Novus Adores: May 13

Inspired by Friday Favorites at Iowa Girl Eats, the NOVUS ADORES posts 

will chronicle things I'm currently diggin' on - food, fashion, books, music, etc. 

Royal Wood
I can't stop listening to his music!

"Once" is my fav - listen to it HERE

Ditch the garbage.

Want. Need.

(available from Modcloth)

Tastes like summer.

Hawaiian Chicken Salad

So much tiny!

Last night a couple friends and I were browsing the clearance racks at WalMart. My friend was looking for a dress for a wedding she is attending and we found her the most fabulous fit-and-flare dress in Tiffany blue and paired it up with some great red accessories. Absolutely stunning!

I tried on a few things though I wasn't planning to purchase anything. And can I just say I am continually mind blown when I try on "tiny" sizes....and they fit? I found a very cute pair of black cigarette pants with a subtle green and purple print, sort of like this:

Size 8. Eight!!! O my g! They fit perfectly and were only $3 but the length of cigarette pants looks weird, I think. (Are they pants that are too short? Or capris that are too long?) My friends disagreed but I still didn't buy them. Although, I'm tempted to go back today and see if there are still there.

I also tried on a pair of jeans. Also, size 8. Eight!!! O my g! I loved how they fit and it was lightweight denim (great for spring/summer) but they were just a wee bit too short which would bug me. Also, two pairs of shorts in size 9 that fit but showcased entirely too much of my inner thigh problem area.

So much tiny. So much awesome. It's just crazy.

Happy body and random thoughts

I totally forgot how absolutely fabulous I feel when eating low carb and gluten free. When I drop all the grains from my diet it's like my body is rejoicing and shouting "Thank you!"

No more brain fog. No more achy joints. No more heaviness. No more bloating. No more tummy issues.

Why (and how) can I can forget this?

And the weight is flying off. I weighed in this morning at 178.4 - down almost 6 pounds in 12 days. I'm still not quite back to where I was in August which is sad but I'm definitely back on track again. Yayness!

It's also wonderful to have my appetite back in control. Carbs just make me ravenous. It's like my brain is constantly chanting, "Need food need food need food." To be able to eat just a bit of meat and veggies and feel totally fine? That's so much marvelous.

Oh, and another weird thing about carbs? They seem to dull my taste buds. All of a sudden food has flavor again. I ate some berries and I was swooning over the sweetness. When I was eating too many carbs everything was just.....flat.

I made the switch to almond milk in my coffee this week. At first, it was hard to adjust because it doesn't make the coffee as creamy as milk. But I'm ok with it now. And the nutritional difference is worth it. Calories (in 8 ounces) - 60 compared to 148. (!) Carbs - 8 compared to 12 - and fat - 3 compared to 8.

And I went clothes shopping at Goodwill. I got new outfits for my niece's bridal shower and for Easter. It's so nice to have pretty clothes after a winter of wearing lots and lots of layers and comfy clothes. And it's also fabulous to find myself caring about clothes again. For months my only priority was warmth.

Also, I got my hair cut. Like, super crazy short. I love it and have gotten a few positive comments. But also some not so nice comments. Why do people think the length of someone's hair has anything to do with their sexual preference? Having short hair does not mean I'm a dyke. Grrrr.  I actually feel more feminine and sexy with short hair. When my hair is longish I feel.....messy.

So that's April, so far, in review. May the rest of the month be as wonderful.

365 Dresses

There is something about fashion that fascinates me - how it is a form of art for the designer and a means of expression for the wearer. And nowhere is this better exemplified than in the bridal gown. Browsing wedding blogs and sites is a bit like a trip to a museum for me.

I recently realized that I had some 100+ pics of dresses bookmarked and that I really should organize/display them somehow. I debated about putting them up on pinterest but decided instead to create a tumblr blog. I preferred this format because I can set up the whole thing in advance and set it to autopost instead of having to tinker with it constantly to have new posts. And tumblr is a great blogging platform for a photos-only blog.

So if you - like me - adore the art of fashion (or if you're just curious!), please visit my tumblr blog. 365 Dresses: one bridal gown every day for a year.

Baffled by sizes

On the 3FC site, someone recently posted this size chart. According to that chart, I shouldn't be able to wear pants! My waist is 33 inches (size 16 on the chart) and my hips are 37 inches (size 6 on the chart). I'm actually wearing sizes 10 and 11.

