Having a wedding date means it's time to get on it! As it is, we've already been engaged for three months, and I'm just now getting around to thinking about getting in shape. Well, that's not entirely true, but I'm just now getting around to being proactive about it. I think every soon-to-be bride thinks about this topic, so I just figured like everything else, I'll share my journey on here. Blake and I both want to look our best on our wedding day. Not only are there going to be a gazillion pictures taken, but mostly we really want to FEEL good. I want to feel beautiful on my wedding day, and when I feel bloated or uncomfortable in my attire not fitting properly, I'm just not feeling good or confident in general. I don't want to be so squeezed into a dress that I can't inhale properly!
Speaking of the dress, I'm refusing to even try any on until after our Dominican Republic vacation in June, so don't even ask! haha... plus, when we get back from our trip I plan on being extremely tan, which makes all dresses look better on! Speaking of DR, that's another reason to jump start this weight loss stuff. I want to feel a lot better about wearing next to nothing in the Caribbean this summer!
In general, I've been getting more organized and proactive lately, and included in that, I've added stretching and some sort of fitness to my everyday routine. Now, does this mean I'm running ten miles a day? No, of course not. For me, it's a huge event just to get down on the ground and stretch a little, so this isn't some extreme crash diet fitness program that I'm doing. I really just want to change my bad habits of eating too much and sitting around all day. The changes I'm making are meant to last a lifetime (I hope), so I'm starting slower this time than I have in the past. I'm laying off the 30-day squat challenge (even though I'm antsy to do it again), because I know I'm not strong enough to tackle it yet and I'll just end up hurting myself (like I did last time!).
So here's what I am doing. Planning meals, tracking food intake on the MyFitnessPal app, drinking more water, being more active at home, and getting outside to walk/ride bikes/play tennis/anything to get some exercise! Sounds simple, but to be honest, I'm extremely tired and sore as I write this. But I'm sticking with it because I know a spike in energy will soon come... and nothing is more motivating than a wedding date, like I said before.
I created an extremely OCD planner about a week ago, and it has really been helping me. I plan out a week at a time and it includes meal planning, exercise, work, blog and even housework. It's printed out and posted on our fridge so that I look at it all the time. Like "Wedding Wednesdays," I have an unhealthy addiction to alliterations on this planner. Wednesday is also "Wacky Wednesday" for meals and "Wednesday Wash" for housework! Haha, okay, I know it's dorky but I like it and it helps me to remember what I'm supposed to do each day (and to remember what day of the week it is, since that has been a problem for me in the past! haha).
For meal planning, I pretty much have a handful of healthy breakfasts and lunches that I cycle through throughout the week, and dinners I do something more special for both Blake and myself. Sunday is "Family Sunday" (they're not all alliterations) because we're usually at my parents' house on Sundays to do laundry and we eat over there. We also consider this our cheat day because copious amounts of wine are usually consumed, plus Blake and my dad almost always BBQ some huge hunk of unhealthy meat that day. Which is why we do "Meatless Monday" and followed by "Healthy Tuesday" just to balance out the weekends.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays Blake works late so dinner ends up being a little difficult. "Healthy Tuesday" is usually something like a big salad or vegetable plate with chicken/fish, just because it's easy for us to eat at separate times or it can be reheated when he gets home. "Wacky Wednesday" is where I plan to test out new healthy recipes and try new forms of healthy foods that we may have not tried before (read: quinoa). This is followed up by "Throwback Thursday" when I cook some sort of tried-and-true recipe that we already know we love. Rounding off the week is "Fish Friday" and "Slowcooker Saturday" which is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week. I love that I can dump a bunch of ingredients into a crockpot, forget it for hours at a time, and it turns out wonderful! That's my kind of cooking ;)
Now, for tracking calories and exercise, I cannot rave about the MyFitnessPal app enough. It is so simple to use, and you can even scan the barcodes of the packages of the food you're eating. I am in the habit of weighing and measuring my food, too, which makes it pretty darn accurate. You can track specific things like carbs and sugar, too, not just calories. It also has a place to enter how many glasses of water you've had during the day, which is really helpful. You can record your weight and body measurements and it will auto calculate how many calories you should be eating per day based on your goal weight and how many pounds per week you intend to lose (I'm shooting for -1 lb. per week, since thank goodness, I have over 50 weeks before the wedding! haha). It also yells at you if you are eating too FEW calories per day, which is also helpful to keep you healthy and avoid crash dieting and starvation which is, of course, not good for you.
