. Zaa takes up an entire seat. How am I going to share? And they are so close together!
3. the center aisle is so narrow it's ridiculous. who designed these buses? munchkins?

I was so hoping in a very optimistic fashion that I would have lost oodles and oodles of weight by now and would be svelte and stunning. What a shock to discover that the right way to lose weight is just the way I am doing it: slow and steady wins the race. What I wanted was to lose a whopping amount every single day. Come on, I still have 150 pounds to go, I should lose more than everyone else faster! I might have lost 60 pounds by the retreat.
Oh and I have decided something. I am NOT going to say anything about my weight loss unless someone else says something first. Because it is so humiliating to tell people I have lost 48 pounds and they say 'Oh Congratulations that's wonderful!' but see they didn't notice it because when you have a lot to lose 48 pounds is a drop in the bucket. So then they're secretly looking at me all over trying to figure out where that weight came from because I don't look any different to them. Oh it's mortifying and makes me squirm just typing it all. But I actually did have a friend tell me she sees me walking everyday and can tell I look different. I told HER how much I lost and she said 'from the walking?' and I said no, from eating no more than 1500 calories a day. The walking is just icing on the cake, so to speak. I explained this incredibly complex deduction that I deduced ALL ON MY OWN:

• You can lose weight by eating less
• You can lose weight by eating less and exercising
• You can NOT lose weight by exercising alone

See how complicated that is? I told her how my friend and I walked everyday together and I limited my food intake and she didn't change one thing and I've lost almost 50 pounds and my friend has lost NOTHING NADA NOT ONE TINY OUNCE. And then I floated on the rest of my walk because someone not related to me noticed that I was losing weight without me saying anything!
My daughter Bekah is home for the second day in a row with a horrible sickness cold thing that is evidently going around the entire nation.
yes that is her with kleenexes in her nose like a cork. I was laughing hysterically when this pic was being taken. Love you Bekah Boo Baby!
There must always be a little rain with the sunshine right? Last night as I was eating my low calorie sensible dinner I broke a small piece off my right back lower molar. Let me just say that I hate going to the dentist. No, I despise the dentist. It takes me at LEAST two shots to get me numb and sometimes 3. Probably because I have extremely fat gums or something and the numbing stuff doesn't numb fat? Who knows. Well anyways, I'm always scared that I'm going to be sitting trustingly in the horrid chair and the dentist will be drilling merrily away when all of a sudden WANG I'll feel it all and hit the ceiling screaming with pain. So I end up as stiff as a board with my hands gripping the arm rests for dear life not being able to relax at all because I'm sure it'll hurt I'm sure I'm sure. And it doesn't but my face ends up being so numb I'm drooling out of the side of my mouth for the rest of the day and I can't feel it because my face is numb. Sigh. Pity me? Please?
And this is for Sean my buddy over at http://losingweighteveryday.blogspot.com/ If you have never read his blog you are missing out my friends. His was one of the very first weight loss blogs I found when I started and I patterned myself after him. Incredible guy!
Sometimes he just needs my help desperately.
***Tutorial for Sean*************

For many men, the body of a dress shirt is considerably wider than their actual body sillhouette. Nothing looks worse than a well-dressed man with a messy-looking shirt tucking -- bunched up in the back and uneven. There are steps to correctly tucking a shirt tail just as there are steps to making a correct Windsor knot in a tie.

Start with trousers open and unzipped, slid down to the hips, with legs spread apart to keep them up. Button shirt in the front, all the way down, then smooth the excess fabric to the back sides amd grasp it on either side, making a pleat, as in Picture #1.

In Picture #2, thumbs are holding the pleat down and fingers are curved out, ready to grab the trouser waist.
In Picture #3, while using back of hands to hold pleats in place, gently ease the trousers up over the pleated shirt tail
Picture #4 illustrates the completely smooth back of the shirt tucked into the trousers -- VERY professional looking.
Picture #5 shows the placket of the shirt front lined up with the fly front of the trousers.
Picture #6 shows the buckle of the belt lined up with the placket and fly front. PERFECT!
This takes a little practice but is WELL worth the effort for a clean, lean, professional look.

And there you go Sean. You are now ready to tuck in front of hundreds, nay THOUSANDS of future fans.
*************End of Tutorial*********************************

Oh I had a couple of emails asking me about my foot so I'll update about my foot since I haven't talked about my foot for a few weeks. It just doesn't hurt anymore which is why I have forgotten to talk about my foot. Remember how it hurt super bad and I figured out my arches had fallen even though they looked normal to me? When I started walking 5 miles a day you would have thought my foot would have screamed in outrage and hurt all the more but thats when it stopped hurting so go figure. I think I mentioned my foot enough to make everyone happy.
And so it goes. Everyday plugging away at the same old walking, the same old eating wisely, the same old smart choices. It's that consistency that has eluded me for so many years. I think there is only so much consistency in the world and someone must have stopped using theirs and now I have it. Now if I could just apply it to my laundry.
Love you guys. Be good and make wise choices.
And because I love Peter Quincy Taggert with all my heart I leave you with this.

Never give up, never surrender.
Because that's the secret to it all.