Thursday: From my new Macbook

First post using my new Macbook (an early Christmas present from Hubby)! So far I am mostly liking the switch from Windows to Mac but it takes some getting used to. I do like having iPhoto right on my regular computer instead of having to use Hubby's in the upstairs office to download and upload all my photos, that's for sure!

ANYWAY. Onto to the reason you are here. :)


(Please note my idiot cat once again busting his way through the door. Seriously, George cannot resist coming in when he hears me taking pictures; he is the nosiest cat EVER.)

Part of me feels very guilty because the skirt had been packed away in my too-big clothes, and it's had to come back out. I got tired of the narrow number of clothes that truly fit right now while I'm working on re-losing the Last 18 again so I went digging through my donation boxes. The good news was that I don't actually have many 12s (I was already doing all-dresses by the time I hit that size) and the 14s are way too big on me. Even this skirt, a lovely ponte a-line from Forth&Towne (a hand-me-down from Shopping Friend) is a little large but still wearable.

I still feel like I am failing somehow by moving back up a size; I think I'm going to need to work on that mentally because I suspect as the years go on I will often teeter between a 10 and 12; this weight I am at now is one I have maintained several times after losing weight over the years. I don't want to be at it again, I want to be at least 15 pounds and several inches smaller as my optimum weight, but this seems to be the setpoint my body likes to sit at when I'm only halfheartedly eating and exercising right. I need to accept that this might happen from time to time; otherwise I am afraid I will beat myself up for gaining and then just continue to gain until I am back to where I started. Maybe if I acknowledge that this is the high point of my 'acceptable' weight spectrum I will stop it from going any further.

Maybe. I will ponder this more.

ANYWAY. It was a nice change to wear a skirt again; I haven't been going crazy replenishing my nice tops collection since I don't wear them often, but I've tried to be picky about it when I do. I found this one at the Rack a month ago, and fell madly in love. It's got a cute ruching at the front and back at the waist, the ties at the sleeves are darling, and it's great dressed up or down.





I wore a red Old Navy tank under it to extend the waistline and to help with any coverage issues if it moved around during the day; the ruching is great but it makes it sit awkwardly on me at times. I added my BR pewter tassle necklace, my chunky-style brown glasses -- but I saved the real fun for my tights and shoes.



Green tights! I almost felt like they were too young-ish looking but truthfully I didn't care. I really liked their contrast with the grey fabric Naturalizer bow shoes. For the first time in a long while, I felt like I had raised my game on mixing colors in an unexpected way.

Plus, anything that shows off the great cutout detail of those shoes is aces in my book. :)

Mmm, so this posting thing is pretty easy on the Macbook, now that I've figured out how to use the darned Apple key. LOL!

Wednesday: Shoe ban, shmoe ban

So. Yesterday. I did actually go with the cream sweater, not the black. The black was my first choice -- I had the cream one in a bag to return to Banana Republic. I love how soft the silk-cashmere is, and I really wanted a cream cardigan, but I thought it was a little small so it was in the 'maybe' pile. But I put it on with the green-patterned dress and it was all over. I feel like I can and do wear black sweaters a lot, but the cream was a departure. I'm looking forward to wearing it again, so I'm glad I kept it.

On to today!



Funnily, I wore this exact outfit last Tuesday but I didn't have time to take a photo, and I didn't work in the same office as usual. I loved it though, and it occurred to me that no one in the world except for myself was going to see it twice in a row except me. So I wore it again today. :) I liked the mix of the buffalo plaid of the scarf with the tartan plaid of the shoes.

Cardigan: Eddie Bauer Outlet
Dress: t-shirt dress from BR
Scarf: Target
Tights: windowpane pattern, Vera Wang from Kohls
Shoes: Ann Marino heeled plaid oxfords, DSW

*cough* No, these lovely shoes were not part of my recent inventory. I mentioned last week that I broke my shoe shopping ban while out with my girlfriends; I still need to pick the older pair to trade out for these, but these are definite keepers!



You know you've got some cute shoes on when you get 3 separate comments as you walk down the hallway. Hee!



