Low carb menu & flipping the closet

- Meat sauce over half an oopsie with sharp cheddar and Parmesan
- Pork rinds with French onion dip
- Pork bbq with low carb bbq sauce
- Cheesecake brownie (my own low carb recipe that is super yummy and quite low carb)
- Two hot dogs with onions/tomato/mustard/low carb ketchup on an oopsie roll

We went to Goodwill the other day and we found an awesome one! We went to the one in the nicer part of town and wow, what a difference that made! I found a Wilson's leather jacket for $19.99, size women's XL and it fits great. I also found three sweaters, all size Women's Large. I think it's safe to say that I'm pretty much in that size when nearly everything fits that is a size large.

I sew, so I know that the difference between sizes such as small, medium and large are only one inch all around the pattern, where as the 1x, 2x and 3x all have two inches around the pattern that are bigger. So going from an XL to a large takes less of a difference than going from 2x to a 1x, say. This Goodwill also had a huge selection in the 3x department! I can't believe that a 3x used to be tight on me (in women's) and I was really convinved that they were made small. Oh, the tricks that our mind can play on us, I tell you! I thought they were "short," when in reality, my stomach was just too big. Granted, I am 5'10,'' but I never really require talls except for pants. I'm mostly just leggy with a 36'' inseam for my legs.

I have a slew of clothes to put up on e-bay, so it should be fun to watch the auctions. I have everything from Lane Bryant dresses that I hardly wore, a really cute bathing suit, tons of tops and I think that is about it. I've been donating the stuff that is not in super-good shape but still totally doable for Goodwill.

Goodwill is totally the way to go! Their sweaters are $5 each, but with my 20% off coupon that you get when you make a donation, that is only $4 each. I scored my leather jacket for $16 this way and it's just gorgeous. The sweaters are all name-brand and quite cute, too. Angie even found some awesome men's sweaters that are just too adorable and a Columbia coat that is super nice. I can't wait to go back to Goodwill for more deals. I hardly have anything in my closet that fits. I do have a ton of long sleeve tops (courtesy of Old Navy), but nothing really substantial to put over the tops like sweaters or sweatshirts. I'm not complaining, I love having that problem, but filling my closet with Goodwill clothes is way more budget-friendly than going to the mall or whatever. Plus, if you go to an organized one, they organize it by size and stuff, so they have a whole rack of just women's size larges for me to flip through... from my wheelchair, of course!

I'm still kind of shocked at how people treat me in the wheelchair. The other day at Walmart, this manager asked me specifically to go to another line that she was about to open and I was about the third in line. It may have been a pity thing, but hey, I will take the perks that this wheelchair can give me! The lady in front of me kind of gave me a look or was about to be upset til she saw me in the motorized cart, then I think her attitude changed. Hey, Walmart checkouts can be brutal so I will take what I can get, lol.

Back to the closet thing... I donated fifteen boxes of clothes to my local Goodwill when I first started my weight loss journey, which were size 24's, size 26/28 tops and that sort of thing. Several still had the tags on them! I was at a stage of my life where I didn't want to mess with the ebay thing... I just wanted, needed to get RID of them. Plus, a box of size 26/28 fills up quicker than a box of size XL's, so it was less clothes than you might think. I think it's an important part of losing weight... only having in your closet what fits you now. Looking through your closet is a direct reflection of how you feel about yourself (at least for me) and it helps me tremendously to think about me as being smaller. Angie handed me a size 2x (18/20) top from my other closet.

She said, "This will probably be way too big for you, but here you go." The sweater was an adorable cable-knit orange that I got from Goodwill a couple years ago and I remember how cute it looked on me. Looking at the sweater on the hanger, I knew it would fit. In fact, that was the reason it was not in my to-sell pile for ebay! I tried it on and wow, she was right. My body was not stretching it out at all and it felt big and floppy on me... not even warm and cuddly like a sweater should be.

I used to just donate clothes that I thought would never fit me, but now, I donate and sell clothes that are too big for me. I think that it's much healthier to only keep clothes that fit and get rid of the others. If they are too big, it's almost like telling yourself that you will be in that size again. If they are too small (besides maybe the occasional goal piece of clothing, which works for some people but not me), then it makes me feel like I'm not good enough at my current size. Each time I see the too-small item, it kind of slaps me in the face with a "you're too big" attitude.

Keeping clothes that fit me in my closet has really changed my life. My step-mom is the worst about this. She has clothes from when she was literally sixteen years old and she is now in her forties! No joke! She also has a slew of sizes, and quite frankly, it's just a lot to move around if you ask me. I'm finally embracing that less is more as far as belongings go, but if you ask my brothers that helped me move, they would tell you a different story!