One of those size 10s is a pair of Diva jeans from Old Navy so I went to their website to check the size chart. The measurements of Old Navy size 10? Waist 29, hips 40. Based on that chart, those jeans shouldn't fit me. But they do...and they're well-fit and very comfortable. My measurements for Old Navy are actually closer to a size 16 but here's the funny thing: I owned these exact jeans - same brand, same style - in a size 16 and they've been too large since March - 40 pounds ago!

Sizes are weird. And apparently my body is even weirder.

Photo shoot!

My sil and I did a photo shoot today complete with wardrobe changes and props. We had so much fun! I put some of the pix in a photobucket album. You can see it HERE. (Password: novus1)

Here are a few of my favorite shots:

Shopping fabulousness!

Today was the City Wide Yard Sales event and it's a tradition for me to attend with various assorted family members. The shopping is always great and we have so much fun. I bought oodles of clothes!

At one of the sales, the man running the sale told everyone to pick out whatever they wanted and tell him how much they wanted to pay. (Love those sales!) I found a pair of new-with-tags jeans in a size 8. I figured I could toss them in the Maybe Pile because I might be able to wear a size 8 someday. I also found a pair of new-with-tags running tights and a black blazer with bows on the button placket. I offered the guy $1 for the three items and he accepted my offer. Score!

And those size 8 jeans? I CAN PUT THEM ON! I CAN ZIP THEM UP WITHOUT LAYING DOWN! But - um - I can't quite breathe while wearing them. Ha. So I'm going to wait a few weeks and see how they fit. DUDE! SIZE 8! Mind blown.

At another sale I found a winter coat (which I was on the lookout for). It's full length, belted, dark grey with an enormous fur collar and marbled buttons. I fell in love with it when I saw it on the hanger. It didn't have a size tag, though, and it looked TINY. But I decided to try it on anyway because I really have no concept of my size at the moment. I mean, my brain still wants to try on size 18s. The coat fits PERFECTLY and looks absolutely amazing, like it was tailor-made for me.

I also got a bunch of tops and blouses, one sweater, an American Eagle hoodie, and a crazy dress that has a poofy hem with layers of black and polka-dotted netting. (I have no clue where I'll wear it but I just had to have it.) And a denim jacket that is a bit small but that I had to get because I love how it's cut.

I also got two cute skirts but *&^@ I hate skirts. I'm just totally the wrong shape for skirts. Why do skirt designers assume women have tiny waists? Both skirts are size 14 but are about 4 inches too small in the waist for me. I can put on a pair of size 8 jeans but can't wear a size 14 skirt? WTH!

Grand total spent for a winter coat, a denim jacket, and three bags of clothes? $8! I'm a rock star.

My sil and I also stopped at the farmers market where I got a container of these odd little things:

Ground cherries. It's in the nightshade family (like a tomato) but it is very sweet and tastes sort of like a grape or a berry. It comes in a husk and is about the size of a small cherry tomato. So yummy! I'm definitely going back next week to see if the seller has more. I also got sugar plums, kale, brussels sprouts, an eggplant, some hot peppers, and a dozen eggs. And I gazed longingly at the felted goat's milk soap. I used one of these at a friend's house and wanted to spend the whole day in the shower. But $10 for a bar of soap? Maybe next week.

Ah.....candy corn!

I'm not much into sweets. I usually have some dark chocolate around the house but for the most part candy is not my big temptation. Except for a few seasonal items. Like candy corn....and those little pumpkins that taste like candy corn.

And, yes, it's on sale already. In August. I bought a bag on Sunday and I was totally convinced I had power over candy corn and could portion it out to last for quite awhile. Um, no. It's half gone. Ooops.

In other news I bought two pairs of SIZE TEN jeans last night at Goodwill. They're a little muffin-toppy but other than that they fit really well. Huzzah. Now that's some motivation to ditch the candy corn!

I'm smaller than you?

Today I wore a pair of too-big slacks to work because I desperately need to do laundry and really didn't have a lot of options. They kept sliding down my hips and my manager noticed and was joking about it. And at the end of the day she told me she had a couple pairs of pants that were a little too snug for her that I could have if I wanted/needed them. I was kinna like, "Yeah, right" because there is no way I am smaller than her.

