The Joys and Sorrows of Dieting

As some of you may have noticed, or maybe no one, I'm not sure anyone even reads my blog, but I have had a Wedding Day Slim Down countdown on my blog going for a month before my sister's wedding. This slim down was not out of vanity but out of pure necessity. When my bride's maid dress arrived it was way too tight. I could barely get it zipped up and it was definitely not going to be comfortable to wear all night at a wedding. As we all know, there is no way to make a dress bigger so the only solution was to make my body smaller.

I embarked on a weight loss mission to get into that dress and feel comfortable in it was well. My plan was as follows.

1) work out or run every day

2) no carbs for lunch or dinner

3) only grilled or steamed vegetables and meat

4) limited alcohol (I tried to cut it out completely but that was just way too hard)

5) keep a calendar with my workout for the day already on it so I am prepared for what is in store for me that day based on my work schedule

I was astonished at how quickly my body changed by just cutting out the carbs. As difficult as it was in the beginning to resist the bread, pasta and rice, it became much easier as the time went by. I was filling my tummy with extra steamed broccoli or more salad and not with processed, bleached and nutrient void carbohydrates. I was never hungry and had a lot more energy and a lot less bloat. Along with the change in diet I was also working out daily doing both strength training and cardio. The weight just melted off. I was down 9 pounds from my heaviest point in only 3 weeks.

I tried the dress on at the beginning of last week and it zipped up easily, the problem now was that it was a little too big! Craziness! With a strapless bra in place, it fit perfectly. I was very proud of myself and so was Craig. He was quite impressed with my new figure as well.

So as great as I felt and as pleased with the results as I was, I was definitely enjoying my huge plate of cheese tortellini at the wedding. A diet as strict as what I was doing is impossible to keep up with forever, nor should it be. Diets are just that, diets. They are not meant to be long term. Developing a healthy lifestyle and making better decisions about what goes into my body is much more realistic. I still plan on keeping up with not eating carbs for dinner at least 5 nights a week, I just could never imagine a life without risotto or mashed potatoes, and working out 3-4 days a week as well. I have also discovered that I am capable of a morning workout, which for me is a 3 mile run on the treadmill at the gym here in my complex, and it is much easier to get it out of the way before my day begins rather that waiting to see how I feel at the end of a long work day.

Overall, here are the lessons learned from this experience:

1) our bodies are a direct result of what we put in it

2) having a goal to work towards is much more motivating

3) diets are a temporary fix and impossible to stick to 100% of the time, but keeping a few healthy habits from being on one is a good idea

4) exercise is important, but the combination of diet and exercise is the only way to get fast results