Wedding Blog
Yesterday was the anniversary of when Mr. Caramel proposed to me last year. (1-08-07…. I know… 187!!! Scary!) One year ago Mr. Caramel proposed and I was overwhelmed with that feeling of “OMG, I CANNOT BELIEVE I’M GOING TO GET MARRIED!”
Here is when two random people happened to show up right after he proposed, just to take our picture at sunset!
This is when our friends gave us a surprise engagement party after it all happened. Can’t you just see the happiness on my face???
And here’s a picture of our engagement dinner, where our parents met for the first time!
A lot of people liked my dress & my hair, which was done by my sister! (Dress was from Nordstroms)
So far, being a wife is GREAT! I’m not sure if it’s because of our personalities or because we were both college buddies… but we haven’t had any crazy transitioning issues yet. But our place is a pretty big mess and we eat sandwhiches for dinner. I know, it’s terrible, but I haven’t really learned how to cook quite yet. I need some cookbooks or some recipes! However, coming home has become my favorite part of the day. We still attack each other because we’ve missed the other person terribly!
One bad thing is that I’ve gained a lot of weight back and I’m slacking on my workouts. The holidays + the freedom to eat whatever I want after the wedding all came together at the same time. I couldn’t love bread more…. really! This has been causing some difficulty in cooking for my new husband because we both don’t want to eat carbs, pastas or greasy foods. Anyone have any tips? We’ve already done the whole salmon, salad and grilled chicken thing… I need something new!
My new art consulting job has also created a very bad habit of eating constantly. Almost the entire company is women, and of course– women love to snack. We always have chocolate bars, coffee and cookies to snack on. I try bringing in tangerines and nuts, but I end up just eating those in addition to the rest of the goodies.
I’m sure the gyms are always packed in January, but does anyone have any tips on losing weight in the work space? I’d love to hear some!
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You look so pretty in that dress! Love the color on you =)
And yep, I’ve gained a lot of weight since our September wedding, and am just recently starting to (trying to) get back on the healthy track. But I. Love. Carbs. and Sugar. Gimme sugar!! At least Mr. E and I work in the same office building, so we are starting to go to the gym regularly during the gym. I haven’t noticed a huge influx of new January members yet, but I guess our membership is tightly controlled by our building management… =/
today is our 4-month wedding anniversary - it went by so fast!
i’m totally in the same boat as you, i gained like 13 pounds since the wedding and am now overweight, eeeek. now we’re trying to get back in gear, although sweets are always a temptation esp. from the post-xmas overload. we’re just super happy, right?
some work-friendly tips that have worked for me - take an extra lap when you go to the bathroom. our building goes in a circle and 1 lap around is 1/3 of a mile. my husband and i both work in the same building so we try to take laps when we can. also - bring your lunch more often than you buy. even something like pasta isn’t as bad as when it’s made in the caf. and pack healthy snacks, like nuts and dried fruit, or yogurt and fresh fruit. it’s really easy for me to crave chocolate at work because the admins have huge tins, so i try to make sure i have at least one morning and one afternoon snack.
those tips really worked when i was gearing up for the wedding (i didn’t go all exercise and diet crazy, and i still lost 15 pounds), and now i’m just starting them up again. good luck!
I’ve only been married for a little over a month and have gained 5 months from eating like crazy on our honeymoon (2 weeks!) and then getting back just in time to chow down at the holidays! I’m trying to get back on track too. I try to stay away from the candy jars (because if I see it, I want to eat it!) and bring with me healthier snacks like fresh fruit, string cheese, etc. If I’m full from healthy snacks, I find I’m less likely to eat all the junk that’s around.
In terms of getting back on track at the gym, I started one of Self.com’s Reach Your Goal programs. It’s been helping me to feel more accountable for not going to the gym because I won’t complete the workouts for the week and won’t reach my goal. Maybe something like that would help?
I LOVE your hair from your engagement party!
As for cooking, ground turkey is my favorite thing ever. You can use it for everything you use ground beef in: taco night, lasagna, meat loaf. Turkey burgers with chopped celery and apple on a whole wheat bun is a favorite of mine and FH (just add an egg or some breadcrumbs so they don’t fall apart and grill).
