Celebrating small victories

I am a reluctant tosser. Despite the three garbage bags of clothes recently donated from the depths of my closets and drawers, I will not get rid of clothes I absolutely love and have served me well. I will repurpose them if I need to. But, if it's not stained, ripped or out of style, the fact that I can't fit into an article of clothing will not stop me from wearing it.

Meet one of the greatest tricks I learned in pregnancy:

The elastic-through-the-button-hole.

(Stretch marks blended, courtesy of an app on my phone. But, trust me, my tiger mom stripes are pink and prominent!)

Here's the trick, use a rubber band or, in the case above, a hair tie and loop it over the button of the pants, through the button hole, then back around the button. In the case of my gray capris, it was the hooks I used and the button hole for the inner button.

After about two months of watching what I ate (I used the MyFitnessPal app on my phone to keep track) and getting back into yoga, combined with what I like to call "Park-ercise (future post coming), I lost 18.5 pounds! Oh, and having a restless toddler helps, too.

I am 4.5 pounds away from pre-baby weight. And, I have been able to incorporate more pre-baby clothes back into my wardrobe.

And, yesterday when I took my favorite pair of gray capris out of the closet and put them on, something felt different when I pulled them up. The usual tightness in the hips wasn't there. I went over to get my usual elastic (one of L.'s hair ties, actually) and was about do the usual thread-through when I thought, "Hmm, just for fun let me see if they can close on their own."

And, lo and behold, they did! And it wasn't cutting off circulation! And I didn't get painful red marks on my stomach from the waistband! And, despite falling off the wagon a few days this week but somehow maintaining my weight, I was able to get into my favorite pair of pants sans elastic! And, even though it was maybe an inch difference on my waist, and even though no one has said anything about the weight loss, I am pretty proud of myself. So I will take this victory for myself and my reward will be the fit of these capris. And, good thing too, since fall is right around the corner and capri season will soon be over!