Morning campers! Paris is back, and with a little post about what she’s doing to get fit for the wedding. It sounds like she’s doing ruddy marvellously, I have to say. Long-term readers may remember my brief foray with the 5:2 diet during my wedding planning. (I say ‘brief’, I think I managed a whopping week and a half, or rather, 7 days of completely normal eating, 2.5 days of ‘fasting’ before I said ‘sod that’ and opened a bag of Maltesers.) I also heroically joined the gym about a year before the wedding date in a bid to shift that stubborn half a stone. Went, on average, 0.8 times a week and lost approximately nothing aside from a couple of hundred Great British Pounds. What I do have to say about weddings and weight loss- and I say this to brides at the boutique quite a lot- is that you do miraculously lose your appetite in the week running up to the wedding day. I don’t remember feeling particularly anxious or stressed, but I was busy, and when I’m busy I just naturally eat less. As such my tummy pouch was distinctly smaller come wedding day and I felt great. HOWEVER, we all know that exercise is amazing for us regardless of weight loss and with the pounds falling of Paris too, I am a little bit in awe of her determination. But I’ll let Paris explain from here…
When I first met Joe I was a teeny tiny size 6 at 7stone 10lb and 5ft 4. Admittedly, I was also 18. Eight years of loved up bliss entailed many a McDonalds drive-thru and movie marathons fueled by pizza and I unwittingly gained 3 stone. Following some pretty unflattering holiday photos I knew it was time to get a bit trimmer and managed to lose 10lb and was quite comfortable with my figure.
But ever since the first dress shopping experience I have been wondering about whether I should lose some weight for the wedding. I never really wanted to be that bride who was “sweating for the wedding”, not for any other reason than I think that healthy eating and exercise should be a long term lifestyle choice. Unfortunately, cheese, chocolate and cream (the clotted variety mostly!) often get in the way of that for me and it has been on my mind that maybe I should drop a few pounds to look my best on the big day. That, and the fact that every blimming wedding magazine includes “start fitness regime” in the countdown checklist. Talk about a hint.
So in a bid to encourage myself to do better I handed in my membership card to my local leisure center and upgraded myself to a fancy pants Bannatynes membership. I hate to say it but sweating never felt so glamorous. And because my local Bannatynes is also one of their spa centres I am sure that all the “spa” signs I see on the way to the dreaded treadmill subliminally make me feel like I am actually heading for a massage. Whatever works eh?
I have also taken part in a week long 6am bootcamp in a further bid to tone the wobble. Such torturous exercises included running on shingle, squatting tyres and copious amounts of burpees. Never have I heard “arse to grass” shouted so much. Spending an hour in the morning getting suitably muddy and burning some serious calories actually made me feel great for the rest of the day and the weightloss was an added bonus.
In terms of food, I am now a proud member of Slimming World. If I am honest, I don’t mind a bit of exercise and it has always been food that I struggle with so I knew that some kind of slimming group would be necessary to stop my post gym Subway binges. So far, 5 weeks in, I love Slimming World and have never eaten so much pasta (or protein pancakes) in my life! Surely this cannot be a diet? 10lb down I am very much looking forward to continuing the wedding dress hunt as a slightly smaller bride to be!
Ryan gets me through.
If any of you have any healthy eating tips or recipes please please post them – I need another 18 months worth of inspiration!
Paris x