Truthfully, they were a little higher than I like them to be, but I'll put an insert in the ball of the foot and it should be fine. They're SO CUTE.

Tuesday: Black or white?

I had one of these outfits all chosen. I was done trying on different combos, I finished my hair and makeup, took my photos, put in my hearing aids and was packing up to leave. Then I spotted the other sweater and realized I had to wear it. It just suited my mood today.

So, which one did I wear today?

Did I go with the cozy and familiar (with goofy extra-large pencil)?


Or did I go sweet and creamy white?


Dress: Nordstrom Rack
Tights: Reversible Spanx
Boots: Vince Camuto from Nordstrom
Cream sweater: BR
Black sweater: BR Outlet

Monday: New Dress Debut!

I was starting to feel guilty about falling behind in posting again, but I've decided I'm just going to do two posts right now and not worry about it anymore. Blogging is supposed to be fun, not a chore!



New dress debut! I picked this up at Macys this weekend; I paid way too much for it, but it's a size 8 so I didn't care. Vanity sizing will win over budget every time! :)



I kind of wanted to wear it without the sweater but it was too cold. But the details of the dress are so pretty I know I won't leave them hidden for long.

Look at that pleating! Love.


And SLEEEEEVES!!!!


Do you know how hard it is to find a dress with sleeves?! It's insanely hard. I don't get it; what good is a sleeveless wool dress in Chicago? (I am looking at YOU, Ann Taylor.)

I also found the CUTEST winter coat ever -- it has a pleated hem! And it's down to my knees, which is what I've been looking for desperately; car coats are too short for my dresses. Got it at Von Maur, and even better, got it on sale. I saw it last weekend while out shopping with my girlfriends, but it was full-price ($214) and it was a week before Black Friday. So I took a chance that it would still be there the following weekend. It was, and while the store itself wasn't having a store-wide sale, these particular coats had been marked down $70. Whoohoo, it was mine.

And just in time; I had to tear off the tags on Monday so I wouldn't freeze getting into work.


I seriously love it. I over-exposed a couple of shots so you could see the details better:





Whee! I am ready for winter!

16-week Commitment Challenge: Week 15 complete

Getting near the end of my challenge. I stumbled hard this week, and part of it of course had to do with the holiday but also I think I am ready to start concentrating on new goals. Also, I need to start LOSING WEIGHT. Why is this so impossible for me to accomplish? I don't know, but I know I am fed up.

Anyway. Let's look at my weekly goals.

1. Attend WW meetings every week without skipping any.
Made it to Saturday's meeting, and I wore jeans! That's living dangerously, LOL, and naturally I did gain weight. Enough! Enough, enough, enough.

2. Exercise 4 days a week minimum.
The Turkey Trot was filled up, but I got at least 4 days on the Wii in. I also went for a run on Thursday morning at the indoor track, and I got the rude awakening that it has been a long time since I ran, and it is time to replace my running shoes: my knee got so stiff about halfway through I had to switch to walking only. Yikes! New shoes will solve that...

3. Count my points in my Tracker.
Yeah, no. It didn't happen, and I'm not sure why. But that's two weeks in a row, and that's worrisome. I'm back to a full week at work this week, and that should get my routines back to normal.

4. Cut back on the alcohol to 1-2 drinks a week.
There was a lot of wine all Thanksgiving weekend. I wish I could say I regret it, but I don't. It was worth it.

++++++

OH! And I got my haircut! It wasn't exactly like Katherine McPhee's, but it was closest to this one. My stylist can see now that I like longer layers and less volume than she usually gives me when she blows it out. I love it!







Love it! So much better than the last cut.

