At the end of summer, I resigned to the fact that I would never get my weight below 135 ever again. All the shorts in my closet were uncomfortably tight, except for one pair.  I refused to buy larger shorts, so instead I wore mostly capris all summer.  And at the end of summer, I donated all my shorts (except that one pair) to goodwill.

In October I went on a shopping spree to stock up on new sweats. Yep, sweats (fleece lounge pants actually) because all my yoga pants were unflattering and old.  Why sweats?  Well, because my jeans were all uncomfortably tight except for one or two pairs.

That’s just the way it’s going to be.  And I was fine with that.

Then I started the Take Shape For Life program and here I am ten weeks later and I’ve surpassed my goal size and weight (this happened five weeks ago!).  All my sweats are too big.  All my jeans are too big, even my former too small jeans are too big.  Most of my bras are too big….and a lot of my underwear, too!

In fact, we laughed about a weight watchers commercial this weekend that said something along the lines of “you know you’ve lost a lot of weight when your underwear is too big!”

** S H O P P I N G  –  S P R E E **

Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.
~Bo Derek

First up was new jeans.  Those were the first necessity.  I boxed up all my one pair of size 8 Lucky jeans, then all my size 6’s.  This was during the initial weight loss, about 3 weeks in!  This left me with only 2 pairs of jeans that fit (one of them being capris!).  I’m a jeans girl so only having 1 pair to wear all winter was not going to do.  I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on new jeans since I wasn’t sure how much weight I’d lose, or how well the Take Shape For Life plan would work out…..so I bought my jeans off ebay.  I ended up picking up 3 smaller pairs of Lucky jeans (same fit as my old jeans) in a size smaller (size 4/27) for about $26 each (Lucky jeans are regularly $119).  Two pairs were brand new with the tags on!  I was so excited to be back in size 4.

Next up was bras and underwear.  I won’t go into the specifics on sizing, but lets just say that Victoria’s Secret had me go down TWO band sizes.  Wow!   My Victoria’s Secret bras were the only one’s that were now too big, all the others still fit.  I ended up buying two new everyday type bras.  One was on sale for $36 (the other was regular priced at $48).  OH, wait, one more bra at the semi-annual sale for $19 (regular $48).  Oh, and new underwear.  8 pairs.  On sale, too. I’ve never experienced “too big” underwear before!  Crazy.

Sweats.   My “new” sweats that I bought back in October are droopy big and falling down.  The problem- they are already size small.  Next problem- most places don’t sell fleece pants or sweats in size extra small.  Whoopsie.  That’s a good whoopsie, though.  I am NOT complaining that I can’t find size XS sweats!

Instead I bought 2 pairs of yoga pants from Old Navy (XS) and another pair from Victoris’s Secret (S):

Jim wanted to ‘reward’ me with some fancy designer jeans.  He was hoping I’d find a pair of trendy jeans for around $150.

I started out at Nordstrom Rack and bought a pair of “7 For All Mankind” super dark denim in a bootcut to wear as a dressy jean.  The pair I have are even darker than the image below.  They were regularly $169 and I got them for $99.00.

But then I found a second pair…. in the junior department…..they were casual but with fancy pockets and stitching.  They were made by “Big Star” and marked for $69 (regularly $99).

I got the OK to buy both pairs (after all that’s 2 pairs of designer jeans for about the price of one!)

During that shopping trip I learned that I was actually a size 26 in jeans which also translates to size 1 (Juniors). Never thought I’d see that day!  Most of my Lucky Jeans are a little loose now and I could probably handle dropping down another size in my Lucky’s, too, but I won’t.

I went shopping with my mom last weekend and found another pair of designer jeans that I liked, on clearance, so I had to buy them of course!  Silver Jeans Co “Aiko” style.  Again, size 26! (And no, that’s not me- I wish!)

They have the same fancy pocket and thick stitching that is trendy right now:

So here’s the breakdown:

-3 pairs of Lucky Jeans
-3 pairs of designer ‘trendy’ jeans
-3 Victoria’s Secret bras
-8 pairs of VS panties
-3 pairs of yoga pants

Total spent on my new wardrobe:  $493 (but regularly priced at $1,029.  Thank goodness for semi-annual sales, ebay, and clearance racks!)

Ahhhh…..shopping…..and a fresh SMALLER wardrobe = HAPPINESS.

I’m loving life!

Buying something on sale is a very special feeling.  In fact, the less I pay for something, the more it is worth to me.
~Rita Rudner