Wedding Blog

I left you with my six month POA. Since so many of you liked the idea of creating your own POA, I’ve sprinkled my best lessons learned throughout this post.

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Come January I was ready to go with my POA. And how could I fail? I only had to go to the gym twice a week. This turned out to be super simple for me. I found two classes that I adored—one was Total Tone and the other was Core Fit (which used the famous Bosu Ball).

Even though the classes were at 6 AM, by starting off my flab to fab plan easy, I was able to put 110% into each workout. And not drinking during the week, super easy. I drink mostly water with dinner, but when I needed something different, flavored carbonated water usually did the trick.

Lesson learned #1: Be Realistic.

By February, I was feeling confident in myself and added one day to my workouts. This resulted in two days a week of class and one day of cardio machines and weights. I was feeling good. I hadn’t lost any additional weight but I started feeling fitter (which isn’t really a word, but whatever, that’s how I felt!). And more importantly, my clothes were starting to feel a little looser.

At the end of February, I was feeling really good about myself. The guy at the gym knew me by name and started to comment on how consistent I was! In those first two months, I didn’t miss one scheduled workout.

Lesson Learned #2: Find a gym that you like. It’s the only way you will ever go!!

This was right around the time that my brother and sister-in-law came to visit. I knew that my brother had lost a bunch of weight recently, but I was blown away by my SIL. She had lost 30 pounds since I had last seen her at our engagement party in August.

Here we are at dinner. Can’t you tell that she already has her glow on?

(Brother Peep, SIL Peep and me—sorry for the boob shot)

Her trick? No trick really, just Weight Watchers. After hearing her talk all weekend about how easy WW was, I was on board. I signed up for a three month subscription to WW Online. With 90 days before the wedding, this was exactly what I needed! If she could do this with two kids at home, I could do it, too!

My first week on WW was super duper successful. Not because I lost a ton of weight, but because I realized what I was eating. Every day for a week, I tracked EVERY little thing. I wasn’t eating horribly, but I found that if I swapped a few things here and there, I had a much healthier diet.

Example #1: Swap couscous or quinoa for lentils (the microwavable kind at Trader Joes)

Example #2: Stop eating toast (with jelly/butter/or peanut butter) for breakfast. And swap regular flake or Cheerios type cereal in the morning for Fiber Rich Cheerios (again, found at Trader Joes)

Lesson Learned #3: It’s all about the fiber!

As for the March workouts, going to the gym four days a week was tough. For the first time, I missed a workout.

Then one Saturday I had another gym breakthrough: Only go to the gym for as long as it’s fun (or, I shuold say, bearable).

Lesson Learned #4: If you don’t want to do it, do something else. The gym has to be your friend, not your enemy!!

Since my fourth day a week workout was turning into a Saturday workout, I realized that I only needed to stay for 20 to 30 minutes. Usually, I focused on weight training and toning on these days—lots of back, stomach and arm exercises. Since I am no expert on weight training, I won’t go into specifics, but I will say that taking time to tone these areas TOTALLY paid off!

At the end of March I hit a milestone: My second dress fitting! At this point, I was going to the gym consistently three days a week, and while I was no longer tracking what I was eating, I was paying attention to what I ate.

Results: I had lost 5 pounds and an inch at my waist!! Awesome.

But this was at the same time that I hit a bump in the road. Mr. Peep got a new job which allowed us to carpool together to work, which was awesome for us, but not for my POA. This put an end to my 6 AM workouts and my two very favorite classes ever.

Determined not to be derailed, I searched out evening classes, which I found and liked, but by no means did I love them.

Lesson Learned #5: If you can, find a gym with a TV on each machine. Watching a guilty pleasure while working out significantly helped.

Overall, April was a rocky month for my POA, but the change in my eating habits and the groundwork for my workouts allowed me to basically stay on track. By May, I had three very solid workouts a week, mixing classes and cardio/weight training on my own. I stuck to things I really liked to do.

Since May was the month of my wedding, my POA and search for my bridal glow changed completely, so I’ll wait to tell you about that next time. And just in case you think that every day was a good day:

Lesson Learned #6: When I really, really didn’t want to be at the gym I closed my eyes and envisioned my dress. Try it, it works!!

What is one lesson you’ve learned that you’ve found motivational when it comes to finding your own bridal glow?