Thankgiving Eats

I love cooking for Thanksgiving, because I get to be in charge of what we eat. We've started our own traditions, favorites that we love but we're too lazy to cook most nights. This year we had:

-fresh cranberry sauce
-turkey breast with herbs, basted with chicken stock and aromatics
-cornbread stuffing with sweet turkey sausage (our one indulgence)
-pan-roasted Brussels sprouts with shallots
-roasted vegetables and potatoes: carrots, sweet potatoes, parsnips, rutabega, acorn squash, Yukon potatoes, green beans, onions, 2 cloves garlic, tossed in olive oil and rosemary and thyme
-crescent rolls (my childhood favorite)

The turkey was done much sooner than expected, so the timing was off and the carrots weren't as soft as they should have been. But it was still delicious! This was my plate:





Oh, I did have more stuffing than that. But not much more; filling half my plate with veggies saved my dupa. I haven't overstuffed myself at any point this weekend, and of course we have continued to eat. I did have quite a bit of wine over the last few days, but I've also been working out and eating light on other meals. So tomorrow's weigh-in may be okay. *fingers crossed*

The best part is now all the leftovers we have are still so healthy. Tomorrow we'll start really diving in; I may even make soup with the turkey and veggies. Yum yum yum.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! I will have some outfit photos to post tomorrow, but Hubby's been taking them while we have a guest in the office/second bedroom...so I can't say the quality's very good. But his heart was in the right place, and he won a bundle at the casino so I'm not complaining. I'm getting a new computer for Christmas!

Monday: Headless, and Haircut Ideas

Just another bad-hair day shot, nothing to worry about! Actually, my hair is almost grown out enough to head back to my regular stylist and try again with a new cut. I've been looking at cuts in magazines and online, and I think I found the one I want; it looks terrible on her because it is such a jarring change from her long luscious brown curls, but I think Katherine McPhee's new short bob will be perfect on me. I particularly like how it looks on the side with the part (her left); that's always the side that is the worst for me, and I haven't yet found a way to get it cut that doesn't make me crazy. Maybe going with the long layers well below the ear is the answer.

Wish this was taken closer

A little too mushroom-head-ish here

If I ever star in a rock video, it's good to know I can style it appropriately

If I blow it smooth and flat-iron it, which will never happen

Super matted-down, also not a style I would ever wear

For when I win my Oscar

A-HA!! This is the one in US Magazine that got me rolling on the idea. I could totally wear this style every day, don't you think?



ANYWAY.

I did manage to get one yesterday with better current hair, although not with the best pose.



Cranberry short-sleeved sweater, Ann Taylor Factory
black stretch cami, Forth & Towne
black jersey dress with lantern sleeves, ATL
black/silver belt, AT Factory
grey striped Spanx, Nordstrom Rack
grey fabric bow booties, Naturalizer

Friday and Sunday: Catching up

The streak is over! I'll have to go back and count how many days it was, but I finally wore pants again to work...and let me tell you, it felt weird. But good; it was time to change things up again.

This was a grey day, but it didn't feel monochromatic. Adding textures really does make a difference.



Black Semantics suit pants, Nordstrom
Grey silk ruffled tank, Martin + Osa
Grey boyfriend cardigan, Martin + Osa
Grey patent heeled oxfords, Franco Sarto
silver and grey multi-media necklace, Kohls from long ago

Saturday was a cute outfit with jeans but I forgot to take a picture. Sunday, I took my girlfriends shoe-shopping; I was a bad friend and was running super-late when they arrived so I threw something together in about 5 minutes. Dresses are great for last-minute outfits like this.



Brown-purple-mustard knit dress, Marshalls
brown bf cardigan, Eddie Bauer Outlet
purple cable tights, Kohls
brown riding boots, Franco Sarto
gold locket, J Crew Outlet



I felt so twirly and cute.

*cough* I also broke my resolution and bought a pair of shoes. But they are SO CUTE, and they were pretty cheap and I had a $10 off coupon so they were less than $30! Did I mention how cute they were? I will wear them this week and you can see.

I guess I should institute Sheila's idea of a one-in, one-out system instead of an outright ban. This actually won't be hard; I've got a number of pairs that are pretty much on their way out anyway. Hmmm, which to choose, which to choose...

