I think they call them "Non Scale Victories"...

Is that an official Weight Watchers phrase or what? Maybe somebody can clue me in with a comment. I've seen that term used a lot in the weight loss blogosphere...

Anyways, since I've lost 35 lbs, there have been a lot of these NSVs (for short) to comment on:

• The first is actually a scale victory I guess, but with a non-scale kinda feel. My official scale at the gym is one of those doctor-ish scales with the weights that slide from left to right. (I've added a picture to help out here). When I started this thing I was very clearly on the 200 lb bottom weight and slid the top weight over to 36 (for a total of 236 lbs). It was quite a rush when I was able to slide the bottom weight over to the 150 lbs. Now I basically slide the top weight all the way to the end, but still...it is awesome to at least be on the correct "big" weight. Am I rambling? I'll move on...
• The second is definitely non-scale in nature and it's a mixed blessing. In addition to my weight falling, my clothes sizes have dropped as well. When I started, I was a 38w pants size and moving to a 40. Most of the pants / shorts I like to wear are a size 38. Now I am easily a size 36 and moving towards a 35....which is awesome. The problem is that I'm a cheapskate on certain things, and do not want to go out and buy a new wardrobe until I hit and maintain my goal weight for a bit. I do get comments that the pants I'm wearing look a little silly in my new body. My belts are cinched all the way to the last hole as well. I do have some older clothes (think 3 -5 years ago) that fit me again and I am putting them back into the rotation to get by...
• The third is the positive comments I get from people. This started happening around 2 months ago, but has really ramped up in recent weeks. The first comments came from family, employees who work for me, and from salespeople who want to do business with me. I thought that those comments were just people with, shall we say, incentive to flatter me. But when people who you barely speak to at work, come up to say they notice the change...that really pumps me up. Some even ask what I am doing to lose the weight and I really don't fancy myself a weight loss expert...it's nice to share war stories though...
• Fourth and last...feeling confident to go topless at the pool / beach. My body is no where near being "Baywatch" ready, but I do feel a lot better taking off my shirt at the pool. I've never been a big beach guy and one of the main reasons is that my body has been too scrawny (ages 13-18) or too fat (ages 20+) to feel comfortable in that environment. I hope to be close to there by my trip to Cape Cod in mid-September and I will definitely be there by next summer. Hell, maybe I'll even have some semblance of a 6 pack (the good kind, of course)...

That's it for now...thanks for letting me share my positive stories...hopefully they inspire just a little bit...