Finding my Bridal Glow, Part 1

I have to say that one thing that I will never forget about our wedding (and weekend) was how I felt. I can honestly say, that from the inside out, I glowed. I felt it in my bones, I felt it in my skin, and by the end of the day I could feel it in my smile because it was so tired.

Unlike the Ultra-fabulous Meatball, BalletFlat and Joey, I was a bit more covert about my plan to find my bridal glow and my flab to fab plan. I think it stems from years of feeling self conscious about my body and my weight. But I think it's about time I shed my inner fear and let you all in on my adventure to get my glow on.

Here's Part 1 of my Flab to Fab Plan:

Growing up I was an uber athlete, I did gymnastics for 30 hours a week until I was 16 and then my body just started to hurt. I could tell that the bending and flexing was putting a strain on my body. It took a knee injury to unearth the truth, a MRI confirmed that I had the knees of a 40 year old women!! AT 16!!! I kept up workouts and exercising until I went to college.

My first year of college, I stop exercising and started eating and drinking. The pounds came on and on and on.

source.

It wasn't until I graduated that I realized how unhealthy I'd become. I quickly became a workout machine and lost almost 30 pounds. I even ran a half marathon. Unfortunately, it didn't last. I had lost the weight by eating too little and working out too much.

A bad breakup and two years of grad school later, I was a heffer once again. School allowed me to justify eating a ton of food. Luckily, after graduation I moved to a City of walkers and stopped justifying the binge eating study sessions- I no longer had anything to study for!!

When I met Mr. Peeps, I had lost about 10 pounds of my grad school weight. And for the first 3 years of our relationship, I stayed at a steady 10 to 15 pounds lighter than my highest weight.

Maintaining that weight was never that easy for me, while I rarely denied myself anything to eat, I worked out a lot. I did a crazy boot camp at 6am for 6 months; I trained and ran another half-marathon- and hurt my knee again; I tried Bikram Yoga (the hot crazy yoga) for awhile; and then I tried just going to the gym on my own.

Finally, come January with about 6 months before the wedding I created a POA- a Plan of Action!! Each month I'd make one resolution and stick to it. Here's the break down:

January- go to the Gym two times a week. Stop drinking during the week.
February- go the the Gym three times a week.
March- go the the gym four times a week and join weight watchers.
April- go to the gym, keep following weight watchers and tone up.
May- tone, tone, tone.

My goal was to lose two inches in my waist or about 10 pounds. Since I love keeping the hive in suspense, you'll just have to see how my 5 month POA worked out.

Did you set a wedding day goal? How's it coming along?