174.4 - Measuring In

Weight slowly heading in the right direction. With a scale that indicates percentages of a pound, you definitely want to weigh in the same time and nude daily. If weight goes down slowly, measurements are far more difficult to track. The weather dropped unexpectedly this week, and two pairs of jeans I tried on were four fingers from zipping up.

Today's about recording measurements. I wrote them down on Day 2, but it really won't matter in the long run if you wait a week. This diet is less about losing a finite amount of weight as it is about developing a new eating mindset. It is more about what I will look like, feel and be at the end of the year. It is ultimately about who I am by the end of the decade.

So, here's the start. I am 5'8.5", medium boned. Can't ever remember having a waistline. For at least a decade I have looked slightly pregnant. My natural waist is wear the measuring tape slights to the narrowest part of my circumverence. The "largest tummy" and "bust"need no further definition. I consider my legs to be my greatest asset, but when my upper thighs measure larger than Scarlet O'Hara's waist... Wait a minute, my calf is closer to here mythical waistline! I threw the tape measure around my shoulders, rather like a shawl, and recorded the broadest measurement; this is what separates the women from the girls, and what allows us to wear the same size tops regardless of how much weight is lost; up to a point, of course.

Natural waist: 40.5
Largest tummy: 45
Bust: 42
Upper thigh L: 23 R: 23.25
Calf L: 16.25 R: 16.5
Shoulder: 43.75

So that's it. Since these measurements seem to bear little resemblance to clothing sizes, they translate into a pretty comfortable 14 "this year". Given that the fashion industry is keeping up with the obesity problem in the USA, by ever increasing its sizes, I was wearing a 14 or 16 even in high school, but there is no way those clothes would fit today. I have a large size 16 jeans collection from 15 years ago, in my winter box from pre-Florida - they're all too tight. Personally, it's all about the bottom. There's little hope of changing those shoulders, until I look at my dad who age has shrivelled into a much shorter, tiny image of his former self.

The fashion industry allows us to get a little fatter each year and go to the store, buy the same size and not feel too bad, until we pull out previous year's clothing.

Day 4