We do a lot of pseudo-Mexican food: fajitas, Mexican casserole-type stuff. Tilapia is also an easy fish to cook; it’s very light and goes will with a simple lemon butter sauce (melt some butter in the microwave, add some lemon juice and pour on the fish).
I also always keep some frozen veggies in the freezer. It helps me get my vegetable servings in when I have the salad blues.
The best things I have done to keep from gaining weight at work is to drink water constantly and stay away from the kitchen, which is where all the cakes and cookies end up. I only go in there to put my lunch in the fridge and to get it out at lunch time. NO lingering!
Write down EVERYTHING you eat, including all those little candy bars and cookies and tally up your total calories daily. A healthy woman who works out 3-4 times a week should be consuming around 1800 calories to maintain and 1400 to lose weight (of course this varies depending on your current weight/height and activity level). This website helps you figure out your calories and there are online journals to help you keep track (http://www.calorie-count.com/). I have a little post-it on my jar of candy to remind myself of how many calories each one is.
Also, I find that it helps to bring your own healthier snacks and it helps satisfy those sweet cravings. Dannons makes a great Light & Fit smoothie that is only 70 calories which acts as a great snack as well as a sweet tooth craving satisfier.
If all else fails and you have to give in, take only half of a cookie or a small piece of cake to satisfy that craving.
It’s been hard since I’ve been married bc I love to cook, but what has worked for me is to eat oatmeal or cereal with fruit for breakfast and soup (any broth based one I want) and/or salad for lunch. ( I keep cans of all sorts of soups at my desk) That way I can make what I normally do for dinner and not really be any worse for the wear!
Drink water. All day. All the time. That’s my advice. A lot of times when I get snacky, I’m actually thirsty. Keep a water bottle or a large glass at your desk, and whenever you get up to pee (’cause you’ll have to, you hydrated person, you), make sure to stop at the water cooler on your way back to refill that bottle.
My doctor told me that most women are dehydrated most of the time, so drink more than you think you need to. It makes you feel better, clears up the skin, etc.
What’s scary about 187?
I’m curious because that’s my phone extension.
I can really only chime in with some advice with the work snacking situation! I recently moved and left a job I loved - and I worked with mostly women. After a while, we were all noticing a slight weight gain. Some of the ladies started stocking up on more healthy options like nuts, 100 calorie snack packs (even the chocolate ones), grapes and water, less soda. Give that a try at work to help with the tempting snacks!
You look great in that dress, and your hair I snagged for my inspiration board for my stylist!
Happy Anniversary!!! You make a beautiful couple!
For ideas to vary your cooking routine… Epicurious has a great feature where you can put ingredients into their search box and it will come up with recipes that use those ingredients
So, for instance, entering “chicken basil” yields 209 different recipes to choose from that use both chicken and basil. You can sort the results down to “Quick and Easy” and “Healthy” by clicking the links on the left.
It also has reader reviews of almost all the recipes, so you can see what others thought and get suggestions as to how to modify a recipe to suit your tastes.
They also have an online “recipe box” where you can store recipes you like.
Another site I’ve been loving lately is our own Miss Penguin’s Thai Food Tonight
feauring videos with the ever-entertaining Miss P and her adorable mom cooking the recipes on the site. Yum!
I’m w/ katya…confused about the 187 thing! Please help.
I have to say, you Caramels are a couple of my fave bees…you’re so cute! Just wanted to get that out there.
Also, I gained 10 pounds - 10 POUNDS!!! - in the 6 weeks after the wedding. I attribute it to the beer I was able to finally drink again, as I’m a beer lover and will usually have 5 or 6 of them on Saturday and Sunday. (Don’t drink much during the week, thank goodness, or maybe we’d be dealing with 15 pounds!) So we’ve cut out the alcohol, are cutting back on the salt, and I’m trying to get back into my 4 days per week workout routine, with a bit of cardio thrown in on Saturday for fun. (Bleh…not fun. I prefer weight training, oddly enough.) We also started attending a “core and calm” class on Tuesday and Thursday nights that combines a little bit (about 15 mins) of pilates-type exercises focusing on the core, and then a little bit (last 15 mins) of yoga-type stretching that calms us down and makes us feel all peaceful. I love it! The husband is starting to like it, but its new and kinda hard for him thus far. He’s a trooper, though! I’m just glad we can do it together…makes it more fun.
