Buying New Clothes

Good news: my favorite pair of jeans are too big

Bad news: my favorite pair of jeans don't fit anymore!

So my question is, should I buy some more now, or wait until I'm at my goal?  I've got 10 more pounds to go, from 150 to 140.

I have some other jeans I can wear, but my favorite ones are... well. they need a belt now, unless I want plumber's crack.

My other issue is that in 4 months, I will have used up my eligibility for college sports, and so won't be working out as much, and although I am hoping to keep in shape, I will probably lose some muscle mass, simply because I'm not training 20 hours/week to maintain it anymore.  In other words, I might actually be able to fit into "normal" clothes (won't have to fit my shirts to my massive shoulders or my pants to my muscular thighs!)

Opinions/Advice?

As I have lost weight, I find that thrift store shopping is a great way to get clothes that fit a new shape without spending too much on things you may shrink out of. Congrats on them not fitting...and bummer!

I do that too! :D  I had to get rid of most of my clothes 6 months ago.  Got too big fer my britches! LOL  So I got a few summer clothes at the outlet stores like ross and marshalls.  I went to the clearance rack there.   So when it started to get chilly and I only had sweat pants to wear, I decided it was time to shop.  But I have NO idea what size I will be in 6 months.  I could be smaller, or the way things are going with my diet I might be bigger! lol 

I also have no idea what to wear anymore! lol  So I got an In Style magazine.   I just started looking through it and clipping out the pics of clothing that I liked.  Then I realized that the cut and style of the things I liked was alot like 80's style just redone.  So i took my clippings to the thrift store and found many items that were like what was in the magazines. They were also incredible quality.  I also had to get a new coat.  I got 3 coats for around $10 to 17.00 a peice.  I went to Ross store yesterday looking for a basic white shirt.  I saw one of the exact same coats I got for 9.00 for $74.00.  I couldn't believe it!  So I am going to do that again in the spring for next year's summer clothes.  :D Also I am helping out a charity at the same time. 

Congrats on the weight loss!!!!!!!  :D

First of all, it is hard to lose the last 10lbs for most of us.  Many of us even don't reach the final goal weights because we set too ideal goals - impossible to reach in some cases. Our bodies may simply like to be a bit curvier than our minds want to.  I am not talking about you - your goal sounds very reasonable (although it depends on how tall you are).  Nonetheless, it could take longer than you are hoping for.  I think it is OK to buy one or two pairs of your favorite jeans.  I would dream for the future but enjoy every moment.   Just my 2 cents.

angie- I am 5'6", and 140 is right in my healthy bmi range.  Perhaps I should just ask for them for christmas, as I am always short on items for that list, and my birthday is right around christmas as well.  That way I can see what fits and have some motivation still as well.  However, I doubt that 10 more pounds will really make another size difference, but asking for them for christmas/birthday eases my mind about the cost as well.  :-) (unless I find them on sale in the meantime!)

It is good to mark milestones. The jeans are to big and new ones are needed. Other posters had some great suggestions for how to accomplish that without killing the budget.

Whether you make the final goal or not, I notice that you love swimming and training generally. You should probably plan now for how you will incorporate that into your life after college. Your muscles keep your metabolism running well and aren't actually things you want replaced with fat (which is usually what happens rather than slimming down to 'normal' size). But more importantly you love it and it should be part of your life for life.

Congrats on needing new jeans! 

hedgren- you are completely right about the swimming thing. 

I am absolutely terrified of life-after-swimming.  I don't know what I am going to do.  It has been such a part of my life for so long (I've been swimming competitively since around age 6, so 15 years) that I don't know what to fill the void with.  When people ask what I'll do, I'll respond non-chalantly "Oh. Drugs." :-) I am kidding though.  I don't know if its something that I can continue on with, since I have been so used to training at an elite level, and it might be an "all-or-nothing" thing for me, and somewhat depressing to remember when I used to be so much better.

I think that I will start off by picking up some other sport/activity for a while, and then swim again in the summer w/ my brother's club team, since I will hopefully be home again.  But any advice on that front is much appreciated, because literally, I spend at least 20 hrs/week devoted to swimming right now, and have sacrificed a lot of other opportunities (i.e. summer internships, engineering conferences, etc) in order to swim.