Kiss My Knits!

Now that we’ve all had a chance to marvel at the wonder and beauty of The Dress, the real question is, will I fit into it in time?

I bought the dress on July 10th. The Browncoat Ball is the weekend of October 22nd. After trying the dress on, I decided I’d probably have to lose about 25 pounds to fit into it, although it’s tough to say whether that’s the correct mark to hit. The tag reads “size 10?” because of course, the woman didn’t make it to sell, she made it to her own measurements. Also, I have no idea whether 25 pounds would put me back into a size 10, a 12, an 8, or what. I think it’s the right target, but who knows?

So. 25 pounds in 15 weeks would be 1.6 pounds a week. Not a lot of forgiveness in that schedule if you slack off for a week when, for example, you go to the beach with your family as I did a couple of weeks ago. To stay on track, I should have lost 13 pounds by now. How am I doing?

I’ve lost 9.

So no. I’m not on pace, and I probably will not be able to fit into the dress for the Browncoat Ball.

But you know what? Surprisingly, I’m okay with that. Sheath dresses like this are notoriously unforgiving in the chest area, and even when I was a svelte size 6 that was an issue for me. It’s possible that even if I got down to a perfect 10, as it were, I wouldn’t have been able to wear the dress. I’m okay with it because in working toward this goal, other things happened.

I joined the YMCA because they have an indoor track, very useful for a runner in the summertime in the South. And until I started work this past week, I was running every day or so. I do the Couch to 5K program and downloaded an excellent app for that onto my iPod. I can listen to my music and it verbally cues me when I should walk and when I should run. I’ve achieved a higher level than I ever have before.

While I have been too tired after work to run, I did make a special effort to get up early and run on Thursday since the weather was beautiful. This isn’t easy – as you can see from the picture at left, there’s a hell of a slope on our street. We don’t call it Mount Doom for nothing. As I get into the swing of things with the job, hopefully I’ll be able to work out some kind of balance between work and exercise. It’s all too new to say just how that’ll work out.

I was worried that weight loss would stop with the new job, but actually, it’s keeping me so busy I don’t really have time to eat. There is also no snack machine there, so as far as food is concerned, if I don’t bring it, I can’t eat it. I’m making a point to bring healthy foods. And my job requires me to walk a lot more than I thought it would, so I’m probably moving more in the course of my every day work than I was before I started there. For instance, my rear end and shoulders sore today from holding myself in a particular way while leaning over a piece of equipment on Friday. Go figure.

Even at just 9 pounds of weight loss, I weigh less now than I have in five years. I’ve gone down a size. I wore a favorite pair of khaki pants to work on Friday and I had to keep hitching them up. I’m definitely out of the plus size department for everything except my bras. What can I say? “The Girls” have always been larger than life.

But most importantly, since I began exercising regularly, my blood pressure has dropped from 140/95 to 112/80, putting me back in the normal range. I’m off my medication. If nothing else happens, buying that dress will actually save me money since I’m not buying drugs. This dress is paying for itself! Furthermore, now that my blood pressure is normal, my frequent headaches have stopped. I thought there was a link, and it seems I was right.

Will I wear the dress at the Browncoat Ball? I don’t know. If I had to guess, I’d say no. But buying that dress was the first domino to fall, causing me to take actions that have markedly improved my life. Unbelievably, buying a dress that I couldn’t fit into was the smartest thing I did all summer.

Behold the power of fitness, of fashion, and of Firefly.