The Wedding Planners: Weight Wars

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Weight Wars

Have you ever had one of those defining moments in your life when it suddenly felt like the whole world stopped while you caught up?

I had one this holiday. I knew I had been gaining weight over the past few years, but when my sister showed me a picture of me with a few of my thin sisters, I gasped, then choked and dropped the cookie in my hand. I've never been thin. I honest to God have big bones. I know what you're thinking. Everybody says that. But I seriously have big bones. At 108 pounds (and almost 5'6") I wore a size 8. I've never been smaller than that. And with my recent weight gain, well let's just say that if I wrapped my boobs and put on a helment any professional football team would be proud to have me on their defensive line.

I seriously gave dieting a good shot. The day after Christmas I started on the treadmill, working to get my butt off the back of my knees and rather than buy the expensive frozen meals from the company on TV, I bought lunches and suppers from the freezer section of my local supermarket. For a week, I was diligent (and hungry) and eagerly jumped on the scale, only to discover I'd not lost an ounce.

Nada. Nothing.

I tried another verion of eating less and added a few minutes to the treadmill and again nothing. I felt like Tim Allen in the Santa Claus movie and scoured the want ads just in case the old Santa had died and they were looking for a female replacement.

Luckily, over the weekend, someone on one of my loops suggested that I had to build muscle mass before I could lose weight. Ah. Now things were beginning to make sense. I broke out my Ten-Minute Trainer tapes and started working to bring my muscles back to life because muscle burns more fat.

So for all you brides out there who are hoping to wear a size smaller for your wedding day...and mothers of the bride, hoping to look good for pictures...let me suggest you start now! Eat right, don't starve. Get some healthy exercise and start slowly as I did. Don't think you can jog for an hour if you haven't exercised in years! See your doctor for an exam to be sure you're in good enough shape to begin exercising.

Don't wait until the last minute in case your body's like mine, in need of a bit of coaxing before it will let go of its (obviously beloved) fat rolls!

susan

4 Comments:

Shirley said...: I'm right there with you, Susan! I saw a photo of myself at Christmas and wanted to Photoshop it ;-). (except for the leftover mac-and-cheese I had for lunch), I'm trying to eat healthier and less, and have managed to exercise every day this week -- albeit, it was a half hour of shoveling!! but that's still exercise. ;-)

Shirley; January 15, 2009 at 9:06 AM
Brandy said...: I've been exercising regularly for over a year and haven't seen a weight loss. *sigh* However, I have seen it redistributed. I'll take it! *G*; January 15, 2009 at 2:15 PM
Myrna Mackenzie said...: Susan,
I understand perfectly what you're saying. I knew I'd been gaining weight and I had put in half-hearted attempts, but it took my doctor telling me that my cholesterol was too high (when I'd always been one of those incredibly healthy people) that got me to start paying real attention to what I was eating and to start exercising. And yes, Shirley, on the snow shoveling! I've been doing a lot of that lately, too.; January 17, 2009 at 12:43 PM
Susan said...: I finally, finally got myself up to the point where I can walk on the treadmill for an hour! I'm so proud of myself!

And I'm also finally seeing weight loss...and firming of the behind. LOL

So maybe I'm not a "lost" cause after all?

susan; January 25, 2009 at 6:17 AM