I asked her what size they are and she told me that they are 12s, but she's currently wearing 14s. Her 12s should definitely fit me because my comfortable pants are 11s and 12s. I really can't believe I'm smaller than her. She's maybe a teensy bit chubby but well within a range I would consider normal. Is that what I look like to people? Basically normal....instead of ridiculously fat? I'm a bit flabbergasted by the concept.

Size....what?!?!

This week there are several days when the weather forecast shows the temps will be in the high 70s. Hooray! I LOVE summer! I LOVE warm weather! But...we don't have air conditioning at work. The heat doesn't bother me but it definitely requires the appropriate wardrobe. 

A few weeks ago I picked up a few pairs of shorts at the thrift shop that I hoped would fit by mid-May, which is when I expected the weather to change. Obviously, summer is arriving a bit earlier than I had planned. I decided to try on those shorts today just in case I might be able to wear them this week. 

Oh, they fit! Guess what size they are?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am now the very happy wearer of SIZE 12! That's freakin' off the awesomeness chart. The pair of mens size 36 shorts fits as well. One good thing about being man-shaped (no hips, no butt) is that mens clothing fits me too.  (Weirdly, my size 13 jeans don't fit yet. Isn't 13 bigger than 12? Math fail.)

So, yeah. Lovin' the sunshine and rockin' the SIZE 12s!

 

Dream Look .05

I adore this outfit combo from birdsnest! The flowy blouse balances the severity of the pencil skirt, I love the pops of neon pink, and the overall look is a great contrast of fun and classy.

30DS Epic Fail and the Pants Problem

I excitedly began the 30 Day Shred. And then I almost died.

I made it through Day 6. I was doing it four days a week, so I only lasted a week and a half. During that time, I also ran twice. I have never hurt so much in my whole entire life. I think it was a combination of Too Much Too Soon, and the fact that both of my jobs are moderately active and require me to be on my feet for the entire shift.

I'm really not sure what to do about exercise at this point. I desperately need to do some toning, especially in the tummy, because I'm having serious pants problems.

My size 15 jeans are barely staying on. I spend all day long hitching them up as they attempt to slide down to my ankles. (Annoying, much?) I have two pairs of jeans that are size 13 which fit great EXCEPT.....serious disgusting unbearable muffin top. There's just too much flab.

(I tried on a few pair of size 14 jeans at the store but seriously? Who is shaped like that? Either the waistband comes up to my neck or the crotch hangs down to my knees. Junior sizes fit me much better than misses sizes! I do have one pair of dress slacks in size 14 which are lower rise and fit okay, but they are starting to get very balloon-y in the legs, butt, and hips.)

I'm thinking maybe I can just do the abs portion of 30DS and skip all the up-down, standing-lying, and lunges and stuff. And keep running (as the weather allows) maybe two days a week so I have some hope of not dying at the Color Run in June. (Only six weeks until race day. OMG.)

Argh. The fatness.

You can't always get what you want

Melissa at Life After 42 recently wrote an interesting post  about wishing certain aspects of your appearance were different. In her case, it was wishing she had naturally curly hair and a willowy body shape.

I've never really had a strong opinion about my body image. As I wrote in this post, I've always been kinna unaware of myself physically at all. But do I have a "I wish I was shaped like that" look? Absolutely. I love the hourglass shape that totally rocks the pinup style, like this:



Seriously. That's just crazy beautiful.

I am light years away from being an hourglass. I wonder if I find the hourglass shape attractive simply because it's the complete opposite of my own? Maybe the thought process is, "The way I am shaped is not appealing, so what is attractive must be the opposite?"

I also wonder if our mothers appearance impacts our concept of attractive. Mothers are usually the first - and strongest - influence in how we perceive "feminine" so wouldn't how they are shaped influence our thinking about how an attractive woman looks? I think this at least partially true for me. My mom is a pear/hourglass, and when she was in her teens/20s, she was smokin' hot. I didn't inherit a single gene from her. (Except for the red hair. Although hers is a much lovelier shade than mine.) I'm shaped like my father - broad shoulders, narrow hips, fat tummy, skinny legs. Yeah, I'd rather be an hourglass than a man. :)

What about you? Do you wish for something you can never have? How does your dream look compare to your reality?

