Tomorrow is Mary’s birthday and there is much cause for celebration. A few months ago, Mary decided that she would give herself the gift that keeps on giving for her 60^th birthday…the gift of health, fitness and self-confidence.  Her goal: lose 50 pounds and reverse her potential health issues. Her doctor recommended for Mary to begin weight-bearing exercises and that she adjust her eating habits in order to lose weight.

Mary needs to lose 5 Pounds more to reach her goal of losing 50 pounds.

Since then, Mary has lost 45 pounds, reversed her health concerns, and to her delight she went from wearing a size 18 to wearing a size 10!

“I was out shopping when I tried on size 12 pants that were too big!” Mary said. “Wow, was I surprised. I don’t remember the last time I bought size 10 pants, but I’ll take it! I purchased my first size 10 in years.”

Dropping sizes meant Mary had to buy new clothes.

This was actually one of several times that Mary had to purchase new clothing over the past several months as a result of her weight loss. The thrill of weight loss and dropping clothing sizes came with an extra expense that Mary never considered when she began losing weight.

“Before I started losing weight I was a size 18 and I had a closet full of clothes in that size,” Mary said. “Once I started losing weight, I quickly dropped to a size 16. I had clothes that I was saving to fit into again once I lost weight. Well, I never did get to wear them again because I dropped so quickly that they ended up being too big.”

Continually buying new clothes started to get expensive.

Mary ended up having to shop for new clothes quite frequently, and the cost was adding up. Of course, it wasn’t something she was completely bothered by; after all, Mary did love shopping for clothes and losing weight. But she had to come up with a plan that supported both her weight loss goal AND her budget.

“It was so crazy! I would even buy clothes that I never got to wear because I blew through the sizes so fast,” Mary said. “I had to really watch what I bought; I had four pairs of size 14 pants that I wore maybe 1 or 2 times each. So I started to buy things a size too small because if I didn’t, then in two weeks it wouldn’t fit anymore.”

Her clothes had such little wear that Mary took them to a resale store in order to get back some of the money that she had spent.

“My whole winter wardrobe ended up at the consignment shop,” Mary said. “I easily sent 200 items to consignment to date.”

She decided to create a guideline for buying clothes until she reaches her final goal weight.

“My rule is to buy clothes only at the discount store or the resale store and never to pay over $20 for any item” Mary said. “I also make sure not to buy anything that needs to be altered. I buy stretch tops that will shrink if I throw them in the dryer, and a limited amount of pants until I see what size I will end up.”

How does Mary feel about her results so far?

“I’m really happy with the way I look, and I’m definitely getting a lot of positive attention and support,” Mary said. “At work, my clients are blown away at the changes they’ve seen with me. They constantly comment on how much younger I look and how healthy I’m becoming.”

She only has 5 pounds to go, but losing the last 5 pounds can sometimes be a frustrating task. Follow Mary’s story to find out what she does, and how long it takes for her to lose the last 5 pounds!

To effortlessly follow LIVING HEALTHY just CLICK HERE and we will show you how to receive our stories as soon as we publish them.