Everyday Beauty Makeover: Creating A Stylish Weight Loss Wardrobe

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When I started my weight loss journey last year, my ensemble quickly evolved into sweats, Nikes and an oversized t-shirt. Well after losing 80 lbs., I decided I needed to look more stylish. In short, it was time for a full makeover — hair, makeup and clothes.

Enter my personal Glam Squad! Two friends — Julie & Claire — who are makeover pros. Their task: to help me become fashion forward while I’m still losing weight, without breaking the bank.  My transformation took 3 fun days. There’s a lot to cover, with great photos (compliments of my Glam Squad!), so I’m breaking it down into several posts over the next couple of days.

weight loss and new wardrobe, weight loss wardrobe on a budget

Before hitting the stores, I reviewed great fashion looks with Claire, a member of my Glam Squad.

The Building Blocks Of A Stylish Wardrobe
We caught up over lunch last week and went over outfit ideas and hairstyles. Claire and Julie did a bang-up job. Since I’m still losing weight, they focused on the staples – jeans, dresses, blazers and sweaters.  Easy, low-cost items to rebuild my wardrobe, but stylish enough to add some spice.

Since my current wardrobe is 90% black, their recommendations added a much-needed splash of color. Plus, much of what they showed me included new cuts and shapes – things to try with my new figure.

From there, we went over the budget and then hit the stores.

weight loss wardrobe on a budget, weight loss and clothes

Working with Glam Squad member Julie in finding the right look at the right price!

Do They Carry My Size?
My only anxiety about the shopping excursion was the list of stores. My Glam Squad lined up trips to Old Navy, Macy’s and Lord & Taylor. In the past, I’d stayed away from those stores for one simple reason: my size.

Up until now, 85% of my clothes came from Lane Bryant. Other stores didn’t carry my size – and if they did, never in the store, only online.

Yes I lost weight and went from a size 28 to a 20. But that’s a Lane Bryant size 20. Stores and designers don’t share the same formula for their sizes. A size 20 in one store is different from a size 20 in another (how annoying).

Alone in the Old Navy dressing room, my fear intensified as I held up the size 20 jeans Claire handed me a few moments ago. “No way these are going to fit,” I thought.

weight loss and new clothes, new weight loss clothes on a budget

After getting over my fear of shopping at a new store, I had a blast mixing and matching clothes.

After losing all the weight, where the hell was this doubt coming from?

Well, not doubt, exactly. More like…weirdness. It felt overwhelmingly strange to shop at a “thin person’s store.”  I kept telling myself, “I don’t belong here…it’s a mistake.”

Taking a deep breath, I tried on the jeans. A perfect fit. The weirdness vanished. I belonged.

In that moment, I became an Old Navy customer!

But I needed to temper my excitement or I’d blow through my budget.

Claire to the rescue! She sent me an Old Navy 20% off coupon. Awesome!

She encouraged me to sign up for the store’s email blasts to get coupons and sales alerts.  Making my dollars go further, these two ladies found great deals, including cute tops for under $10. Amazing.

The next 4+ hours flew by. Clair and Julie picked out a ton of great outfits, many of which I never would have tried. I never felt so exhausted.

weight loss and clothes, new weight loss clothes on a budget

Signs your makeover is off to a good start? Lots of bags filled with lovely clothes you got on sale!

The great thing about the day, it gave me more confidence to try new and different styles and to go into stores that were completely off-limits before due to my weight.

Day one down. On the horizon, part 2: a new hairdo.

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Weekly Health Goals – October 13-19

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weight loss goals, setting weight loss goals, nutrition goals, fitness goals

Setting weekly goals keeps me focused on reaching my 3-month goal of losing 19.5 lbs. Image courtesy of chanpipat and FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I didn’t hit all of my goals last week. I am a pound closer to hitting my 3-month weight loss goal of 19.5 lbs. But I missed my targets on the nutrition and workout front.

Thanks to a super busy week that featured lots of eating out, I missed my goal of eating 20g of cards for 4 days.  My first 3 days were great.  Then it all went down hill. This week is less hectic, so I’m attempting this goal again.

As for my workout goals, it turns out I can’t do a plank without falling on my face. I just don’t have the strength. So this week’s workout goal focuses on my upper body.

October 13 – 19 Goals

  • Workout – Continue with 30-Day Push-Up Challenge; Do 3 Upper Body Workouts
  • Nutrition – Eat a max of 20g of carbs/day for 4 days this week (repeat)
  • Other – Work on new make up skills this week
  • Reward – Treat myself to manicure

Counting (Weight Loss) Chickens Before They’re Hatched

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weight loss, weekly weigh in

I’m down a pound this week. Total weight loss = 79.8 lbs. I only have 16.7 lbs. to go to hit my 3-month weight loss goal.

Today’s weigh-in day and I’m down a pound this week. Great news, right?

If only I hadn’t stepped on that scale Wednesday morning. The scale showed me a 2.6 lbs. loss. Ugh!

This is why I don’t like stepping on the scale midweek. Your weight fluctuates daily. I stepped on the scale after a lot of exercise and before lunch. That 2.6 lbs. loss was a mirage.

Normally I’m over the moon with a 1 lbs. loss. But right after I stepped off the scale this morning, I started second-guessing everything.

After 5 minutes of thinking about my every move this past week, I realized my only mistake was Wednesday morning.

No more unofficial weigh-ins. I’m sticking to Saturday mornings.

Keeping The Scale In Perspective

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I absolutely love this image in this post!

Where To from Here?

I need to remember this each time I step on that bloody scale!  Thanks to Leanne Nalani for posting this puppy! It’s going up on my board.

My Brain Hurts: Exercising After Work Harder Than You Think

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Did you know when your brain’s tired, you have a crappy workout?  Actually, your body thinks it’s too hard so you quit earlier than planned.  So concludes a report looking at how intense studying may harm our exercise routines.

It turns out that mental fatigue affects endurance. Test subjects tired 13% faster after undergoing mentally tiring activities and reported that their workouts felt way more tiring than usual.

After a long day at work, I felt like this:

Yep, my brain hurt. Despite the mental fatigue I tried to hit the gym 4 days a week. When you’re mentally exhausted, working out is the last thing you want to think about. Depending on how my day went dictated whether I hit the gym or not.  I’m not saying mental fatigue is the reason I didn’t go to the gym as often. Nope, just plain laziness.  But it did give me the ammo to justify not working.

Now a days, I find it difficult to start my day without working out. My morning workouts are certainly more intense. Perhaps my weight loss goals helps to keep my eyes on the prize. Putting my health first completely changed my mental outlook.

 

 

 

Slaying The Movie Popcorn Monster

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My favorite snack is a low carb diet killer. I successfully passed the concession stand and went straight to my seat at the movies last night. Image courtesy of Kromkrathog and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

My favorite snack is a low carb diet killer. I successfully passed the concession stand and went straight to my seat at the movies last night. Image courtesy of Kromkrathog and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.

While at the movies last night, I actually did not give in to my inner popcorn demon. Many times my husband asked if I wanted any popcorn. And every time I said “no.” Starting with the weight loss, my weekend was going great – no mishaps with the diet – so why mess it up with hot, crunchy, over-buttered theater popcorn (oh, I’m starting to drool).

Popcorn is my one great weakness. I love it so and I cannot stop at one portion. Nope, once it touches my lips I’m driven to keep going.  While going low carb, I’ve tried to avoid it. I purged my pantries of the stuff. It is not allowed in the house.

But going to the movies…ugh! It is the one monkey I can’t get off my back – until now.

I’ll admit, I did waver. I thought a small bag wouldn’t hurt. But when I opened my mouth to give in, I could only say “just water.”

Something in my brain kicked in right in time. Maybe it’s the jacked up prices, I’ve conditioned myself to only eat when hungry, or it’s my new dedication to getting the weight off…or it’s all of those things.

One of my weekly goals is to eat only 20g of carbs for 4 days this week. Why bust that goal at the start of the week with popcorn?

I’m much more focused with the weekly goals and I think about my food choices and not going on autopilot.

I made it through the film without popcorn. The world didn’t end and I didn’t crave the stuff.

Oh, I’m sure it helped that the film was amazingly awesome!

 

Pop Quiz: Creating A Weight Loss Habit

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During my Weight Watchers meeting we discussed making good behaviors stick when it comes to weight loss.

This is a toughy.  My bad habits – drinking 5 sodas a day, gorging on pasta, skipping breakfast, never exercising, not enough water, no portion control – were not easy to break.

That’s not to say I don’t slip now and then. I’m human and life happens. The difference is when I fall back into a bad habit, it doesn’t feel second nature to me. It feels odd and the next thing I know I’m automatically self-correcting back to the healthy habits.

So how long did it take for me to create my own good habits. Depends on the habit. The big myth is that it takes 3 weeks for a habit to form. That’s a crock!

When it came to the soda monkey on my back, it took 2 days – and one long, nasty headache – for me to kick that bad boy to the curb.

Keeping a food journal…hell I’m doing a 3-month challenge to try to make that habit stick.

One I took to like a duck to water. The other, after 18 months, I’m still trying to get it down. The truth is it takes as long as it takes to form a habit.

A suggestion during the meeting was to focus on the small stuff. I agree with that. Weight loss is a marathon not a sprint. Creating small habits helps you build confidence to take on the ones you thought were too huge at the beginning of your weight loss journey. It’s all about baby steps.

My weight loss journey started in January 2012. I tried to eliminate grains from my diet. Ha!  I ended up eating even more pasta because I felt deprived.

Instead, I started reducing the number of times we ate pastas, breads, rice or potatoes during the week. I got creative with my veggie dishes like mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes or spaghetti squash instead of pasta.

By March 2012, when I cut grains completely from our diet, we didn’t miss it.

Another idea from the meeting – write yourself notes and place them in strategic places like your car’s rear view mirror or in the bathroom next to your toothbrush. Just places you look at everyday to help reinforce the habit.

