How To Fit Into Your Wedding Dress

Most women have a goal to lose weight before their wedding. Some will even go the length to buy a dress that's a size or two smaller for motivation to slim down. I am not most women. Of course I didn't want to look like a boat on my wedding day, but I wasn't so unhappy with how I looked that it would motivate me enough to change my ways. Besides that, I picked a dress that was slimming and that made me look and feel amazing!

I would say that the dress fit just right. However, some of the pictures and my poses give the impression of back fat. Oh well! I still got married, and it was still the most rockin' wedding I've been to. And I must say that I was happy with everything (even the back fat)! Here's what I looked like then (October 16, 2009).

getting ready--easy to see the fit of the dress

check out that back fat!

After a year of being married and switching jobs, I decided it was time to get my body in shape. If Alex I were to even start thinking about kids, I wanted to be in good shape. How was I going to do this? I've never been very good at that kind of stuff. I usually only get motivated when I have someone pushing me to do it. I signed up for Weight Watchers Online, hoping that paying the $17 monthly charge would be enough of a motivation. It was a start! It taught me to change my eating habits. The plan is very structured, which, being an accountant, was what made it easy and fun for me. It was like a game to see if I could come in at the right points value. And being a saver, I saved all my extra points for the weekend just in case we went out or wanted some wine with dinner. There were some weeks when I didn't even use them. 

After a couple months, I had lost 10 pounds all by changing my diet. Awesome! However, I had hit a plateau. Oh crap, that meant it was time I started working out. How could I ever motivate myself for that? Well, I started watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer (yes, the tv series from the late 90's). It has fabulous fight scenes and made me want to kick butt. It was a treat for me to watch Buffy if I worked out. (I've since completed Buffy and have moved to Angel). After a couple months of that, I hit my goal weight of 120. I've been in maintaining mode since December and have managed to stay slim. I don't strictly follow WW (and have stopped paying for it), but I use the general idea and run at least three times a week. I couldn't be happier with my image! 

Here's me trying on my wedding dress being 20 plus pounds lighter (March 4, 2011).

look at all that excess dress!

yes, that's two wine bottles in there to keep my dress held up

the weight loss has taken its toll on the girls

Happy weight loss!

--Am