Saturday, October 24, 2009

Shedding Items

On Thursday, we cleared out quite a bit of room in our house as we purged ourselves of some things. The girls got a lot of new stuff for their birthdays so we had to clean out their play room and get rid of some things that either they didn't play with any more, were too broken to use or have just outgrown them. We took them all to goodwill.

The girls got rid of a few things, and Kennedy in particular was sad to get rid of this:


That's Yvie on the little rocking horse, and she was probably around 18 months when we took that picture. Kennedy eventually liked riding that little horse but recently she'd become rather big on it. She towered over the poor little horse so it wasn't really usable any more so we donated it and many other things. She was sad, but I tried to explain that some other little boys and girls would get to have a horsie of their own because she'd been so generous.

Something else we used to rely on quite a bit that is now gone:

That's Kennedy on the swing, probably around 7-8 months of age. The swing never really worked wonders like I'd hoped. Yvie, when she was very young, would fall asleep on this or another swing we used to have and I think that lulled me into a false sense of security, thinking that it was supposed to work that way.

Well, Squirrel here hated the swing, hated being in it and I don't think napped on it very much, if at all. It'd taken up room in our garage for a long time before I finally grabbed the pieces and put it with the rest of the stuff to take to goodwill.

Some other things that made their way to the local goodwill store were clothes of mine. Old clothes.

No, it wasn't the size 44 and 42 pants and the XXL shirts I used to rely on. Those I'd gotten rid of a long time ago. It was the size 36 and 38 shorts and pants that took up space in the corner of my closet, clothes never to be worn by me again.

I wear size 32-34 pants, depending on the brand, and mostly L shirts.

I was happy to get rid of the clothes but some of them brought back some memories. One pair of pants in particular at one point were a landmark pair. I don't think I ever took any pictures in them so you'll have to use your imagination. It was spring of '07 and I was back on course with my weight loss. I lost 60 pounds with the help of a trainer in '06 but had done little to lose weight from November 06 to February 07, and weighed around 250 pounds. But once I started to get back into the swing of things I bought myself a pair of pants. I think I was still wearing size 40 when I bought this pair of pants. It was size 38, length 32 and a different style than I'd worn. It was sort of faded in the front and dark blue in the back, kinda stylish. I hated wearing stylish clothes because I always felt that it was not possible for me to look stylish and weigh 300 pounds at the same time.

Anyway, I remember wearing those pants for the first time in May 2007, late May. Might have been early June. Whenever it was, I wore them and felt damned proud of it. They were tight the first time I wore them out, but I fit in them. I fit in size 38 pants! I was quite esthatic about that.

On Thursday, they looked in great shape, as did all the other clothes I gave away. You've got to remember that I went from 42-44, XXL to 32-34, L in about 20 months so I wasn't in the 36-38, XL range for too long. But I couldn't wear size 40 pants comfortably when I was in 36-38 so I bought me some clothes at that size but before long I was shopping for 32-34 (!) as that's what fit me best.

I didn't give away these clothes here recently. These clothes are long gone, but this is about the size I was in mid-2007, from about spring to early summer.

That was Easter (duh) of '07. I didn't spend much time in that shirt and was glad to get rid of it. Never cared for it.

This was in June of 07. I used to wear a lot of shirts that style, and now I go out of my way to not wear anything like that. Just reminds me too much of the bad old days.
I did give these shorts away. You can't tell they're shorts but they are. The shorts were size 36 but a big 36, could have been 38. The shirt (which I still have but rarely wear) is an XL. I remember this day feeling very fit and slim. I wasn't slim of course but I felt good (even though I have some sort strange look on my face, like I was constipated or something; what's up with that?). I was probably in the 230s or so, 230s and dropping.

The best thing about dropping weight is the clothes. Bar none. I mean, as far as tangible things go. I have a whole new wardrobe now and wear things now that I never thought I'd wear.

It's good to have shed myself of the last batch of big clothes.

And just so you don't have in your mind that portly image of yours truly, here's a recent picture of me:

This was one week ago today. Can you believe it was 90 degrees out and we're looking for Halloween pumpkins? Crazy.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Cleaning out the closets and shedding items. What a beautifully put metaphor on your life these past few years. Perfect!

Willoughby said...

Now that's what I'm talking about! If that isn't motivational, I don't know what is!

Lissaloo said...

I love when we have cleaned out enough stuff to make a Goodwill run, makes me feel better. I am jealous of the 90 degrees it's pretty cold and windy here today :)

Angie Eats Peace said...

I loved getting rid of my bigger clothes. I held on to them for awhile, "just in case" but then I decided I would never let myself get to that point again!

Ditto about the pumpkin patch. I took my brother there last week and was sweating :/