Purge

Stats first…

Weeks Completed: 3
This week’s change: -1.5 (!!)
Net change: -7

I embarked upon a massive clothing purge this weekend, which was both discouraging and motivating.  I was harsh.  If it doesn’t fit today, it pretty much got thrown out.  Almost no exceptions.  Goodbye, stacks of maternity clothes.  Safe travels, old work clothes (2-3 sizes too small).  I even filled two plastic grocery bags with the former contents of my underwear drawer.  [I know, you're so glad to have gotten that last bit of info!]

On the one hand, it was a little depressing.  So many items that looked so small, compared to what I wear now.  Digging out pants that I remember really liking.  But it’s all dead weight.  I can’t wear it.  It’s taking up space in my drawers and my closet, obscuring the view of those items I actually can fit into.  I even tried some things on that might have been close, but if they were too tight, away they went.  Yes, it was a bummer to see how much I had gotten too big to wear.  But they’re just clothes.

Overall, the entire exercise felt great.  Light.  Liberating.  If When I lose the weight and my current clothes get to big?  Then I deserve to go buy a new pair of pants.  And, frankly, my body is a completely different shape than it was in my pre-pregnancy days, so who even knows what will fit me 10 or 20 or 30 pounds from now.  No need to keep the old stuff around.  Four huge trash bags worth (obscene, isn’t it?) will be picked up from my house on Tuesday morning (minus the undies, obviously).  Another two bags of maternity clothes will be given away as soon as I find someone who needs them.  It all served me well, but its time with me is done.  See ya.

Now, let’s hope the next time I do a big purge, it will be because all of my clothes are too big, right?

And, this week’s Sweet/Sour/Sweet….

Sweet, Thanksgiving is just one day.  I stuck pretty well to my plan on Thanksgiving, which was basically to give myself something of a free pass on Thursday, but get right back to it on Friday (and beyond).  Not perfect, but I did well.  Helped that it was a small gathering and we made half-recipes of the side dishes and only one small, non-decadent dessert.

Sour, too much freedom is not a good thing.  My “free pass” on Thanksgiving was a little too free.  I could have easily had a lighter lunch and eaten less overall than I did.  But I almost felt like I was taking seconds just because I had already decided to allow it.  Lame!

Sweet, rediscovering an old favorite recipe. Sometimes you get kind of bored of the old standbys, right?  I mean, I can only eat so much boring chicken in a week (and yes “boring chicken” is an actual dish in my house – plain chicken breast, cooked in a saute pan, served with a baked potato.  BORING!).  Looking through my cookbooks, though, I came across the handwritten collection of favorite easy recipes that my mom gave me when I graduated from college.  Plenty are not points-friendly, but a few are.  So I rediscovered my favorite way to eat a pork chop (recipe on my personal blog).  Spice it up, cook it in a pan, and it’s quick and lean and tasty.  Have a little unsweetened applesauce, some steamed broccoli, and a little couscous, and you’ve got a darn complete meal!  Bonus points if you make your own applesauce – couldn’t be easier, and it tastes SO much better than the store-bought kind.