If the pants fit...

Sorry for my absence over the past few days. It's been a whirlwind and this is the first real chance that I've gotten to sit down at the computer to do this.

I had another weigh in on Wednesday. I was down 0.6 which brings the weight loss total to 38.4 pounds. I know that 0.6 is not a huge loss by any means, but it definitely beats gaining that much, and I'm just happy that the scale is finally moving in the right direction.

On the heels of that wonderful occasion, my order from the Old Navy website came in Thursday. When I got home from class that night, I decided to get the stuff out of the package and try it all on to see how it looks.

Let me pause here for a moment and give some props to Old Navy. I don't know if any of you are aware of this, but Old Navy has a Women's Plus section online. They sell clothes in that section up to a size 30, and they are definitely NOT old lady clothes like we usually get stuck with at the Wal-mart or the K-mart. They are cute and sexy. And, since you can't return or exchange your merchandise in the store, you can print off a postage paid label to send it back to them if it doesn't work out. Totally awesome. So you should check out www.oldnavy.com as soon as you finish reading this.

Anyway, back to my brand spanking new clothing. I ordered a swimsuit, a pair of pants, and three shirts. Before starting Weight Watchers, I was in a size 26 pants. For Christmas, my mom bought me a pair of size 22 jeans, and they fit at that point. Now, they're starting to get loose, but they're not falling off as I walk through the house the way my 24's do. I ordered my pants from Old Navy in a 22, and the tops and swimsuit were all 2x's.

I tried the swimsuit on first, because I figured that it was going to be the biggest disappointment, so I'd get it out of the way to begin with so that the rest of my awesome clothing could lift my spirits. I slipped into the swimsuit with my back turned to the mirror. I adjusted the straps, took a deep breath, then turned around. OH MY GOD! It looked FABULOUS! It showed just the right amount of cleavage to be sexy but not slutty. It hit my legs in just the right spot to make my legs look slimmer. And it has a mesh lining inside the whole suit that must be made of some space age material, because it sucked everything in.

I have never, ever, ever liked shopping for a swimsuit. Now, I can't wait to order more from Old Navy. I go to the beach the last week of June. I'm betting that I'll end up having a different bathing suit for each of the seven days we'll be there. I love it beyond description!

Riding on the back of that glee, I grab the pants and one of the shirts I had bought. I slip the pants on and button them, then quickly slip into the shirt. The shirt looked fabulous and was very beautiful. The pants, however, were a different story.

They were too big!

I was so excited I went running into the living room to show my husband, who couldn't understand why in the world I was so excited that I had bought something that I was going to have to return. He couldn't understand the excitement that comes with trying on a size that is supposed to fit, then realizing that it needs to be smaller.

I quickly tried on the other shirts, and found them to be good. I might have been able to wear the next smallest size in them, but they weren't really baggy, so to avoid muffin-topping or having it cling to all the wrong places, I decided to keep the size I have.

The next day was going to be an errand running day, so I decided that before I sent my pants back to Old Navy to exchange them for a smaller size, I would run in the local store and try on a pair of pants. See, our local Old Navy carries up to a size 20 in their store. So I figured that instead of sending back the pants and exchanging them for a 20 only to have those be too small, I'd go in and see how it worked first.

I didn't see the pants that I have in the store, and realized that since it was a Women's Plus item, which are only carried online, they probably didn't have that style for the skinny girls. I decided to try on a pair of jeans instead, and I got a size 20 in the "Sweetheart Fit" jeans, and went to the dressing room.

I quickly disrobed and stepped into the jeans. I pulled them up, buttoned them and zipped them. Without trouble. Without sucking anything in first.

OH MY GOD!!! I was wearing a size 20. In Old Navy!

I went into that store with no intentions of buying anything. I was merely planning on seeing what size I needed in order to exchange my size 22 pants. But as I stood there turning this way and that, looking at my size 20 jean clad reflection, one thought kept running over and over in my mind.

There is no way on this earth that I am leaving here today without these jeans.

I begrudgingly put my old jeans back on and took the new ones to the counter and checked out. I had never been so happy to spend $29.50 in my entire life. The cashier kept looking at me funny, and I know I must have looked like either a maniac or mental patient, because I had this huge permagrin plastered to my face.

I didn't care that they watched me as I left to make sure I wasn't attempting to steal anything. I just bought clothes for my own body that actually fit in the Old Navy store.

So I came home and rushed through the door, totally bursting at the seams. My husband seemed happy for me, but he was definitely giving me that "Should I get ready to have you committed?" look. I ran to my bedroom to put the jeans on with my new shirts to see how they looked. Fan-freakin-tastic is exactly how they looked. I paraded each new shirt with the new size 20 jeans in to show my husband. He just smiled and nodded. I know that he was humoring me, because he had just seen these shirts the night before, and it wasn't like the new size 20 jeans suddenly transformed the shirts in any way. I was just so ecstatic that I wanted to run around the entire neighborhood, knocking on doors and saying, "You see these jeans? They are three sizes smaller than I was wearing 10 months ago."

Now, I'm super anxious to go shopping again. I want to try on every size 20 in the world to see if they fit, or if this was just a fluke. What if some other fat chick had already tried them on before me and stretched them out? But on the off chance that it was just a fluke, I want to clad my fat ass with as many size 20 pants as I can possibly find. I want to wear my pants inside out so that everyone can see the label. I have even briefly entertained the thought of having a t-shirt made the says "I've lost three pant sizes!" I want to wear those jeans every day. I want to eat in them. I want to sleep in them. I want to live every moment of my life in those blessed size 20's.

But alas, I cannot. They are, after all, only one pair of pants. But that's okay. I plan to get many more in that size, and smaller than that too. I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of a ruckus I'll cause when I get into an 18. I'll probably pass out or end up having to buy the size 18 pants because I got so excited that I peed them.

But for now, I'm proud of the 20. And anyone who enters my master bathroom will know how proud I am. You know that little sticker that they put on the leg of the pants to tell you the size while they're folded up in neat little stacks? Yeah, that sticker is prominently displayed on my bathroom mirror!