Dream Look .04

I just love everything about this look.  (from Light in the Box)

Today: The bad & the good

The bad: I'm trying to kick my diet soda habit so I don't keep it in the house. Occasionally, like once a week, I'll allow myself to buy one at the drive-thru or a convenience store. Considering the cost is about the same for a 22 ounce fountain drink as it is for a 12-pack, I'm really not tempted to indulge terribly often. Today, while out running errands, I stopped at Burger King for a Diet Coke. Just a Diet Coke. But then...I saw it. A new menu item. Loaded Tator Tots. OMG. I just couldn't NOT order them. So, epic fail on the impulse eating. 380 calories and 36 grams of carbs. And do not ask me about the sodium. Also *oh joy* they have a wheat allergen warning. My tummy doesn't seem to be reacting to the wheat but one impulsive choice just blew 3 months of wheat free eating. Drat.
The good: It was sunshiney! It was 50+ degrees! I went for a run! It was grand!

The bad: My sil made me a gluten free Cadbury cupcake. (It's like a Cadbury egg but in cake form.) I ate it.
The good: My sil took some progress photos of me. Wearing the fab Aéropostale jeans I just bought recently. The pics look great in the little view thingy on the camera. Hopefully she'll be able to figure out how to load them onto her computer so I can share them.

The bad: I look fat and frumpy in the only outfit I could pull together to wear for Easter Sunday.
The good: My manager at Job #2 commented on my weight loss today when I went in for my schedule.

The bad: I watched 3 episodes of FlashForward instead of working on my to-do list. (Read: the health department is about to condemn my apartment if I don't get off my ass.)
The good: I packed up 3 boxes of too-big clothing to donate to the thrift store!

I'm a survivor

Eleven days of work without a day off is OVER and I survived (barely). I got into a scary place mentally (you can read about that here) but I hung on until it passed. I got home from work, dropping keys-bag-clothing as I went, and collapsed into bed and took a three hour nap. I feel human again.

Since I woke up I've already planned my meals for the week, went grocery shopping, stopped at Goodwill and found a pair of Aéropostale jeans that fit like they were custom made, ordered new bras online (sale at LB - I hope they fit!), and made my very long to-do list for the weekend. Now I'm going to pop some popcorn and watch some Audrey. Hrm, Sabrina or My Fair Lady? Maybe I'll make it a late night and watch both.

Dream Look .03

Button-down blouses tucked into jeans is a look that has never worked for me. I really hope that will change someday because it's a combo that I just love. Especially in fabulous fabrics like these.

from LuckyBrand

Testing. 123. Testing.

A couple times a year my family (siblings, nieces and nephews, cousins, etc.) get together for a night of game playing and snacking. It's a total blast and I love it!

The thing is, my family members are all fantastic cooks. (I even have a cousin who is a trained chef and a niece who is studying culinary arts & nutrition.) So the snacking part of these gatherings is a huge deal. It's not chips and French onion chip dip. It's lots of yumlicious made-from-scratch stuff (like buffalo chicken dip, and hot artichoke dip, and hot & cheesy corn dip) as well as oodles of desserts. I simply cannot go and not eat. Impossible.

But I certainly plan to exercise moderation. I've logged all the rest of my food for the day, so I know about how much wiggle room I have with my numbers. It will all be guesstimating but I hope to be somewhat successful. And if I go a little over on carbs or a little under on protein, it's not gonna kill me.

And I plan to focus more on the game playing (which is fierce! and intense!) than on the food. Which I haven't always done in the past.

And I bought a new outfit to wear. (Cheaply, from the thrift store, cuz I'm expecting it not to fit in a month or so.) I'm hoping the fab SIZE 15 denim trousers and cute SIZE L blouse (in a terrific shade of chartreuse) will remind me that there things in life more important than buffalo chicken dip. :)

These clothes are so tiny!

I saved a tote of clothing that I was able to wear when I lost weight a few years ago. For fun, I went through that tote this afternoon. Those clothes look so tiny! But you know what? Most of the jeans and slacks are size 12 or 13....and I'm currently wearing a 14 or 15. I'm really only one size away from wearing those "tiny clothes"! That kind of boggles my mind! 

Also in that tote was some clothing in even smaller sizes that I had hoped to be able to wear. I never got there but instead went in the opposite direction and gained weight. This time I'm determined to continue to lose weight and get into those things I've never even worn. 

Dream Look .02

Someday I'm going to have a mad shopping spree at modcloth! Their styles are so funky and fun...and so me! I adore this Twist of Lime blouse with the floral cut-out collar and black placket. And wouldn't it look fab with this houndstooth Nine to Thrive pencil skirt with big bold ruffles?