Mrs. Lovebird, New York/Cancun
Age and Occupation: 25, Attorney
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 25, Medical Student
Engagement Date: September 22, 2006
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Venue: Dreams Cancun Resort & Spa
About Me: Born and raised New Yorker planning a destination wedding in Cancun, Mexico and a traditional Chinese banquet in New York City. Got proposed to in Cancun, so it’s only fitting we are going back to get married. I love trivia, board games, bargain shopping, asian dramas and eating yummy food!
Mission Impossible
May 12th, 2008 @ 4:25 pm by Mrs. Lovebird
In general, I’m pretty comfortable with my weight and am happy with how I look in my wedding dress. It’s the days before and after the wedding when I’ll be in a bathing suit surrounded by 90+ friends and family that I’m getting nervous about.
For months now I’ve been telling myself how I’m going to use the elliptical we have in our house at least three times a week.
I’ve been on it maybe about 8 times since January - I just get so bored on there. I’ve tried listening to fast-paced music and watching tv, and it helps a little. Any tips on how to make this more fun?
Then I told myself I would give up one of the things I love most in this world….soda.
Drinking only water lasted about two days. I do only drink diet soda though and only during dinner.
Mr. Lovebird and I try to eat healthy, but I’m sure those weekly (sometimes biweekly) Papa John’s meals don’t help.
Damn you Hawaiian BBQ Chicken Pizza! Why must you be so delicious with your “Authentic barbeque sauce, topped with grilled all-white chicken, hickory-smoked bacon, fresh-sliced onions and pineapple.” Oh, and I can’t forget the Special Garlic dipping sauce that surely coats our arteries while we scarf down an entire Large pizza in one sitting. We tell ourselves, “At least we are walking the 5 blocks to go pick it up and not getting it delivered!” Who am I kidding, I just don’t want to pay the delivery charge and tip. 
Man….I’m getting hungry….
As you can probably tell, I’m failing miserably. Although I do have one consolation. When I went to my second dress fitting, I told Mr. Lovebird’s aunt (who graciously offered to alter my dress for me) that she might want to make the dress a little tighter since I was planning on losing a little weight. She told me, “Don’t lose any weight, cuz then your boobs will get smaller and us Asian women need all the help we can get.” That pretty much did it for me, cuz honey, I need all the help I can get in that area!
But of course it’s not to say I’m not gonna “try”.
What have you been successful at giving up or doing to get in better shape for the wedding? Or, do you have any healthy diet and exercise secrets you’d like to share?
20 Responses to “Mission Impossible”
I was doing really well with going to the gym and trying to eat healthy. And then, with 2 months to go until our wedding, I realized all the stuff we needed to do, and then we added moving before the wedding into the mix. So now fast food has become my go-to. It’s bad. I’m trying to think of good foods I can get for these last few weeks that will be fast but healthier than McDonalds, Wendys, Arbys, etc every day. Yikes!
And I hear you on the pop. I tried going without, but that on top of the “eating healthy” was just too much at once. I do try to drink a lot of water, though.
Good luck with your goal! I’m hoping to lose some weight from stress. 
With my luck, I’ll gain a bunch. LOL
It sounds like you do not need to lose weight, but maybe tone up a little for a better bikini bod? If so, I say forget the elliptical and try to get in some strength training! You can get some freeweights and a DVD which might be more fun/engaging. I suggest 30 day Shred by Jillian Michaels. Each workout is less than 30 minutes, no nonsense strength training with a little bit of cardio mixed in.
I get really bored on the machines too AND I’ve tried everything… I finally had to sign up for the gym near my house and meet FH there to work out, for some reason when I am at the gym the time passes by quicker and I don’t get as bored. Not that I’m suggesting you join a gym - not cost effective I’m just saying I can relate.
Would you be less bored if you went for a walk around your neighborhood? Maybe Mr. Lovebird could go with you?
I find that when I’m watching Cash Cab while on the elliptical. I get really sucked into the drama/competition of the show and run faster without noticing that I’m on the elliptical.
Maybe you can find something fast paced to watch that can distract you?
Well…sounds like you don’t really need to lose any weight, but I thought I’d share my weight loss plan anyway.
With the countdown to my wedding next August (yes, I have a full year and 3 months), I have joined Weight Watchers. In 3 weeks I’ve already lost 5 pounds!
I highly recommend it to anyone looking to lose a little (or a lot) before the big day. It’s a healthy way to lose weight…and a healthy new lifestyle!
My first goal is 20 pounds…we’ll see what I decide after that. I want to look like myself on my wedding day, so I don’t want to lose too much. 
I spent the whole weekend trying to purchase an eliptical
My best advice to you coming from a recent bride, as well as an event planner — Take a picture of your dress with you when you work out. It will keep you motivated.
Or tell yourself you will do the eliptical the entire time you are watching your favorite 30 min show.
Good luck!! It’s never fun, but TV always helps. So does a good work out buddy. They say you lose more weight when you don’t work out alone!
I can’t stand working out on machines - ellipticals, treadmills, whatever, boring! I have much better luck working out to videos in the privacy of my living room. I recommend trying different types of exercise routines and see what doesn’t completely bore you. (If you have it, TiVo some things from Fit TV.)
Having met you in person, I can attest that you are a skinny-mini, but I hear you on wanting to be “bikini toned.”
I always find that if I tell myself I only have to do 5 minutes and then at the end of five minutes, that I only have to do ANOTHER 5 minutes, etc. somehow I am better able to trick myself into 20-30 minutes of actual exercise.
