My Daughter, My Wedding Dress, a StoryBook Ball, and the Truth About Working Out

Do you fit in your wedding dress? I don’t, but I found some great motivation to TRY in the next month… So I’m working with the Please Touch Museum through Main Line Parent and Philadelphia Family magazines to promote their StoryBook Ball. I told my daughter about it yesterday and she was VERY excited about the idea that we would all get dressed up and visit Please Touch at night for a BALL. When I asked what storybook character I should dress up as, she started bouncing up and down and begging me to wear my wedding dress. I was surprised and somewhat honored… she thinks of me as a story book bride. My next thought was, GEEZ, I wish you had given me some more notice… but then again I just told her about this event… AND let’s face it, I’ve been eating too much sugar. My son is 3 years old and I don’t have good excuses for why I haven’t lost the last of my “baby-weight.” I know I’ve been too indulgent with my love of sweets. “I’ll get to it when I’m ready,” I’ve told myself. “I will make a change, when I really want to…” I’ve done it before, so I know HOW to do it… but sometimes even that’s not enough.

The Truth

I started working out with the personal trainers at Vertex Fitness, with great intentions of maximizing  my efforts with regular sessions, and a clean healthy diet of lean protein and LOTS of vegetables. I kicked off 2015 saying this was my time to make a change to improve my health, to feel better and look better by losing 20 lbs. I added regular workouts to my routine.

I really liked making appointments to work with someone at Vertex because I put it on my calendar and made time for it. This commitment made me more accountable to work out. And the full body strength training routine they coached me through was a very efficient 30 minutes.

Then I took a break for a few weeks when work got stressful. I got back on track two weeks ago and have resumed my routine of working out at least twice per week at Vertex. I love it. I like that they make me work so hard. Adding consistent exercise to my routine has made me stronger because I am working hard. I also feel great.

Unfortunately, I have not been doing the work when I have been away from the gym. I have added more vegetables to my diet, but I have not dedicated much time or thought to my progress. My January excitement simmered to more of a casual motivation. Until now. Until my daughter made the most romantic suggestion that I should indeed wear my wedding dress again, in just a month’s time.

And since I’m a sharer…

I found my inspiration and got a little excited this morning, so I shared the idea on Facebook. I thought maybe I’d get a couple of cheers, but the response was so delightful, that I shared it again in our Main Line Parent Community — and I put out a challenge / invitation for community members to join me.

Can you imaging dozens of proud mamas, donning their wedding dresses for a ball with their children, raising funds for a GREAT cause in our community? I can. In fact that thread now has over a dozen moms sharing photos of themselves in their wedding dresses.

I hope they join me in deciding — NOW is the time to make a change. No more cheating. Don’t give up and say there’s no way, not ever. I once thought I was destined to be a size 12/14… but then I met someone who changed my thinking. He believed I could do better and he introduced me to a different way to think about food. And I recorded my work on the inside cover of my Zone book. No magic, I just changed what I ate and I made sure that I had exercise in my routine as well.

The Plan

My personal trainer, Todd and I sometimes chat about inspiration and goals during my workouts. Inspiration strikes and then we need a plan to create change. Then we need to stick to the plan. If we do that, we will be rewarded with a change. I know that working out at Vertex Fitness is an integral part of this plan, but I won’t see results unless I dedicated more resources to this goal. So here’s my plan:

  1. Increasing my training sessions at Vertex Fitness to three times per week.
  2. Drinking 2 cups (16 oz) of water before every meal.
  3. Switching from 2-3 lattes every morning to a small pot of green tea.
  4. Returning to the Zone, which has been a reliable method for be to lose weight in the past. I will eat more vegetables always with a lean protein chaser, and a small amount of good fats. I will balance my consumption of carbohydrates with protein to avoid spikes in my insulin. I will reduce overall calorie consumption without skipping meals or snacks.
  5. Every morning I will weigh in and record my weight on my phone.  Every Friday I will try on my wedding dress until it fits again.

Wish me luck. Cheer me on. Remind me about my wedding dress.

Disclaimer: I am not a nutritionist. I’ve successfully lost weight in the past using this method so I’m speaking from my personal experience, which you can see below in the records I kept on the inside cover of this book. Following this guide helped me make a big change in 2005, in 2009 after my daughter’s birth, and in 2012 I did a good job of getting started after my son’s birth, now I’m ready to finish the job in 2015.

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