Help! Part Deux

Okay all your fashion-forward people! I need your help again.

I have an interview on Friday – I have the jacket and the pants, but I don’t know what color shirt to wear underneath. I have a few options – weigh in below, or feel free to suggest a different color that you think might work! I have a cami/tank top problem and I’m open to enabling :-D

Sorry for the lack of consistency in angles/lighting. It’s 6:30 in the morning, I’m not exactly Annie Leibovitz.

The jacket is white with a black stripe, and I’ll be wearing basic black dress pants with it (not my pajama pants, as the pictures may suggest!)

So with that in mind, we have:

Coral:

Light Purple:

Baby pink:

Hot pink:

Choose away! And feel free to suggest something completely different, I’m open to write-ins! (I tied with “Bart Simpson” and “School Sucks” – name that quote!)

The other good part about all of this? That jacket is a 16. It’s from Lane Bryant so it might run a little large, but it’s a 16! And the craziest part is that I had no idea until I looked this AM – I honest to goodness thought it was an 18 when I bought it. So NSV! Yay! But…apparently my eyes are going bad? I didn’t look closely enough at the label. But what a fun mistake to make!

I'm here, I'm here!

I haven't fallen off any wagons, friends. Promises. I just...haven't felt inspired to post. I've been eating great but I don't really have much else to say. I'm lacking inspiration and feeling tired. I probably need to start exercising again, I bet that's a solution, she says as she puts her pajamas back on and scrolls through On Demand to see what movies are available...

I haven't been doing much. Yesterday afternoon, I did some grocery shopping. It was a dreary day and I looked like a college kid: 

I felt cute for some reason. I guess because I haven't worn those jeans in two years and I *love* that hat.

And I wore these shoes with it:

I love little splashes of color like that. Thanks, Target, for making fun and cute and cheap flats.

Got some good food. Frozen and fresh fruits and veggies, new bread (thanks for your input!), more greek yogurt, VitaTops, a couple of Lean Cuisine frozen meals, and some unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk - which tastes realllllly good with a scoop of my Amazing Grass Chocolate GreenSuperFood mix!

Since I did the shopping it's been nice to incorporate veggies and fruits back into my eating. I didn't have a lot to work with before!

Let's see...anything else? EHarmony updates...I'm "communicating" with a couple of guys. I got to the point of texting with this other guy last week, but...I just wasn't feeling it, I knew it wouldn't happen and just let that one go. I'm honestly kind of looking forward to when my 3 months is up so I don't have to go through it anymore...I'm not throwing in the towel just yet but...I think it'll be relieving to be done with it. Defeatest attitude, much?! The weather is killing me!

Yeah, I definitely need a pick-me-up. I haven't seen any friends since last Tuesday...nor have I been anywhere other than work-home-work-home, rinse and repeat! Oh man, I am complaining too much. Sorry, guys!

We'll end on the good stuff - the eating! I won't list all my eats for the last couple of days, but some of them were pretty tasty and worth sharing!

For breakfast, the last few days I've been eating the same PB&J Yoatgurt (thanks Janetha!) every morning and it is scrumdiddlyumptious every time. Agh I love it so much.

For lunch yesterday I had a sandwich: honey bran country bread (thanks Trader Joe’s!!) with turkey breast, mustard and romaine lettuce and 15 wheat thins fiber garden veggie crackers (couldn’t find my garlic & herb all-bran! These were good too though)

For dinner on Friday I had Trader Joe's Chicken Tikka Masala with a piece of tandoori naan. Sooo goooood.

Meality Bites

Thank you all SO much for your advice! I ended up going with hair down, nude hose, a pastel cami and a semi-chunky necklace. It actually looked really good. I *felt* really good. It was just the right amount of "personality". Not sure how the interview went - I'm always my worst critic.

(oh, for those that said to lose the white collared shirt, the whole thing is actually a dress, with the shirt and the skirt attached so unfortunately that wasn't an option! Otherwise that's exactly what I would have done)

In other news, my order from Amazon came in yesterday, so today was my first day trying chia seeds! They are fun! They added a fun crunch to my yogurt and I added them to my hummus for dinner just....because! 2 tbsp is 70 calories and if you read up on the benefits....wowza. Good stuff there. So they add a fun crunch and apparently do wonders for your body?! HOLLER. Gonna keep up the usage and see how it goes! For those of you that are already on the chia seed bandwagon, how much do you usually eat in a day? I've seen recommendations anywhere from 1-4 tbsp.

