I Can't Stay Away!

A friend of mine owns an incredible store in downtown Portsmouth called "Puttin' on the Glitz." It's adorable and definitely my all-time favorite hat store (second favorite is Salmagundi in Jamaica Plain). She carries everything from practical, seasonal hats and accessories to hats you would wear to attend the Kentucky Derby or the Royal Ascot and everything in between. Louise Green, Kathie Jeanne and Cha Cha's House of Ill Repute are a handful of the hat designers you will find at "the Glitz," as it's affectionately referred to by regulars. My own hat collection has grown quite a bit since moving back to NH in 2010 and re-discovering the many gems of downtown Portsmouth including the Glitz. 

Anyway, the owner of Puttin' on the Glitz, Assiah, has become a friend over the years and she recently invited me to join her Facebook page 100 Days of Style. It started because she and a friend wanted to share the outfits they wore to work each day, but they don't live near each other. So, she started a Facebook group to share photos and then decided to invited other friends to share their work attire as well. Having been on a fashion blogging hiatus for several years now, I was thrilled to join in the fun.

Day 1 on 100 Days of Style

It made me realize how much fun I used to have writing this blog. I tried to hop over to Tumblr at one point, but I always seem to want to come back to S...tNB. It's my blog home, I suppose. So even though this post isn't 100% style-related, I'm still posting it here on my style blog. 

Anyway, in addition to having a lot of fun for way more than 100 days on the 100 Days of Style, I found a renewed interest in putting my day to day outfit together. Coincidentally, about a month after I started contributing to the Facebook page, I started a new diet and exercise routine, so the 100 Days served as an informal documentation of my weight loss. 

Definitely more than 100 Days Later....

The difference may seem subtle in the above photos, but it's been pretty significant. It all started with some not-so-good blood work that I got from my doctor. Diabetes runs in my family and that paired with some not-so-good diet and exercise habits resulted in some high blood sugar. I'm proud to say I've made some great improvements through diet and exercise alone, but I know this is only the beginning. Something that is years in the making might also be years in the going, right? The side effect of looking great and dropping 3 dress sizes certainly helps the motivation, but at the end of the day, what I'm really looking for is a clean bill of health from my doctor. Time will tell with that one. :)

Anyway, I always joke around that I suffer from "high self esteem." This is part joke, but part truth. Because even at my heaviest, most unhealthy weight, I would look in the mirror every day and think, "I look great!" And I believed it, too. My friends and family often supported that idea, too. If I hadn't gone to the doctor and been handed that bad news about my blood work, I'd probably still be 40 pounds overweight and happy as a clam. Now that I've dropped about 25 of those excess LBs, I realize that I should have done this a LONG time ago. 

I didn't feel bad, so it was very strange to realize I was so unhealthy. However, after changing my daily diet and exercise dramatically, I've realized that even though I didn't feel bad, I also didn't feel as good as I could. And now I'm learning what it's like to feel really great. Like, I-Don't-Even-Mind-Doing-Burpees-Anymore great. I have ALL the strongs now. I'm also figuring out that even if 1,000 people compliment my daily outfit or tell me how fabulous I look, none of that matters to me nearly as much as hearing from my doctor that I'm looking fabulous on the inside. 

Left: Day of my Dr. Appt. Right, 3 months later

Left: September, 2010, Right: September 2015

I still suffer from high self esteem and I hope that soon I will be able to say it's my most serious affliction. I'll keep you posted. 

Thanks for reading!