The Progress Belt

While I have gotten rid of most of the clothing from when I weighed 300+ pounds, there is one item I am keeping: a 54 inch belt.

At my biggest, I needed to use the very outer hole in that belt. That hole is 56 inches (or 142 centimeters) out! Yes, I measured. I guess the elastic in the pants I had stretches a bit more than I thought.

As I started losing weight and inches, I punched holes in my belt. After the smaller pants I had kept from years ago started getting too big, I bought new pants…and a belt of the proper size.

That said, I am still using this 54 inch belt as a way to track my progress and remind me just how far I’ve come. It’s been critical since the scale has been relatively stable the last few months, yet my waist continues to shrink (slowly but surely).

The shorts and pants I bought with the 40 inch (about 100 centimeters) waist are now a little loose. And those XXL shirts I have kept for years and started wearing again are…a little big, now.

For most of my adult life, the only places I’ve been able to buy clothes that properly fit is ordering from the King Size catalog and/or going to Big and Tall sections/stores. You don’t realize just how much this limits your wardrobe choices or how expensive this is until you’re suddenly able to buy clothing in…a normal store.

In fact, I remember the first time I had done this. I had went to go get pants at Fred Meyer, which is one of the only local stores that has a Big and Tall section. While I did buy stuff from their Big and Tall section, I also bought stuff from the “normal” section as well, including a coat off the clearance rack from the “normal” section!

And then I discovered I could buy clothing from Costco, which was a game changer. Not necessarily for the selection, but the prices. And the fact it’s even an option now.

Meanwhile, I may (crossing fingers) have broken through my weight loss stall. I’m about a pound off my lowest weight this year, which I hit about two months ago, but my weight crept back up a little.

And yes, this weight loss happened just after I got back from Switzerland. I guess all that cheese didn’t hurt me. 🙂


Posted

in

by

Tags:

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *