Is This Too Big?

Billy had to smile this morning, which, in turn, made me smile.

I broke down the other day and bought two new suits and a sweater dress. Belk was having a really good sale. They are also remodeling the store so they've cleaned out a lot of the areas and I could actually see the clothes for a change and it was not an overall unpleasant experience.

Some of you will remember that I have said on more than one occasion that I hate to shop. Always have. It just isn't fun for me.

Anyway, I went in looking for the sweater dress. I wanted just a plain black dress, preferably turtleneck, to go with several new scarves I got over Christmas. Sounds simple enough but that has been the task for the ages.

Spotted one, not a turtleneck but it would do.

As I was headed to the register I saw all these two-piece pantsuits.

My standard work attire.

And they were on sale.

I bought two.

I am very short so I almost always head for petites.

One of the suits didn't come in a petite so I got the regular. The jacket was just too gorgeous to pass up at least trying it.

Needless to say, there was more than enough extra material in the pants. I had them all scrunched up and they still fell below the bottoms of my high-heeled boots. But, as Billy pointed out, the pants were black and there is no shortage in my house of black pants so I just swapped them out and wore the jacket.

Which I thought also looked a little big.

Today, I have on the sweater dress. I bought a large because I don't want it to be all tight and clingy. I just wanted to hang nicely.

For the second morning in a row I walked into the kitchen and asked "Is this too big?"

After assuring me that it wasn't Billy just looked at me and said "You always used to ask if something was too tight. Now you're worried about too big."

I realized that I have come a long way in the last 3 years (January 2007 was my start month for this quest for fitness). I saw some of my charts earlier in the week and I could see the progress that I'd made.

And it makes me smile.

Am I where I want to be? No. I'm still not back under my ceiling weight that I thought I could reach so easily. I'm closer - more in the attic than on the roof, but one day this week I was on the top of the chimney so it has been a struggle but I am headed in the right direction.

But sometimes you just have to step back for a second and appreciate what you have accomplished to date. Doesn't mean you give up on your ultimate goal or get complacent with where you are - you just take a minute, or more, and recognize those accomplishments and milestones you have already made and then go from there.

Maybe you do it in a new black sweater dress.....