How did I create healthy habits? I focused on what I could actually control. For example: No matter how hard I try, I can’t control my husband (don’t tell him that!). But it is up to me to say no when he suggests we order a pizza.

I can’t control him from suggesting it. But I can say no or I don’t eat the pizza. That I do control.

What healthy habits do you want to adopt?

Drop A Size, Catch The Fashion Bug!

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Yes, I got a very conservative outfit for a business meeting...but it's a size 20 baby!

Yes, I got a very conservative outfit for a business meeting…but it’s a size 20 baby!

It looks like the 1.8 lbs. I lost this week pushed me into a size 20 officially! I popped into my nearby Lane Bryant for an outfit to wear for an upcoming presentation (I’m helping a friend market her new business line).

My pre-make over consulting session isn’t until Thursday (followed by shopping on Saturday) and the presentation is early Friday. So I decided I needed to get something without my fashion gurus. I chose a simple but cheap low cost look – a pencil black skirt and shirt.

As I tried on the 22s, I realized how baggie the clothes looked. Awesome! The size 20 skirt fit fine and the shirt is a little snug in the chest, but not for long.

Ok, it's not real leather...but it's a size 20 and I love it.

OK, it’s not real leather…but it’s a size 20 and I love it.

In all my excitement, I noticed a cute quilted faux leather jacket. Mistakenly I tried it on…and loved it. Cha-ching!

Then one of the all-too-freakin’-helpful sales ladies let me know that their 1/2 off jeans sale ends today. I tried on the 20s and they fit. Cha-ching!

Then I spotted boots in the corner. The last time I owned a pair of boots…1984, when I lived in Texas (I think it’s a state law).  It’s not that I hate boots. My big-ass calves just won’t squeeze into any boot known to man.

I decided to give it a shot.

These boots had a zipper on the side, so no struggling sliding my fit into them. However, the zipper stopped mid calf.

Well crap.

I'm calling these baby boots since they only go up to my ankle. 1/4 off my calves get me into the adult boots!

I’m calling these baby boots since they only go up to my ankle. 1/4″ off my calves get me into the adult boots!

I felt a bit defeated…until I spotted the ankle boots. Cha-ching!

At the register, the same happy-I’m-spending-$$$ sales lady told me that they have a black suede heeled boot for wide calves online.

She had to tell me.

I think I need to go cash-only when shopping with my make-over gurus next week.

Dropped Nearly 2 Lbs. This Week

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1.8 lbs. drop this week! That puts me 17.7 lbs. away from my 3 month goal and 106 lbs. away from my goal weight.

1.8 lbs. drop this week! That puts me 17.7 lbs. away from my 3 month goal and 106 lbs. away from my goal weight.

I decided to weigh-in a day earlier than normal since I’ve got the 5K tomorrow. I must say, I’m very happy. I’m down 1.8 lbs this week. That puts my total weight loss at 78.8 lbs. As for my 3-month weigh loss goal, I only have 17.7 lbs to go.

Sweet!

Weight Loss: Reflect. Refocus. Repeat.

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Behold the Fitbook! The weekly goal section helps me reflect and focus in on my goal of dropping 19.5 lbs. by year's end.

Behold the Fitbook! The weekly goal section helps me reflect and focus on my goal of dropping 19.5 lbs. by year’s end.

I’m loving my FitBook.  Yes, in the age of the app, I’m finding that pen and paper still has its advantages when dealing with weight loss.

Why? With the apps, it’s really about clicking something (and getting annoyed with my nemesis – Auto Correct!) and forgetting about it – pure tracking (but they are awesome trackers!)

With Fitbook, I actually have to think about goals for the week and the plan to hit those goals. Something the app trackers lack.

So this morning I rose early to take stock of my 2013 health and fitness goals. Other than my 5K goal, I haven’t looked at these in ages.  I wise I could say I’ve hit my targets. But the truth is they are terribly vague.

Wanna Lose Weight? Set Specific Goals
My next weight target is to lose 25% of my starting body weight. By when? How much is 25%? What will I do to lose 25%?

Ugh! How stupid. Is it little wonder I struggled with two plateaus this year.

If the goal isn’t specific, you won’t hit it.  If I can’t track or measure my goal, I’ll fail. My next weight loss goal must be specific with a target date.  So here we go:

Goal: I want to lose 30% of my starting weight (19.5 more pounds) by December 31st by sticking to 25g of carbs/day and working out 5 days a week.

With my 3 month goal set, I now need to break it down into smaller weekly goals to get me there.  Again, I need to think about what I’m doing.

Now that I’m tracking my food, it is really easy to see how my weight loss went off the rails.  I’ve reflected more on the negative – how I screwed up rather than my successes.  But most importantly, I completely forgot to take stock of where I’m at now on my weight loss journey and where do I want to go from here. Without refocusing my goals, how can I push myself to do better?

Reflect. Refocus. Repeat.

I’ve got 3 months to drop those 19.5 lbs. So after breakfast, I’m taking pen and paper in hand to spell out this week’s goals.

Note: In my haste this morning, I accidentally posted this under my husband’s name. Rest assured, this is a Dot2Trot post.