battle of the bulge

First of all, I hope everyone had a joyful Advent and a merry Christmas.  I wish you a happy New Year.  Still in kind of a post-holiday fog here--exhausted but in a good way.  

Over the next few days, we'll be doing some shopping with gift cards we received.  I always enjoy that.  :) 

But none of that is the point of this post.  

Many bemoan holiday weight gain.  Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year all come relatively close togeher.  All involve lots of festivities and food.  Putting on a few pounds seems almost inevitable.

Strangely enough, I avoided it this year.  And then some.  

Rewind back several months.  I had gone for ages with ill-fitting clothes.  My pants especially just did not fit.  They were way too tight, and buttoning them was an unpleasant experience.  To say the least.  

I spent ages trying to shed a few pounds, with the goal of being able to actually breathe comfortably in my pants.  No go.  

Then a friend of mine gave me some clothes she didn't need anymore.  Ah, blessed relief!  The pants fit!  I could exhale and everything!  Shortly after that, two more generous friends took me shopping as a birthday gift.  Even more pants that fit (plus some tops to boot).  Problem solved.

Irony is a cruel thing sometimes.  Or maybe it's more of a joke played by Murphy himself.  But now, when I finally have larger pants, I start to lose weight.  And my lovely new pants aren't fitting as well anymore.  

They're getting too loose.

I know, I know--I shouldn't complain.  I get that.  And it's nice to see the weight starting to budge--really.  It's just frustrating that after all that time of trying to get my other pants to fit, I start losing now.

So if you're looking for weight loss tips, here's one--buy new pants.  Apparently that's what does it.