Tuesday Check in ....It is all how you look at it.

It always amazes me how my day is shaped by the number on the scale, how I look in pictures, or how my clothing is fitting that day. My mood can be altered by what size clothing I manage to fit into. I know it is common, and we should not let it happen to us, but we do. It can turn the day around or start it off one extreme to another just all depending on how I choose to look at a number.

Today is a prime example. My scale is reading a good 3/4 of a pound heavy from what it was reading two days ago. Now the normal thing that would happen is frustration . Here it is , check in day and the scale jumps. I have been behaving , I have been walking, a lot. BUT this time it check in day also happens to land on good old Mother Natures visit. So instead of being upset, I was overjoyed to see that I am 127.2 ...well then it said 127.6, so who knows the ounces for sure....while it being THAT time. I am not bloated either. I mean a little, but not looking six months along , which is what normally happens. That is cause of celebration in my book and put a little pep in my step for my walk today.

The other thing I am wearing my size 6 shorts. AND I am able to sit. Being an hourglass girl , my size varies. It really depends on brands, and if it is a dress, jeans, tops etc. I believe Kim Kardashian and her sister Khloe when Kim states I am a size 2. Maybe her waist and dress size is. Her sister was reported to say, "I am a size 6, but my pant size is a 10, that is just how my body is made." AMEN!

I can wear anything from a 2-8 , and if I buy something at H&M that number climbs, even in dresses because it is European sizing. I find myself with a closet full of clothing that range from extra small to large. It all fits.

Funny thing about sizes as well, I weigh more now than I did in high school. I was 97 pounds dripping wet till I turned 18, when I jumped to 128 and it stuck ,and always seems to be my set point weight, or close to. I wore a 5-7...given that is junior size, but in women's clothing , even then I wore a 6 in pants. I still would say my average size is a 6 today. Sizes have changed. The manufactures have seen that we like to wear the smaller sizes, so they changed them. Do the research. I did once, and it amazed me how sizes changed from say the 1950's till now.

Marilyn Monroe , the perfect bomb shell, at 37-23-35 ( or so it was reported) 118 pounds and wore a size 12 dress and size 8 pants. She was taller than me, she was 5'51/2 , but think about it , size 12 and size 8! IF I was to reach 118 again ( a dream weight for me) I would wear a size 2 in a dress and a size 4 in pants
( though the waist would be big on me as I am hourglass/pear shaped.)...so as you can see sizes have really come down even if measurements stay the same. But everyone looks at her as near perfection... I know I have always adored her.

I will say that I have seen her JFK dress in person and it looked like a size 2/4 to me ..so it is all how you look at it. Does the number matter ? I know we live in a society that it certainly does. So it is easy to fall into that trap.

Take a look at these size 6's, women who all wear the same size as me. Valerie being closest to height and weight range that I am always at.......
Then look at me....these taken last night. ( forgive the blur)

I could choose to look at it , myself as having a long way to go, I do not look as fit and slender as these ladies do. But I have chosen to look at it as look how far I have come in just a couple of months. Sure it took me nearly two months to loose app. 5 pounds , but for me that is HUGE. I still need to tone up some more. I need to do my DVD to get rid of the heavy knees and commit to the crunches and pick up the weights....but for having had three children and being in my mid 40's and having genetics that have sadly been unkind in the way of cellulite and those pudgey knees and muscular thighs, I think I am looking pretty good. AND THAT IS HUGE. There was a time when you would not see these photos...I would have posted one like this where I am still a size 6, about the same weight , maybe even heavier, but where a dress always makes me look slimmer , is a better pic.... even in jeans and turned the right way I look better....

So it really is just how you look at it . And I am taking the high road with myself. HMMM maybe the Inner French Girl lessons are working after all!