I don't have any "before and after" picture for this month's weigh in, but there is a purpose why I chose to wear these pieces of clothing.
I am a fat (er...sexy, I mean) woman who often times refuses to wear big clothes. At times, I would go and look for blouses made from stretchable materials so I can fit in it even if it's small. Well, whenever I go out, I always use my sling bag that would hide my bulging tummy, so even if you can see layers on my tummy area, I don't seem to mind it that much.
There were numerous times I'd borrow my mom and sister's blouses because me fitting in their clothes somehow makes me feel small - just like them. The blouses I wore for these pictures were both my sister's. The blue one is something she recently bought, but while it didn't have any significant value on me, I just felt ecstatic fitting into it without showing much bulge.
The gray one had a different story, though. Sister had it for many years now, and is still one of her favorite blouses (you can see a picture of her wearing the blouse by clicking
here). I can't remember when, but when I got to fit into one of her blouses, I sort of felt I could fit into that blouse, too, even asked her permission for me to wear it and take my pictures. However, this proud girl bit off more than she could chew. As happy was I to receive sister's approval, I felt a ton of bricks hit my head when I found out I couldn't fit into the blouse. The supposed to be loose blouse looked like a little girl's blouse on me. It was devastating.
As for the shorts... well, that was something I bought last year (or maybe longer) at one of the tiangges in the Metro. Shopping has never been one of my favorite past times, but since my mom and sis love to shop, I would go with them. Seeing them buy clothes off the rack sort of made me feel jealous, so when I saw this pair of shorts (which by the way was 2 inches smaller than my waistline back then), I just bought it just so I had an item bought. You guessed it: it didn't fit me. Well, I could pull up the shorts up to my waist, but there was no way in hell to make the button come close to its hole. Heck, I couldn't even move the zipper! Back then, if I wanted to wear the shorts, I had to leave it open. I decided not to take the shorts back to the store, I just placed it in one of my "for disposal bags," but cleaning my closet last September or October, I saw the shorts and tried to fit it. A big change, I then could button the shorts, but because my tummy big, I still couldn't pull up the zipper, and my big thighs were just enough to fit the leg part of the shorts (on a standing position). Sitting down was an embarrassing moment, because the denim would cut my legs and make it look as if I was a Michelin crash test dummy. Eeek!
Oh well, not anymore.
This morning, I tried fitting the shorts and not only can I button it, I can now pull up the zipper with ease... and not only was there an allowance around my waist, there is also an allowance around my legs as well. I can now sit down with ease while wearing it, and I can now certainly wear it outside, if I wish to.
The blouse can now fit me good, too, and even if my tummy would still show especially when I place my hands on my waist, I can certainly say that I can now borrow this blouse anytime I want to. :)
With that, lemme present my new weight:
From 220lbs. at the start of November, I am now down to 207lbs.
Well, from this image, it might show that my weight is 206lbs., but if you hover on to the picture, you will see an upclose image of the figures on the scale. There is this thin strand of black line on the left side of the red marker, so I can't claim that my weight is 206lbs because the red marker wasn't covering it completely. I don't know how to interpret the figures, but just to be safe, let my weight be at 207lbs.
That means,
I lost 13lbs. last month.Wow.
Well, there is no secret how I lost that much weight - all is documented here on my blog: what exercises I did, what food I ate. I guess big factors were the morning walks and me cutting down my food intake from 3/4 cup of rice to 2/3 now to 1/2. I still had a few moments of eating out, but I guess my mind and tummy has now taken the habit of eating just enough.
On my friend Nathalie's blog, she mentioned about healthy weight loss/gain at 6-8lbs per month because more than that may be caused by losing not just fat and water, but muscles as well. That being said, is 13lbs healthy? Well, considering the fact that I didn't starve myself and that I didn't over-force myself to exercise (I actually used to do three Hip Hop Abs routines everyday last October, but I now do 2 everyday), I would say it was healthy. Afterall, like what was written on the book, "You on a Diet: The Owner's Manual to Waist Management" by Drs. Michael F. Roizen and Mehmet C. Oz -
When you lose weight without exercise, you lose both muscle and fat. Since I lost the 13lbs by food control and exercising, I am pretty confident I did the right thing.
Changes? Well, I still didn't feel the need to do some closet spring cleaning because like I said, I am a person who prefers wearing clothes that are slightly smaller than my frame. While there is still no need to prepare the "to keep" and "to toss" bags, I can say that most of my clothes now fit better. Of course, there were the few ones that I surely need to toss, because they are now quite big on me. Oh wow, this will be the first time I'd toss away clothes because they are big...before I toss them because they're small. Hooray for that!
Anyway, I may have lost 13lbs this month, but I still am over 200lbs, so don't expect to see a supermodel figure just yet. It will take a lot of time before I achieve my ultimate goal weight of 150lbs, but this big change on my weight somehow allowed me to see a tiny dot of light.
For this month, I will continue getting up early to go to Colinas Verdes, but I will now start to include jogging into my routine. I still am going to do the Hip Hop Abs routines (just until I reach 200lbs), but this month, I will surely find ways to tone up my arms and thighs because of its size. If I can find someone to play sports with, I will go grab the chance, because at age 31 I still don't know how to play any sport. Well, I can play chess, but I lack the strategies, so I cannot count it. :)
As for my food intake, I will lessen the intake of fibrous food. That seems shocking, yes, but I just don't understand why am I constipated on most days even if I ate oatmeal, papaya, veggies. I have this little thought that when you squeeze out the juice from a pineapple, you're left with the pulp, and I think... since I eat less food, my intestines are full of pulp. I still would eat these high-fiber food, yes, but I will try to minimize it. If you have any suggestions how to ease this constipation, let me know.
I am excited for this new month, but part of me is quite afraid of it. For one, it's Christmastime. While I am sure I won't overeat, there is still this chance that I would try different food (hello, pastries!), some late at night. Another thing, my Aunt (who is currently working in Canada) is about to come home this month, if I understood her term "us" and "we" correctly, there might be a chance of an out of town trip when she arrives. That is still not certain, but when the day comes and this pushes through, I might have little chances to exercise. She is also planning for her whole family to stay here in our house this Christmas until the New Year, so I still don't know how to juggle things (how am going to do Hip Hop Abs while they're here?); I will just cross the bridge when I get there. I hope to lose the 7 maybe 8lbs this month - so I will welcome the new year in the 100s lane, but any loss this month is something I will be thankful for.
December, please be nice to me. November has been good... may you be good to me as well.
