You down with NSV's? Yeah, you know me!

On any weight loss journey, NSV's, or non-scale victories are SO important! Think about yourself and any time that you have tried losing weight. If you are ANYTHING like I used to be, you might have been dependent on seeing that number on the scale budge...praying that it would go down by more than one pound at a time. I will be perfectly honest with you; I still like to see that I have lost weight. Do I weigh myself on the scale like I used to? NO. I typically weigh myself at the beginning of a round of 21 Day Fix, and then at the very end (so, 22 days later). The rejoicing that I am able to do in-between "weighings", those are non-scale victories!

Yesterday, I decided to do something that was LONG overdue...I cleaned out my closet! Boy, did that feel AMAZING!

When I embarked on this journey of health, I had so many clothes. I had t-shirts, dresses, dress clothes...the works! However, I didn't have the confidence to wear ANY of those clothes.

I started out cleaning my closet by taking EVERYTHING out. I took everything off of the hangers and tried on EVERY article of clothing that I own. I thought that it was going to be a daunting task, but it seriously turned out to be SO MUCH FUN! I only kept the clothes that fit me and that I LOVED. My mom has always said, "If you don't love it, you're not going to wear it." That is so true! Now, I had some awesome music playing in the background...so of course I was a cleaning, dancing fool...but I wouldn't trade any minute of it. (If you had walked by my room yesterday, you would have thought that it was a casting call for a SNL skit making fun of "So You Think You Can Dance", but...I had fun!)

The first item of clothing that I tried on was this t-shirt. I'm not sure that you can read the logo on the shirt, but it says "Hiland Park Elementary QUEST". This shirt is from THE FOURTH GRADE! How incredibly exciting is it that I am wearing a shirt that I wore in elementary school? Now, I'm not going to lie...part of me was wondering why I still had this shirt, and the other part of me was wondering how it hadn't disintegrated or rotted...but still pretty exciting! I probably danced around in that shirt for a good 5 minutes (plus, I'm wearing skinny jeans, so that was another reason to dance)!

After trying on that shirt, I tackled ALL of the pants/skirts/dresses that were in my closet. I figured that if I could fit into that shirt and feel GREAT about it, I might as well wear it as long as possible! Well, what happened next is enough to make you laugh! These pants right here, I bought them to wear when I was doing my student teaching (August 2012-December 2012). I would wear them when I would accompany the band to football games, and would wear them on more "casual" days at the middle school. Thank goodness these things do not fit me anymore!!

HERE is where it got fun. (Now, it is not funny that I used to be able to fit into them...I was seriously unhealthy.) I felt like an oompa loompa putting these pants on and maybe it was the music that was playing, but I walked around my room doing my own version of what I imagine the oompa loompas would do. Can you imagine being a fly on the wall for that?!

          

There was seriously so much room in those pants that I was able to fit almost my entire body into them.
At times, I do not realize JUST HOW MUCH my body has changed over the past 4 months, because I see myself everyday. When other people see me and make a comment about how great I look, I am thankful and I am proud of myself for all of my determination and hard work, but I truly do not understand the enormity of the accomplishment until something like THIS happens. :)

So. I knew that I had those pants, and that shirt was a surprise to me, but the clothing that I found next was a big surprise. I didn't even know that I EVER owned these things.

 I'm really not quite sure when I ever got this windsuit (obviously at some point while I was in college...or maybe it was my mom's and was then given to me), but I DO know that it is incredibly comfortable and is staying in my closet on that off chance that I one day get picked up by a travelling basketball team or some community boxing league.

In all seriousness, though, I will probably use it to run in...so it stayed.

At this point, I felt a little bit like the girl in 21 dresses. You know the part of the movie where she tries on all of her bridesmaid dresses and the reporter is taking pictures of her? Yeah...that was what was running through my mind here, so I decided to have fun with it. That community boxing league better get ready, because I'm coming for them!!

(At this point growing up, my mom would have come in to my room and told me that I was wasting time and that I needed to get back to cleaning...but, that doesn't happen anymore so I continued to have fun with this!)

ALL last school year, I would wear a mixture of casual clothes (jeans and a t-shirt) and more professional "dressy" clothes to work. When I wore jeans and a t-shirt, I felt more comfortable than in my dress clothes...so when I wore dress cloths, I used to wear a cardigan, like this one (and three others, just in different colors), to feel more secure. It wasn't any sort of fashion statement, it was my "security blanket". Now don't get me wrong, I love a good cardigan...but this one made me feel like a librarian. A very OLD ninja-like librarian.

Next up, these dress pants. So...these were probably about the sixth pair of black dress pants that I tried on yesterday. (In college, the symphony band wore all black, so I had SO MANY all black outfits.) I started with the pants that I wore most recently (this past school year), and when I could put them on without buttoning them, I knew that it was into the GET RID OF pile for them! I slowly began working my way down in sizes, and eventually wound up with this pair...the smallest pair that I own (well, owned). I am perfectly okay with getting rid of all of these clothes and having to purchase new ones, because I KNOW that I am not going back to ANY of the sizes that I was before.

Now, this next outfit truly blew me away. You see, sometimes we get gifted clothes from other people. Whether they are brand new (which this is) or hand-me-downs, sometimes you just fall in love with an item and don't want to part with it. Well, that is this sweater. I had a friend who bought this, thinking of me, but it NEVER fit. I couldn't even get it over my chest to try it on. I begrudgingly put it back onto the hanger and hung it in the back of my closet. 

I love how it has the little bit of sparkle at the neckline. I love how it is super soft. I love how it is almost like a "burnout" sweater, so I can wear a tank top or camisole underneath of whatever color I want and it will show through. Most of all, I LOVE that it fits.

I don't remember which friend gave it to me, it has been that long, but if you're reading this and you remember... THANK YOU!

So, what did I learn from all of this?

• Hard work, dedication, and determination will help you achieve your goals.
• I need to clean out my closet more often.
• My clothes used to be SO HEAVY.
• I have really "found" myself in this weight loss journey. Before I would not have even liked having my picture taken, let alone HAD FUN with taking pictures!
• The scale can be your enemy. Focus on the non-scale victories!

You down with NSV's? Yeah, you know me!