Shallow, maybe, but happy

I've seen a bunch of benefits from losing weight and getting in shape. I'm clearly healthier. My diabetes is under good control. It should be positively affecting my fertility. I've learned what a great stress reliever exercize can be, and how much I can enjoy it. I got to feel the pride and accomplishment of running a 5k.

Good health and touchy-feely happy stuff is all well and good, but I'm not going to lie to you. The best part, the absolute best part is being thinner. I love the fact that people who haven't seen me in a while are amazed at how I look. I love how much more confident it makes me feel. And I love how much easier it is to buy clothes.

I was seriously booked with stuff to do on Saturday, so I didn't have much spare time to do anything. However, one of the things I had to do was go to my friends Dave and Valerie's son's baptism. And before I could do that, I had to find something to wear. I'd been meaning to try to get to a store down by my office all week, but I ended up working late every day, so it just never happend. One of the few drawbacks to Frederick is the lack of good clothes and shoe shopping, but there is an Ann Taylor Loft near my house, which I thought might do. Otherwise I was going to have to try to squeeze in a trip to the mall on my way to DC for the baptism, which would have been complicated.

Pre-weight-loss, a last minute trip to the store like that would have been a nightmare of avoiding styles that didn't work on short, round me, trying not to spend a lot of money on clothes that made me feel unattractive, and hating the size I had to buy, wasting time trying on a bunch of stuff that didn't look good, and generally being miserable. Instead, on Saturday morning I walked in to the store, spent 10 minutes wandering around to see what I liked, tried on two dresses, looked good in them both, and walked out of the store with an outfit that was both cute and baptism-appropriate. And that was 40% off. The whole process took less than half an hour. I felt so good I practically danced my way to the car.

That feeling will most definitely motivate me the next time I turn down a piece of cake, avoid a soda, or drag my tired ass to the gym when I'd rather sit on the couch. So to anyone out there who is struggling to get started losing weight, impatient for results, or looking for a reason to stick with it, take it from me -- it is worth it!