Hang in there! And writing things down is a great idea. Seriously, it’s crazy how quickly the cals add up…
187 - CA police code for homicides….learned that one from snoop and dr. dre. Hell yeah. 
hahaha!
I’m 5 months away from my wedding and am doing the “I dont eat it unless I know how many calories are in it” diet. No office pastries, no random snacking. I also hung a sign on my cube wall that says ” DONT FEED THE BRIDE.” People get a kick out of it. Writing everything down really helps you know exactly how many calories you are eating. I was eating probably three times as many calories as I needed hence the huge weight gain over the past year.
I saw a quote somewhere: “If you can’t say no, at least think twice before saying yes.” Think of how that relates to your eating…THINK TWICE!
super cute dress and very flattering. and your hair looks fab too — i wish i had a sister who would do that!
as for the weight and cooking issue. i work from home so i have my entire kitchen next to me ALL day. not easy when the newman’s minty cookies are calling my name.
i keep a nalgene full of water on my “desk” (and by desk i don’t mean the writing table piled high with clothes and other things, i mean our kitchen table..OK moving on) and try to drink it at least twice a day. NO soda in the house — just fruit juice and seltzer. i mix cranberry with the seltzer — yum. also i keep nuts, seeds and fruit (had grapes as a snack today) handy.
now, onto meal ideas — http://www.foodtv.com is my friend. we also try to shop on the weekends with specific meals in mind. so on sunday we do all our food shoping. this eliminates the “it’s already 7:30, we have no idea, let’s just eat pasta” habit. this week we had a brocolli and goat cheese quiche, tonight i’m making chicken picatta, tomorrow we’re making carrot ginger soup, and the next night we splurge — home made pizza night which will accompany our first poker night with two other couples.
1. I just wanted to add to the commotion over your engagement dinner look - you are GORGEOUS! I absolutely positively adore that red dress.
2. Why not try soup? It’s something fun to cook, can be rather low cal and can contain lots of veggies. When the stock runs low, I add brown rice for texture. Plus, it freezes well!
3. Eating constantly is not bad - so long as it’s the right stuff. Try drinking more water (like, 12 glasses a day) - you won’t be as hungry. And speaking of hungry, make it a goal to NEVER be hungry - just eat whatever healthy snacks you brought every few hours so that you’re NEVER hungry and NEVER full. This will keep your metabolism at it’s peak.
Avoid all those free lunches and birthday cakes in the office. I am sure this happens no matter where you work - free lunch because of this or that ( free lunch almost always means pizza, chinese takeout, cookies etc), birthday cakes, home made cookies you name it. I don’t even get up to go in the direction of all these goodies because once you are there, it’s hard to resist. It only helps marginally but it’s something.
I work with a bunch of women, too, and we’re doing an office weight loss challenge to help everyone shed some pounds.
We all weighed in on Monday, and pledged $15 for the challenge winner. We will continue to weigh in every other Monday until June 2nd. The person who loses the largest percentage of body weight wins. It’s nice to have a buddy system when trying to lose weight, and it cuts down on snacks around the office.
Who designed your dress? It is beautiful!
Your pictures are beautiful, I hope you had a wonderful wedding. I’m in the process of creating my guestbook from proposal photos my fiance took while he was waiting for me to arrive, and they need a lot of color corrections to make them into decent photos! Well, to make a long story short, for practice I grabbed your beach proposal image, and did some retouching. I thought you might like to have it, it’s got a bit more detail than the original. I’m not sure how to post it in a comment, but if you would like it, you can grab it off http://www.richardandbrooke.com/mrscaramel.jpg. Hope you like it!
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Mrs. Caramel, Los Angeles
Age and Occupation: 24, Art Gallery/Museums
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Engineer
Engagement Date: January 8, 2007
Wedding Date: October 6, 2007
Venue: a beautiful church and hotel reception
About Me: I love dancing, singing, eating out, eating in, surfing on the net, and brainstorming fantastic ideas. I also love cats, coffee, and know every quote written on Sex & the City. I'm known to laugh really loud and have really crazy hand gestures while I talk. My fiance writes songs and I take pictures. What else? We're just a crazy young couple in love, trying to make a fabulous wedding!
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