Lose Weight = Buy Tight Stuff

Forgiving tie sweater covers midriff rolls

I've been on a diet since January.  Not a killer diet , but a slow version of the South Beach Diet (Phases 2 and 3),  low-carb but sensible.  I snack on almonds, carrots, and mozzarella sticks.    I cheat with dried fruit and the occasional small bar of dark chocolate that I gobble in the car as soon as I buy it and then I hide the wrapper in the outside garbage bin.

It took me about five years to decide to do this, but it's worked.  When I was in San Francisco last week, I tried on clothes and discovered I've gone down a size. 

Then I proceeded to  lose my mind.

 I bought a dress, a cardigan, a pair of tight black pants, and a pencil skirt.  Two pairs of sandals, including one with a heel.   In my 62-year-old mind, in the privacy of the dressing room, I was downright glammy. Oh, yes!   I was a new person who was going to wear skirts and looked pulled-together all the time.

Then I got home, threw it all on the bed, and thought where am I going to where a pencil skirt in Berkeley, exactly?  And when?  To the Food Pantry on Mondays?  It was on sale, but so what?

Pencil skirt:  On sale, but where to wear?

I'm going to wear the dress in Boston at sweet Leah B.'s graduation in June, but after that?

And how, over the course of four trips am I going to keep off this weight and continue to fit in these clothes?  I'm going to Texas, where Jerry's daughter's going to provide pie for his birthday and his daughter-in-law adores bread pudding and I might as well go along?  Then I'm going to England, for God's sake, home of pub desserts and lager.  And a cruise where all the desserts are free and there are plenty of them?

By the time I get to New York City in the fall, I'm going to be back in my old jeans and that un-glammy skirt with the elastic waist that I've taken on every trip since 2007:

The much-traveled skirt:  Note comfy elastic waist

Wearing it in Riverside Park, New York City, 2007