Waist size

Oh baby this is awesome.

I went shopping at the Levi's Store today with Frank and Jess (who have now become my personal shoppers it seems) and it was epic.

Best part about today (other than finding 2 pairs of awesome jeans on sale)... my waist size is now 33. Thirty-frickin'-three!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Actually, even some 32's fit in some styles. Crazy.

I've been a size 36 waist solidly for at least 8 years, maybe even 9 or 10. That's insane. I haven't had this small a jean size since probably Grade 11. This is ABSURD.

I'm so excited and psyched at the news. I was expecting to drop to 34 but didn't expect that 33 would fit. Was SHOCKED that some of the 32's even fit me, that's totally crazy. That's like my Grade 10 waist or something. Just insane.

I was reading some health blogs a while back which said waist size is a very important factor in health and you should really be concerned about a lot of fat - specifically fat placed around the belly area - so this drop is massively awesome.

As with the "Fat Former Self" photos, by buying awesome and somewhat expensive jeans now at this waist size, I'm "baking in" my progress by setting up pillars (in this case, they are made of expensive clothing) so that I have increased self/social pressure to maintain my weight long-term. The thought process is roughly this: "these jeans look great and I feel good in them, plus I spent a bunch of my hard-earned money on them. I have to make sure I get a lot of good use out of them. So I can't put this weight back on! EVVVVVVERRRRRRR!!!" I'm also donating my entire stack of 36" jeans and other pants to Goodwill. This is intentional as well, not only for the clothing recycling aspect of it, but so I can't pretend I have a bunch of clothes that will fit well if I "only gain back a few lbs..." That's where the disaster starts, so I am gonna make sure to keep "baking in" my awesome progress.

Let the fitness goals continue...

PS. Seems like I've been thinking about and writing a LOT about health, weight loss, fitness, healthy eating etc. over the past 9 months. It seems important enough to me now to make it a blog "topic". So I am gonna now try to remember to tag posts with the label "Healthy Living and Fitness" so I can group them all together as I keep writing about this stuff.