And now I'm going to crawl into bed and get a good long night's sleep. Sweet sassy molassy, I am so happy tomorrow is Friday.

Breakfast

*Strawberry Chobani with 1 tbsp chia seeds mixed in
*egg sandwich: multi-grain arnold’s thin, 2 slices avocado, little bit of ketchup, and ½ cup egg subst.

Lunch:

*salad from Mixt Greens: The “Siam”: mixed greens, green papaya, jicama, mango, cucumber, red pepper, fresh herbs, spicy peanuts, marinated tofu and a thai lemongrass vinaigrette. SO GOOOOOD!

Dinner:

*1/2 a tandoori naan dipped in red pepper hummus
*sandwich: tandoori naan with a veggie masala patty with red pepper hummus
*steaz black cherry sparkling green tea

By fashion show I meant....not a fashion show.

Sadly, friends, I have to take back what I said about the fashion show. I'm sorry!!!! I even went to Target just now to see if they had any dress skirts/slacks to give myself more options, but they stank up the joint with their selection. Which is to say, lack of a selection. I'm sure I'll have a wardrobe crises in the near future and this blog will be the FIRST place I come to!

After trying on two different dresses with my suit jacket, there is a clear winner, so much so that I don’t need to show you the other one. I feel better in this one, I look better, it looks better. It’s a little more straight-laced than I usually wear for interviews, as I like to have a little flair (ha, Office Space) but I think it’ll be okay for this organization, they’re more on the professional-dress side than the laid-back kind of non-profit.

Yes, that mirror is clean now (it's the mirror, not the dress.  I wouldn’t even want the evidence to see the light of day but it’s the best shot of the outfit. I cleaned it right after I looked at this picture. For reals.
I DO still need opinions on a couple things:

1) Is there a way to incorporate any sort of color/personality into this outfit? I could wear a colored tank-top underneath the dress, and it’ll peek through the v-neck part. I just don't want to be too severe, but maybe I'm not, you tell me!

2) Should I wear black hose/tights? Basically I’ll be in all-black. But I have nude hose as well. I have to wear something because it’s FREEZING out, and I’m pretty sure it’s appropriate for interviews. (Shoes are close toed so I don’t have to worry about any toe situation, thankfully)

3) Hair? HALP!

Waiting for My Meal Life to Begin

Looking in the mirror this morning (at home and in the bathroom at work) I’m starting to feel more like myself. I think this seems to be the threshold of weight where I start to “emerge” from myself. Anything above, I kind of feel like an inanimate blob. But now, I’m just starting to feel like a person who is overweight. I think that’s kind of a huge thing. I know I shouldn’t even be of the mind to begin with, but it’s nice to start coming out of it.

Also, I have these Lane Bryant pants I wore today...they’re size 22 and WAY too big on me for me to be wearing out in public. I mean, I’m wearing size 18 jeans comfortably, but it’s always nice to see my change in sizes reinforced!

During SWL1 I only got down to the tippytiptopperson of wearing 16s. I was at 197 and most of my 18s were too big, and I could only baaarely fit into one pair of my 16s. I really want to get to those 16s. I know it’s a ways away, but it’s really kind of a mini-goal of mine. I can’t remember wearing 16s. To me that’s almost a “normal” size, at least relative to my own experiences in the past 6 years or so!

PS – I am preparing you now – I need some help with choosing an outfit for an interview I have coming up Thursday. I’m going to have a fashion show on the ol’ blog tomorrow night. Usually Mother100in12 gives me her honest opinion on outfits but she’s (along with Father100in12) still down in Florida! …no doubt mocking the weather we’re having here. But anyway, just be ready for that tomorrow evening!