You can also access everything online on the MyFitnessPal website. My plan is to start planning my whole day's worth of food intake before the day even happens, and then just follow along with my app. That way, there's no guess work. I won't have to worry about not having enough calories left by dinner time. Every time I've lost serious amounts of weight in the past, it's been because of tracking my food intake. Every time I've gained the weight back, it's been because I stopped using this app. Bottom line.
Now, as for exercise, this is where I have a lot more trouble. I have a couple of chronic injuries, which make things a little more difficult for me than most. But, as long as I do what I can to get more active, it should help. The main thing I need to do is to just get up more and be more active during the day when I'm working at home. Part of my problem is chronic back pain from being at the computer too much. The first thing I did was buy a fitness ball and ditch my desk chair. This is now my permanent seat at my desk!
It's been working out really well so far. My back is definitely sore, but it feels more like a muscle building sore, not a muscle tearing sore like it usually is. Also, I move around more while sitting. I find myself bouncing on it more than just sitting, especially when a good song comes on the radio!
Having a house cleaning schedule has improved a lot of things, too. Usually I slack on cleaning the house during the week because I'm just too busy, and then binge clean on the weekends. I already mentioned that on Sunday I do our laundry over at my parents house, and Monday I am usually swamped with work so I take the day off from housework. Then we hit the alliterations again: Tuesday Tidy (basically just putting away any accumulated clutter), Wednesday Wash (clean the counters and sinks, dust, clean windows and mirrors, etc.), Thursday Throw Away (make sure all the trash is out, toss any trash sitting around), Friday Floors (vacuum, and Swiffer the whole house) and Saturday I pick one "problem area" to organize (last week it was my mounds of paperwork on my desk).
But by putting certain tasks on certain days, I find myself up and moving around the house more during the week and not as worn out from cleaning on the weekends, which leaves more time for doing fun kinds of exercise like bike rides!
We went for a 10 mile ride last Saturday, and I gotta admit it kinda kicked my butt (literally - I was really sore for two days afterwards!). But it was so much fun. I think getting active as a couple is really going to increase our weight loss success. It's nice to do stuff together that doesn't involve the TV or fast food! haha
We went on a 1.5 mile walk at the park this morning, which has left me unable to comfortably walk (or even rest) right now because of shin splints...sad, I know... but it was still nice to get outside, get some sunshine, and move around. Isn't the Huntington Beach Central Park pretty? It was such a nice day today, too, it would be hard not to go outside.
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I also wanted to share this ironic tank top I wore while walking today. It made me laugh since I literally can't run... but maybe someday!
Anyway, I feel like I've been waiting my whole life for something like this to really motivate me to lose weight, and I am really motivated. I know it will be hard, (I'm popping Advil like candy tonight and alternating between ice packs and heating pads all over my body) but imagining what our wedding day will be like makes it all worth it for me!
I know this wasn't a super "wedding-y" post, at least not in a traditional sense, but the fact that there is a whole section on theknot.com about fitness makes me think that most brides go through something like this in preparation for their wedding. They have some interesting workout ideas on there which I will probably try in the next month or so, once my body gets used to this increased activity. I particularly like this 6-month plan and it doesn't look too difficult. At least, it eases into the difficult stuff. If and when I do start something like that (or the squat challenge!) I'll definitely post about it on here. As for now, time to sleep off today's hard work!
Thanks for reading :)
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