Weddingbee Blog

Man, oh man! My dress is still pretty much hacked up! It is not yet hemmed, and the lace needs to be tacked on in the front. Oh, and the seamstress has to open it up in the middle AGAIN to get rid of the odd bumpiness around the waistline.

Please excuse the extreme bloat.

As some of you might remember, I was worried about fitting into my dress. Here you can see that the dress zips up despite the bloat to end all bloats. Curse Aunt Flo, curse her.

I wish I had a detailed account of how I lost weight, but I do have some tips:

Eat breakfast: This kept me from gorging on food at lunch. I went for a piece of fruit, whole grain cereal, or an omelette.

Exercise! This seems like a no brainer, but once you get in the groove of not doing this, it’s easy to just skip it. The only way I’ll get it done is if I do it in the morning, so I suck it up and get my butt out of bed. I like doing solitary activities like running or swimming. For me, free weights was a good way to do my toning. I actually followed a program from Instyle Weddings magazine! Whatever works!

Deprivation is not cool: I’ve never said to myself, “That food is off limits.” I went to a bridal shower; the menu consisted of cheesy mexican food. It was lunch time, and I can pretty much guarantee that if I didn’t eat something, I would have binged on something even worse later. I fixed myself a small plate; I got what I wanted and was satisfied without engulfing too much of that cheese!

Lay off the Starbucks: Okay, maybe this is an off-limit food for me! My problem was I would always get a Tall White Chocolate Mocha with whipped cream whenever I got stressed at school. Unfortunately, that happened once or twice a day. Now when I am thirsty, I drink….water! It does the trick every time. I still mosey over to Starbucks every once in a while, but now I’ve saved on calories and money, for that matter!

Lastly, drop the ideal weight: I followed Weddingbee readers’ advice to not have a goal weight. That was just going to stress me out, which is not good for me. (See lay off the Starbucks.) I just focused on how I felt and how my clothes fit. Of course, I’m not all of a sudden Miss Fitness, but I do feel better. Hopefully, this will be the start of a healthier lifestyle and I won’t fall into the same pattern next semester! (Again, please refer to Lay off the Starbucks.)

And here are some tips for fighting bloat (which I majorly suffer from, but I learned how to make it better! They really work!)

Drink water: This may seem counterproductive, but it, um, flushes the system.

Eating sodium and caffeine = not such a good idea: Although you might crave it that time of month, try not to eat salty foods. This includes most pasta sauces, popcorn, chips, White Chocolate Mochas, Coke, etc. Sometimes eating flavorful, spicy foods curbs these cravings. (I go for anything flavored with fresh garlic. I loooooooooooooove garlic. Good for bloat, not for breath.)

Well, that’s all I got. I hope this helps someone!