Breakfast:

*1 Vanilla Chobani with ¾ cup Kashi Honey Sunshine cereal mixed in

Snack:

*1 multi-grain Arnold’s Thin with 1.5 tbsp The Bees Knees PB&Co

Lunch:

*sandwich: 3 slices turkey breast, 1-2 tbsp red pepper hummus, small handful of baby spinach, 1 garlic naan
*9 baby carrots
*half a red pepper cut in thin slices
*serving of all-bran garlic & herb crackers

Snack:

*BlueBran VitaTop
*half a pink lady apple

*cup of coffee around 3pm…how long has it been since I had coffee? At least a week. (another at 3:30! Sweet sweet nectar…) total of 3 half&half things, totaling 45 calories, and ½ a splenda packet, 0 cals but aspartame…ewwwww

Dinner:

*salad: chicken breast, spinach, ¼ cup of each: goat cheese crumbles, craisins, pomegranate seeds.

(had over a gallon of water today, plus 2 or 3 cups of green tea, I can’t remember! I write it down at work and then…forget to bring it home with me. Meh.)

Two things

But first: So for this post title I was gonna try and find a good song with "Two" in the title (there are approximately 8 billion) so I searched "Two" in iTunes. Of course they give results for Two in the song, artist, album, etc. You know what song came up that I completely forgot about but totally love?? "Hoochie Mama" by 2 Live Crew. Remember that song?? "You ain't nothin' but a hoochie mama, HOOD RAT HOOD RAT HOOCHIE MA-MA". Haha, I sat here laughing at my computer for a solid 10 minutes. Good times.

Okay. On to the two things I was going to tell you.

One: EHarmony update. If you didn't see my Twitter feed on the side, I sent a message to a guy. This is a big deal for me and so far I seem to be handling it well. Maybe he won't write back, maybe he will and turn me down, who knows. But right now what's important is that I took that chance.

The other EH thing I did: I responded to a message from a guy that contacted me. Not only is it important to me to try putting myself out there, but I wanted to try giving someone a chance that I normally wouldn't. In the past, I haven't felt a connection with any of the guys that have shown interest in me. And yeah, either there really wasn't one or I wasn't willing to explore it. So I took a chance and responded to this guy. We'll see what happens with that.

So regardless of the outcomes of both of these moves, I'm happy that I did them at all.

Two: This is way overdue, but here's my pink $7.50 Target coat!

(it can close around me more but I usually just leave it open like that. and I am SO GLAD you guys backed me up on their weird sizing. Erg!)

(oh and I know I'm showing my face now and everything, but it's a lazy Saturday and my hair and face are totally gross. Just because I let you see who I am doesn't mean I'm not totally vein and need to be all done up to take a picture or video. Eeee!)

Just something I was thinking about earlier this afternoon…

My parents and I went into DC today to the Library of Congress; they are showing an exhibit of Herblock’s (actual name: Herb Block) political cartoons and we wanted to see it. The man worked for the Washington Post from 1946 to 2001. That’s insane.

Anyway, my ramblings don’t really relate to Herblock. But man, that guy was awesome.

Focus, self! Okay, so as I was getting ready, I just threw on some jeans, a blouse, and a cardigan to go over it. Then wrapped myself in a scarf and light jacket, slipped into my black flats that I wear almost everywhere, and I was out the door.

It wasn’t until a few hours later that I realized how incredibly easy it was for me to get dressed this morning, and more importantly, feel good in what I had on.

…It didn’t take over an hour to find the right shirt that felt right but also didn’t act as a sausage casing. I didn’t have to tug and pull or shift and scrunch and deal with all the smoke and mirrors it used to take to get me out the door feeling even remotely secure with my clothing choice.

…I could actually button the cardigan.

…I didn’t have to do squats and lunges to get my jeans just a centimeter looser to not cut off my circulation.

…I didn’t have to wear extra layers of regular clothes (and go through the same process above to find them) to make up for the fact that I didn’t have a jacket that fit me.

Yes, I still am in a transition phase; I have clothes that I love that are too big for me now (eventual tailoring will take place) and some that don’t fit me yet, or at least not to the standard of comfortably wearing it out in public. But for the most part, it’s so much easier for me to get dressed.

Such a simple concept that I don’t think I knew could be changed by losing weight. Of course I was physically capable of dressing myself previously (though it didn’t feel that way when tights entered the picture) but it wasn't easy, just like climbing stairs was a pain in the ass. So it's fitting that just as now I can whisk myself up both flights of stairs in our townhouse, I can throw on an outfit in 10 minutes and it comes together from Idea to Wearing It with ease.

The best part is knowing it's only gonna get better.