16-week Commitment Challenge: Week 14 complete

Weird little week I had; I was in Arizona until Monday, was home sick on Tuesday, got some terrible news about a good friend on Wednesday, had My First Migraine on Thursday, and then my Aunt Flo visit started on Friday. No wonder I've been hiding under my covers all week! Although this is a short week too, I promise to be more social and comment more on blogs and post more consistently; I have noticed that when I am feeling the least confident I find more excuses not to have time to take photos, and that's got to stop. Keeping myself honest about my weight and my appearance through daily blogging has been just as important to my weight loss efforts as eating right, and it's not a habit I should let go of.

Speaking of which, it was interesting to realize which goals I did stumble on this week. They weren't the ones I expected!

1. Attend WW meetings every week without skipping any.
I had to bring all our old oversized coats to a charity coat drive on Thursday night so I went to the Saturday morning meeting.

The topic was again Thanksgiving, and I got to total up all the points I ate at the old-fashioned dinner we had in Arizona: 48, and that didn't even count all the appetizers and cheese-crackers I had. YIKES. But my real Thanksgiving dinner will be much more reasonable, 18-24 points depending on how much stuffing I have. :)

2. Exercise 4 days a week minimum.
Due to illness and timing, I got 5 days in on the Wii, but no other exercise types. Yet. That's going to be one of my goals at the upcoming challenge commitment, to alternate exercise types so I get 3 out of 4 weekly: running, swimming, Wii cardio, Wii yoga/stretching.

Still need to Google the local Turkey Trot. Oooh, let me do that now. Me likey my Thanksgiving stuffing... :)

3. Count my points in my Tracker.
And THIS is where I fell down this week! I was good until about Thursday, then I just...didn't take it out of my purse. And I ate all kinds of crap the minute I stopped writing it down. Lesson learned; it's back out now!

4. Cut back on the alcohol to 1-2 drinks a week.
This is the some of the "crap" I mentioned in #3, LOL. But oohhhh, those beers hit the spot on Friday night. And they bloated me up for Saturday weigh-in, so there were consequences.

+++++++

I've started to think about what I want my next commitment challenge to be; this was great for me because it got me into some good habits that I desperately needed to do, and really helped me transition from the Medifast mindset to the WW one for good; I probably should have done something like this starting back in July instead of waiting all summer! Oh well.

But the next one needs a firm goal at the end, something more than just "learn this new habit". I need to actually lose weight now, and knowing the way I've tackled this commitment challenge and my Type A personality in general, making Getting to Goal the goal of the next one is exactly what I need to do. My birthday is March 13, so my next challenge will be from December 13 to March 13 (oooooh, I just realized the date range! COOL!), and the main thrust of the challenge will be to be at goal weight by my birthday. There will still be smaller habit steps involved, but all will be selected in order to get me to my weight goal again.

Heh. In a way I kind of want this challenge to hurry up and be finished; I am ready to start concentrating on different mini-goals. Which is so silly, since these will remain a part of my regular routine now even with the next one. The mental games I play with myself are very strange sometimes!

++++++

Speaking of mental games, my shopping budget has been going well. I haven't kept it exactly to my limit down to the dollar, but I have stayed pretty close to it. Considering I slashed my monthly spending by 75% with this budget, that's pretty impressive!

I would be more proud of myself if there weren't an underlying reason I've not been buying a lot of new clothes: I refuse to buy a larger size while I am still hanging onto these extra 18 pounds. We'll see if I'm bragging about how easy a budget is when I actually *want* to buy clothes again, LOL!

Wednesday: Back to the Grindstone

Ha! Go a week without taking an outfit photo, and I can't even manage to take a full-body shot without cutting off my head or my feet. How soon we forget the basics!

For my first day back to work, I stuck with the basics in my outfit: black sheath and cardigan, brown boots, and the never-worn free scarf I got at Martin + Osa this summer. I picked it because the brown tones made the choice of brown boots work.

Here's a tip if you are feeling/looking bloated: a scarf worn like this hides a lot of sins. I am just sayin'.



I'm conducting an all-day training at my users' offices, and I can get away with a shorter skirt/hipper look there. I'm looking forward to getting dressed this morning!