NSV #7

Last night our high school had the prom, and every year a group of my teacher friends and I like to go for an hour or so to see all the kids all dressed up.

As I was trying to decide what to wear last night, my eyes fell upon a dress that I haven’t worn for at least a year. I bought this dress over 2 years ago, and loved it because it was really flattering, showing off my small waist, and accentuating my hourglass figure. Plus, it has sort of a retro 50’s feel to it that I love.

I remember clearly trying on the dress about a year ago, hoping to wear it for some event or another, and as I put it on over my head, I heard a riiiiippping sound. Ugh. I had ripped a seam on the side of the dress! Guess I wasn’t going to be able to wear it anytime soon.

So last night I decided to try it on and see if it would fit. It did! It was a bit tighter than it was when I originally bought it, but it flattered my figure nicely, and I could breathe in it. I had to do something about the ripped seam, so I called CBCB and asked her if she had a sewing kit. She did, so I headed over to her house to play seamstress before we left for the prom.

This morning I dug up some pictures of myself from the last time I wore the dress — New Year’s Eve 2006 (about to be 2007). The dress was quite a bit tighter on me in those pictures, but the most striking thing was how much fuller my faced looked. For the past 10 years, I’ve been all about the headshot. “Take pictures of my face and avoid anything full-length,” I’d direct whomever was snapping the photo. Well, even with these pictures that were only waist-up, I can see how far I’ve come in a relatively short amount of time.

It was so nice to be able to fit into a dress that was too small for me in the recent past. Losing almost 24 pounds has shown me what a difference it can make in the look and feel of the clothes I wear. So many of my jeans are getting really baggy, but I refuse to buy new clothes until they’re falling off. I’d rather spend money on clothes I’m going to have for a while, rather than some “in-between” clothes to get me by. Plus, I think I have enough clothes in smaller sizes to make due.

I felt great in that dress last night because it looked good on me, but mostly because of the way this weight loss is making me feel about myself. I’m accomplishing a goal that has eluded me for years, and that’s the biggest NSV of all.