Weddingbee Blog

Hi hive!

I’m just a month shy of my 3-year wedding anniversary and I have a confession to make: by the close of the holiday season this year, I’d officially gained 25 pounds since our wedding.

Being a newlywed is pretty blissful—lots of great meals, lots of travel, lots of basking in the glow of finally being done with wedding planning and moving on into the next stage of your life. Mr. Peng and I ate our way through Thailand this past winter, where I looked a lot like this:

Mouth agape, willing to accept whatever happened to fall in it, like a giant pummelo, for instance.

Thai people I know are funny, man. I won’t say “all Thai people” because that’s just a generalization, so I’ll just say EVERY single Thai person I encountered. They’d see me and they’d say, “So beautiful but so fat!” Mmmmmkay, yeah thanks. I’ll just go back to the US now and live in ignorant bliss where people say things like, “I love your outfit!” and “Cute earrings!” when they first see you and not, “Damn, how much did you eat last night?”

So this was me, in November of last year:

I will be completely, and ridiculously honest: I think I looked fine. I mean, did I fit into “designer” jeans sizes anymore (they usually go up to 32 right?)? Um, nope. But who cares. Stretch pants are IN! Right? Right? I tucked my last pair of non-stretch jeans up in storage two-and-a-half years ago and never looked back. So what, who cares.

Anyway. In February, my friend wanted to join a bootcamp. And so I did. And in three short months with pretty minimal effort (I’ll break down the ACTUAL time spent in a future post) I’ve managed to shed 16 pounds and counting. I say this because if you’re reading this, you’re probably a bride (or maybe even a post-wedding-”whoops I looked away and when I looked back I gained 20 pounds!”-type person) and I want to say that even with a busy schedule, it is possible to shed it without feeling like you have to say no to foods, or feel like your world is crashing down on you. OK, so maybe for the first couple weeks you’ll feel like your world is crashing down on you. I did. But I got through it pretty quickly, and I hope that if you’re looking to drop a few pounds but maintain your sanity, I can at least help you have the confidence to know that it’s doable, even in a short period of time, and without starving yourself…because that’s never worked out for anyone, in the long term.