Shopping Marathon this weekend

So....it was a little bit of a change of pace this weekend. Last weekend was the Hutt City Triathlon and this weekend was a two-day shopping marathon. And quite frankly, I found the shopping marathon more exhausting! It's quite a workout trying on that many outfits. Anyway, it was nice having some really lovely devoted sales ladies treating me like a princess. I expected it to be quite a mission trying to find the perfect outfit for the April Loses It photo I needed to put up by Monday. While it is only half-way point for my own personal journey of weightloss, my journey with April Loses It finishes on the 1st of December (just after the Hawkes Bay Bloke Free triathlon I am doing on the 27th of November). So the Woman's Weekly were wanting us to post total weightloss and some end photos by Monday the 14th. So I have been very busy this weekend doing my best to put my best foot forward and make a bit of effort with the photos. So anyway....the effort was quite immense in terms of time taken looking and trying things on and preparing by having a haircut, dying it again, and doing a little bit of girlie grooming :) What was really nice, was the sales assistants all asking if I was a 14 or a 12.....my response was usually "I have no idea what size I am now, and I am fashion challenged, so please help!" So they went about giving me mostly 14s and even some 12s, and the amazing thing was that most of it fitted. So it really just came down to fashion preference and choice. Where as previously it came down to "can I squeeze what ever body part I was clothing...in" I even purchased off the rack a pair of size 14 jeans, and size 14 black pants. The black pants were the same design as the size 20 ones I have been wearing for ages now....so putting on a size 14 in the same style pant is quite an achievement in 6 months I think. Anyway, I thought I would post some photos on here (the same ones I put on the April Loses It Facebook Page) as this is my permanent record of my journey. I am also going to copy over my April Loses It - most recent posts. Comment made on April Loses It about the Heels I bought for the "Visual Symphony Dress Ensemble" By the way....I don't do heels!! So I hope you guys appreciate the sacrifice here....The lady at the shop that sold me the dress, insisted I must wear heels. And she said she would check up on me.....so here they are. Might take a photo of just the shoes and post it as they are quite nice up close. Still not converted from my flat black Rock Chick boots though! The reply I made to one of the other April Loses It ladies: Thanks Tui, that means a lot, I get really good positive feedback regularly from everyone at the gym and at work, and my good friends and family. But today I really struggled to see the difference. The clothes at the shops which I am squeez...ing into are size 14, which usually I have been a size 20. Yet after doing the photos today....I really noticed all of the wobbly bits that still need a lot of attention....I guess that is what the next 20kgs weight loss I need to do will take care of. Its a bit of a bummer being 5ft tall (or 4ft 11 really) as nowhere to hide the weight. And every gram loss is getting harder and harder to get now. But after seeing these photos - I am 100% committed to making it happen. I will just have to work a little harder from here on in. The comment I made on April Loses It about the photos: Ok - here they are, the photos so far, if you want the start photos then go back to the beginning of the ALI photo's - I decided not to re-post them, as they are already on here. I found the whole photo thing today a bit of a challenge to be honest, so a big thanks goes out to my friend Kit (photographer) for being so encouraging and helping me stay smiling. I have now come around to accepting the wobbly bits discovered in the viewing of the photos and during the shoot today, as I do have 20kgs more to go, and I am proud of the first 19.2kg loss. It's time to step things up to the next level now...lots of work to do. Nothing like a camera lens to keep you honest. Looking forward to the real final photos at the end of the next 20kgs. Thanks to the shops I visited this weekend, for helping me feel glamorous. Melody 28 (Courtney Place), Postie Plus (Porirua), Footloose (North City), Just Cuts (Johnsonville).

I Will keep you all posted on the next 20kgs....so feel free to keep checking up on me.