Starting Measurements

Belated, but here. My measurements:

Bust 49"
Chest 42"
Waist 48"
Hips 57.5"
Neck 16.63"
Forearm 14"
Wrist 7.63"
Upper Arm 17.25"
Calves 21.5"
Thigh 33.5"

I'm not going to update them every week, but I will try to update them once a month or so.

Popping My Etsy Cherry

Monday I discovered Etsy.com. I know, I'm very late to the party. After like seven hours of browsing on the internet, I jumped.

First, this awesome Upcycled vintage mustard yellow purse. I'm so in love with this. First, the color is perfect to wear to work, but hip enough to wear with casual outfits, too. Second, the hand detailing is beautiful, and small enough to keep the purse looking professional, but interesting and pretty. I saw it on Monday, and placed it in my cart, going back and forth over whether or not to get it. Finally, I decided that I'd never spent that long contemplating my love of a purse. It had to be a sign. I can't wait for it to get here! Rachel, the artist, has tons of other awesome upcycled luggage and bags. Check her out!






Second I bought this beautiful swallow headband. This one was love at first sight. There's another one available in the artist's shop here.





I also adore this Pemberly necklace, but it'll have to wait until next month. Maybe I'll send the link to R for my birthday. It's next month, and he always asks me for a list of ten ideas.

Healthy You Challenge Check In #4

This was a bad week. I didn't exercise when I knew I should be. Not exercising gave me a lot of extra free time, most of which ended with bad food decisions. Also was feeling kind of down yesterday and today. I don't know what about, but it all seems to be connected. I also could not fall asleep last night. Frustrating. Everything feels blah and frustrating.

R comes home from work and he's got another fifteen hundred calories for the day, meanwhile I'll have four hundred left. I've been getting jealous of the way he's able to eat big dinners. If I don't eat every few hours, I feel really ill.

The scale still says "OL." I'm a little disappointed, I'll admit it. If I had had a good a week as last week, I might have made it under 300. Four weeks was the earliest possible week that I thought I might crack it. If I'm still over 300 next week, I'm going to be frustrated. Need to focus a lot of energy and take advantage of week five. I need to make it count!

Last week I said I'd post my measurements to keep track of, but for the life of me I can't find any of my four or five tape measures. Tomorrow I'll bust out the yarn and ruler. Somehow that seems much less sexy. Oh well. Too tired to mess with it now, but it will definitely be posted tomorrow. I know y'all can't wait.

Gonna finish watching the Colbert Report and try to get some sleep tonight.

So as to not be entirely doom and gloom, I am very proud that I ate within my calorie limit today after going over it so many days in a row. It was a struggle, but I won.

Win a Pair of Tights from We Love Colors!

Between now and Friday, June 19th, you can enter to win a free pair of tights from We Love Colors by heading over to the awesome Elle in Wonderland and leaving a comment about what color and style you'd want if you win. We Love Colors tights are awesome, and they have sizes for girls up to six feet tall and 375 lbs.

(h/t The Pretty Pair)

Big Girls Need Cute Clothes, Too!

You don't start living healthy, and then wake up three and a half weeks later strong and svelt. No, if you start out at 320 lbs, then three weeks later you wake up slightly lighter (maybe 10 lbs or so), but still very fat. And still in need of that specific shopping acumen that helps a fat girl focus her efforts on the stores and websites that cater to her.

I've been thinking about new clothes for the last few days because I (hopefully) will be starting a new job next week. Thus, I need to get new work clothes for summer. I need business casual, but flattering and young.

I've talked before about Old Navy's activewear (which is awesome). I can usually wear and XL or and XXL, depending on style, direct from the store. However, their website has tons of plus size stuff. I love online shopping, so I don't mind this so much. Although I do think their sales would go up if they carried the plus size stuff in the store.

I especially like these:







Lane Bryant is every large girl's friend or foe depending on the latest store arrivals. I feel like most of their stuff for this summer sucks, but there are a few cute looks for work:



And I LOVE this dress, but I would definitely need to try it on first:


Eh, I'd probably need to drop 30 or 40 pounds before this would look cute. But I'm definitely going to try it on next week.

Torrid is great for fun, casual looks, but they have a great basic pair of kitten heels in black I need. I have them in red, and I love them! At 5' 10", I need kitten heels!



And I want this dress for summer date nights:


I love the idea of these dresses (paired with a sweater) from b&lu, but I don't know if I could pull the trigger and get them:




And from Avenue, I love these tops and skirts:








Well I don't know what I'll end up being able to afford, but the pre-shopping internet search is my favorite part of the process anyway. There's no dressing rooms, and you can pretend that you can afford EVERYTHING. Of course, when there's actual money involved it will be a different story.

If you know of any great stores that have online ordering for Plus Size clothes that I haven't listed, please share your tips in a comment!