28 Pounds is No Joke

Things that weigh 28 pounds include:

1. 4 average-size newborn babies
2. 5.6 5-pound bags of flour
3. 28 guinea pigs

Things that weigh 28 pounds less than they did on Jan. 24, 2010:

1. Me

When I started my journey to a healthier me, I planned on not blogging about it. I didn't want the written pressure to be hanging over my head. What if I failed? What if I actually gained weight after writing about how well my plan was working?

Fortunately, my weight continually has been dropping as my healthy habits have taken a front seat. I know I have been losing weight - I see the numbers getting smaller on the scale - and I can see my body transforming. This is the best I have felt in quite some time, but I still struggle with those not-quite-there parts of my body (hello, spare tire) that I obsess about while staring at myself in the mirror.

Things may never be perfect - the magazine-cover perfection even I strive to achieve - with my body. But progress should be celebrated, as many of my friends have told me. It's just how do you, when you look day after day, really know when that progress is significant enough to celebrate? I'll tell you.

It's when you finally realize the clothes you are used to wearing are hanging off of you in a way that's not at all flattering. You go to the closet, pull out a $150 shirt (I don't want to talk about it) that you only have worn once. It's that shirt you bought because it was so impressive and unlike anything you ever had seen before that you actually justified the insane pricetag ... even though it was a little snug around the midsection. Plus, it was 50-percent off. Yes, at one point, this particular shirt would have cost someone a cool $300. Not a bargain shopper like, me, of course.

You slip the shirt on, one sleeve at a time, and you slowly button from the top to the bottom - opposite of your usual buttoning routine, because the top of the shirt never has been the problem. When you're five buttons down, you realize it's about to happen. This is the day you can button the shirt entirely down the front and still have room to raise your arms without feeling like you're strangling your belly button.

I was on the phone with my best friend while trying on my "skinny shirt." It turns out I have quite a few skinny shirts hidden in the darkest part of my closet, tucked behind my tuxedo and winter coats.

Four shirts later, I realized my wardrobe has gotten a serious upgrade. The best part? I didn't even have to pull out a credit card to make it happen. All I had to do was get motivated and drop the equivalent of the average 2-year-old child ... plus three pounds.