Making Better Choices

Since the focus of my lifestyle change isn't primarily weight loss, the doctor only weighs me every other visit. Although I am aware that I've lost at least 30 pounds, the numbers haven't been translating in my head, to the need for new clothes yet. Like most overweight people I have thin clothes and fat clothes so my closet is the source for whatever size I'm fitting into at the moment. However, I work wearing scrubs. Actually I wear the tops with my older slacks or this time of year, with my capri pants.

I hadn't thought about how my scrubs had begun to look on me. I had two tops that had been purchased in the fall right before the need to do something to help myself be healthier. I wore them until I found someone who could use them and didn't mind second hand clothes. They were size 22. Actually purchased not because they were the size I wore, but because I liked the print on them. They were admittedly, not so big on me that they looked sloppy.

Scrubs wear like iron. They don't stain the way our regular clothes can, and pretty much hold their colors even after repeated washing. Most of my scrubs were purchased in 2007 and still look fine, except they are getting so big on me that I look sloppy. I hadn't really thought much about that until the Director of Nursing made an off hand comment during an inservice a couple of weeks ago. She was addressing some client complaints against some of the aides who wear their clothes too tight.

Since the company doesn't give a clothing allowance, they can't demand that we wear scrubs. I do because they're cheaper than other styles of tops and more comfortable to work in since they give me movement room where I need it. We're pushing, pulling, lifting and reaching constantly so clothing that doesn't bind anywhere is something I want. Especially during hot weather. Nothing we wear is ever really comfortable when it's hot, but loose is the next best thing. Unfortunately at the end of her comment about clothing that is too tight she also said something about clothing that is too loose. I'm not sure she was aiming it at me. At the time, I wasn't thinking about how loose my clothes had gotten, so it never occurred to me that it was.

A couple of days later, while at a client who is the only one that says anything about my weight loss, she did something that surprised me. She reached out, grabbed a handful of shirt and pulled it out away from my body. I looked down and saw all this material that I hadn't seen before. It made my jaw drop. She probably had 6 or 8 extra inches of material pulled away from me, but it looked like twice that amount. Needless to say, I went and bought some new tops.

From nearly being big enough to need a size 22, my new tops are size 16. Tomorrow I'm going to pick up a couple of new pairs of capris to go with the new tops. I managed to choose colors that worked with the capris and slacks I all ready own, except, now that I think about it, by Fall those slacks will be too big. I still can't wrap my mind around having lost at least two sizes without counting calories or depriving myself of the things I want to eat.

I don't have a size goal, or a final weight goal. My goal is to be healthier, maintain a healthy blood pressure and experience less joint pain. Just making the nutritional changes recommended by my doctor has allowed me to rid myself of around 5 pounds a month, without any sense of deprivation at all. That's a mythbuster in a way. I've heard it said for years that weight is harder to take off when you're older, and frankly, from personal experience I have to say, no it's not.