Then and now

For the record, I HATE having my picture taken.... but I thought it was worthwhile to see if there was any proof to my progress.  People tell me that they see the weight loss, but of course I can't always see it on myself.  Then I remember that on January 1st, 2012 I took  a "before" picture.   So this January, I took the same picture, wearing the same shirt:

While I'm only down 17ish pounds since then, I CANsee a difference.  The shirt hangs loser!!  Progress that I can see!

Maybe next January that t-shirt will be too big for me to wear at all.

Over the shoulder boulder holder

For Otto Titsling had found his quest:

to lift and mold the female breast;

to point the small ones to the sky; 

to keep the big ones high and dry!*

As most women know, when you lose weight you have no control over what area of your body that weight comes from.  Sure we can plank to build our ab muscles or do squats to tone our butts.  But ultimately the weight will come from where the weight wants to.  And 99% of the time it starts with the breasts.

I have had a love-hate relationship with my breasts for most of my life.  I was well endowed by the time I was 13 and by my early 20's I had back and shoulder pain and could only buy speciality size bras that were very expensive.  Then in my early 30's I had a breast reduction.  I lost 5 pounds in the course of 2 hours, when they removed 2.5 pounds of breast tissue from each side.  

But in the past 10 years I have put on a lot of weight.  And while my breast never got as big as they once were, they certainly gained too.  Now that I'm losing the weight, it seems to be melting right out of my bras.  So I went off on a quest to buy new bras.  Having large breasts has always meant that I had to shop in the utilitarian bra section.  Not very pretty, but VERY functional.  At best they come in two colours - white and beige.   Yesterday I decided to take the plunge and check out the rest of the bra section.  Armed with nearly a dozen styles and sizes I headed to the change room.  I'm never going to be an A cup but I did manage to find new bras that not only were affordable, they are actually nice to look at.

My first ever "pretty" bra!

*Lyrics from one of the BEST Bette Midler songs ever.

New me.

Now that I've lost 10 pounds (WOOT WOOT!) I decided it was time to do something about another part of me....my hair! I've had the same nondescript hair cut for the last 4 years.  I decided to change it up a bit this time.

So I went from this:

It was definitely time for a cut... it was wingy!

To this:

Now I need product and stuff, but I'm happy with my new look.

Before Pictures

This shot really shows off how bad my breast reduction surgery was.  I *knew* that I was lopsided, but I don't think I've seen it straight on like that.

If I'm going to be serious about losing weight and getting into shape, I need to know what I look like to start with.  Please ignore the frown/mean look on my face!  I HATE having my picture taken.