Wardrobe malfunction

OK, not really a wardrobe malfunction, I just love that phrase.

I'm officially back down to a size 12!! I'm happy with that. That's my undergraduate size. While it would be nice to get back to 8/10 (high school size), I realize that probably won't happen and that's fine. 12 is a good size for my body type, especially if I keep working on toning up.

What I mean is that I now have to embark on the task of buying new clothes. Luckily a friend of mine with very similar tastes to me recently went from a size 12 to 8 so she's going to give me some of her size 12 stuff. What's also neat is that since 12 isn't considered a "Plus Size" (don't get me started on that term - a size is a size - plus what??) I can now find stuff that might actually FIT me in neat kitchsy 2nd hand shops. I generally hate clothes shopping and find that unless it's something standard (black pants), I can't find anything I really like in mainstream stores. Skirts, dresses, shirts - they're all fugly!

I haven't done anything in particular, except now I walk almost everywhere and go up and down 3 flights of stairs several times a day (at home and at work). I haven't changed my diet too terribly much except that I don't eat out nearly as much as I used to and I eat more vegetables. The only thing that scares me a little about that is that if I didn't really do much of anything special to lose the weight, then it could be easier to gain back.

Now I just have to get off my butt and keep doing the strength exercises on the Wii Fit. I realize it's a game and not meant to be a "trainer" but every little bit helps. Plus it gives me ideas for things to do on my own when the unit is turned off. I'm thinking about, one of these days, getting a small weights set for arm strengthening exercises.

I would have started going to the fitness center at work, for free, except that it's shut down now. The building that houses it is being razed in preparation for a new, bigger building. In the meantime, we have no fitness center for the students or staff. They are apparently working out some kind of arrangement with a local gym or another college, but I have yet to hear anything.

It'll be interesting when they tear the building down since I have a front row seat for the show: My office window looks out over the roof of our main building, directly at the tear-down building.

In other good news - since I've recently been toying with the idea of getting back into photography - a friend at work is selling me her Nikon D-50 digital SLR for cheap (like $200 cheap, like 10% of retail price cheap). She's upgrading and I figure that's a good starter camera to get back into the feel of manual photography. Ideally I'd one day like to get a really nice camera, but that will be a goal I set for myself after I get back into the habit of taking pictures regularly. I can't justify just yet, setting aside and saving up the kind of money the really good digital SLRs cost until I get back into it full-stride. Then we'll see. Once that happens and I get the hang of it, I might just start a photoblog.