I also recently just gave up soft drinks (oh diet Pepsi and Tab, my beloveds, how I miss you!). I can’t STAND drinking plain water, so I bought Pure Inventions fruit extracts to add in. My favorites are the Blueberry with White Tea and the Pomegranate with Acai Berry.
The bottles aren’t cheap (about $35-40), but a few drops are all you need, so they last a LONG time. Plus they are FULL of antioxidants, so they are good for you too. I sometimes add them to club soda when I’m really craving the bubbles!
I’ve bought them through drugstore.com and from the Pure Inventions website ( http://www.pureinventions.com/ ). FYI, the Dr. Brandt version if these are made by Pure Inventions, so it’s the same stuff in a smaller, more expensive bottle (as I learned the hard way.)
That’s me “beanchar” above– somehow I dorked typing in my own name….
Totally with you Lovebird, but I bet you will look fantastic no matter what you think! I used to hate the elliptical and then I realized that I won’t get anywhere with my fitness goals if I don’t add in cardio… so I forced myself to do it with a competitive edge. I use any cardio machine (usually the elliptical) until I burn at least 450 calories. If I can do it in 45 minutes or under, it’s great. So I’m constantly trying to find ways to beat the time.
Cash Cab helps me run, I love that show. And ditch the soda, seriously even diet makes you retain water, bloat, etc…
UN. SUCCESSFUL.
I went to my fitting and the lady asked me if I wanted her to let out the dress in the hips a little bit. It fit 2 months ago. Which means I’ve gotten totally lazy and gained weight.
Needless to say i told her not to let it out and started my disgusting Slim-Fast Diet today. I also bought a bunch of Campbells Chicken noodle soup (70 calories a can) if I am craving salt (since I dont like sweets/sweet drinks).
UGH. UGH.
But yeah, In college, I did the canned soup a lot and it helped me lose weight really quick cause its a good meal (too high in sodium, but whatevs) and its less than 100 cals. So if you can do that for lunch every day, you’ll see some pretty darn good results!
Please don’t eat less in order to slim down or done up!! You will mess with your metabolism, retain water, gain back anything you lose and then some. Not to mention you’re taking the harmful risk of not getting enough vitamins and minerals to keep you healthy from the inside out.
As for working out, I have 3 tips that work great for me, hopefully they’ll help someone else:
1. Simple and effective: each month, print off a simple calendar and mark a huge X every day you work out. You’ll want to keep the Xs going and not break the chain. For real, it works.
2. If you get bored doing cardio like I do, the answer to gym session ADHD: switch machines every 5 or 10 minutes. Seriously, you’ll be more interested and work different body parts.
3. This is important: if you are simply not a gym person, don’t do it! Toughing it out - and hating it - on the treadmill one day will NOT make you want to go back the next day! If you prefer rollerblading in the park or swimming laps in a pool, you’ll be more motivated to keep a routine and have fun doing it.
Sorry for such a long post…fitness and nutrition are a passion for me, and I hope to share that with others. GL!
I gained about 10 pounds in my first semester of grad school, and keeping a food diary at http://www.fitday.com (it’s free!) helped me figure out where my extra calories were coming from (answer: dining hall dessert buffet and daily bagel with cream cheese) and how to cut down and eat healthier without going hungry.
As for the elliptical, I’ve found that reading trashy magazines (Cosmo, People, US Weekly) really helps make the time go faster. Plus, cardio is an awesome stress-buster. I find that if I go too long without my cardio I start getting cranky now. I’m actually kind of jealous that you have your own elliptical! I’d kill not to have to go to the gym.
I’ve always had a tough time getting through a workout on a machine, it’s so boring! But then I realized that every episode of SATC is 30 minutes long, and I’ve never looked back. Hope it helps!
Yay for pimping fitday Melissa B! I’ve lost 35 lbs using fitday, and if you can stick with it, it will work for you. You know how you created a wedding budget, and it sometimes doesn’t matter if you have a really expensive dress if you budget out your shoes and accessories? That’s how weight loss works. It’s about calories in versus calories out over time. So really, you just need to make great choices most of the time, so when you make not so great ones, things even out over time. I use fitday to keep track of how often the great choices are happening, and it’s nice to have a record (and to play with all of the fun charts and graphs)
Miss Love Bird! You are in New York like me… you HAVE to do Physique 57! There is one in midtown (57th street) and one in Soho. I have been going since January (my wedding is in august) and it is sooo fun and basically all strength training. They have a “Bridal Countdown” as well to keep you motivated.
http://www.physique57.com. I highly recommend it! Ok… enough of my P57 commercial! As far as my diet plans…. ugh… soooo hard! I am trying to not drink wine during the week but it gets hard. I have not had my fitting yet but I hope it goes ok. I tend to lose weight when stressed so I am trying to wait until the last minute for fittings.
I ordered my dress 1 size too small, knowing that I wanted to tone up. So what I’ve been doing a “bootcamp” for 4 weeks now - and lost 10 lbs and 2 inches on my waist!! It was amazing! I get so bored on machines, so this works great for me. It’s in Boston and we run to different parks each day and do different drills. I love it! I even signed up for the next session!!! I highly, highly recommend it!!
Body by Glamour, on their website, gives some good workout suggestions based on your target areas, and the workouts change from one week to the next. Not only that but you can track what you’re eating and the calories. I also started training for a fake half marathon - I like crossing off the days, and it keeps my routine varied. The downside? All the running makes me ravenously hungry and liable to justify carb intake…
My cousin had been living in Ireland for a few years when she got married. Regularly going to the pub to hang out with friends over a pint or two wasn’t helping her weight, so she cut back on that almost completely for a time by sipping fizzy water instead. I don’t know what else she did, but she did trim up, and she felt that tactic was one thing that made a difference.
