jianantonic | Bit o' happiness

I can't believe I forgot to mention this!
When I was getting ready for work this morning, I wasn't turned on by any of the clothes I'd picked out the night before, so I went back to my closet. I don't keep many clothes in my closet, really - I have a laundry fixture where I hang all my professional clothes for easy access (because I'm too lazy to walk from the dryer to my closet) - so mostly what's in my closet are things that are out of season or that I haven't worn in years. A pair of pants jumped out at me though. I'd bought them for my senior portraits just after my 20th birthday. That was when I'd first started gaining weight and wasn't quite feeling bad about it yet. They're a size bigger than what I wore the first two years of college, but a size smaller than what I've worn lately. I hadn't worn them since shortly after my portraits, because I had gained too much weight and they didn't fit. At this point, I've lost all but six pounds of the 30+ that I've gained in the 2 1/2 years since, but I'm still wearing larger sizes (grr) and I didn't expect them to fit. But I like them a lot and was feeling hopeful this morning, so I tried them on. And they fit! Comfortably! And when I went downstairs to ask the HR director if I could leave (since my boss was out sick herself, I couldn't ask her), she asked me "Are you losing weight? You look so small!" *GRINS* Now, I wouldn't go so far as to say "small." Compared to what I was, yeah, I am, but compared to what I was two years before that - still a lardo. But I'm getting there. And to think it only took me 3 months to get back to my healthy college weight, I could be down to high school weight by summer. Still not divulging numbers, but for some perspective:
When I started high school, I was too thin. Way too thin. My late-onset puberty added 30 pounds to that and then I was just thin. Still very thin, actually, but healthy.
I stayed thin in my two years on the basketball team. When I quit playing for the high school, my weight gradually climbed over the next two years by 20 pounds. When I graduated high school, I was still thin, but not skinny. Actually, I had a hot body at this point in my life. And my acne had finally cleared up. Man, I was a babe. (I took a little too much advantage of that, too. Senior year was my promiscuous year.)
College came and I went to the gym every day, maybe gaining 5 pounds over the course of my freshman year, but I went up two pants sizes. I could still wear small or medium tops.
In my second year in college, I met Jeremy, stopped feeling the need to impress, started the birth control patch, and within weeks had gained 20 pounds. I blame the patch. I was still going to the gym regularly, but couldn't lose any weight no matter what I did. And I was working out all the time. It was definitely the patch. I only went up one size with all 20 of those pounds, though.
Since meeting my beloved, I've had a series of events that led to packing on more poundage. 30 more over the next three years. Stress, remaining on the patch, breaking my foot...
Anyway, at my highest weight, I'd gone up one more size (though realistically, 2, I just didn't want to admit it and squeezed a lot of zippers to continue my denial). Right now I'm at the size I was when I was 20 and the weight I was right after being on the patch. I quit the patch earlier this year, and have had a drastic turnaround in lifestyle, as you all have read.
I'm happy with my progress. My short-term goal is to go down one more pant size by February, and lose those six more pounds by then, too. My long-term goal is to lose another 25-30 pounds and fit into some of my high school clothes. We'll see. I'd be really sad if I never wore my crazy jeans again...

Peace.