Shedding for the wedding

A most unoriginal title for a most unoriginal wedding topic. I obsessively read Weddingbee during our engagement. The vast majority of the brides either lost weight or toned their slimmer physiques to look their very best on a very important day.

I was no different. I’ve never been skinny. As a kid, I was rather active but slowly put on pounds as my portions increased and activity decreased. My parents were super supportive and took me to dietitians and helped me with diet plans. I gained then lost 30-40 pounds between seventh and ninth grade but stayed about the same weight all of high school (including when I played varsity lacrosse).

At my high school graduation in 2006, age 17.

That all changed in college. Most college students pack on the freshman 15 (or 50) their first few semesters. I did the opposite. I didn’t have a car and lived on the opposite side of a very large campus from my classes. I even walked downtown some afternoons to get and explore. Since I was walking several miles at least five days a week, I lost about 15 pounds and slimmed my shape.

Maroon star is East Ambler-Johnston, freshman home Orange stars are freshman class buildings

Can you find me? With my sorority pledge class in 2007, age 18.

My weight loss continued through sophomore year. I lived off campus and still didn’t have a car. When the weather was nice, I walked home from class. More pounds fell off, and I dropped two dress sizes. The summer between sophomore and junior years, I hit my lowest weight after my tonsils were removed (no diet quite like a post surgery diet).

I got rid of this dress beause it was too big. Sisterhood round in sorority recruitment 2009, age 20.

Senior year was different. I lived in my sorority house in Oak Lane (the Greek community) which was on the Hokie Express (VT’s on-campus bus) route. All my classes were in the Food Science building, the first academic building on the HoX’s route. 9 am came too early after thirsty Thursday, so I started riding the bus to and fro. My newly legal status saw me going to the bars more frequently and stumbling through DX, the express food joint, at 1 am. But I did squeeze into a size 10 dress for graduation.

Those idiots gave me a diploma! College graduation in 2010, age 21.

I moved to North Carolina after graduation, and Mac and I settled in to a domestic routine of two working adults. We went out to eat frequently and bought whatever groceries struck our fancy. In the six or so weeks leading up to Mac’s deployment in December, 2010, we seemed to eat more. We were eating take out or restaurant food five or six nights a week. In my defense, it’s hard to say to no when your boyfriend won’t be able to eat Pizza Hut or Taco Bell for a year. I had enjoyed at least three Christmas parties at work alone in addition to other ones I attended. My weight issue came to a head the New Years Eve after he left (2011). I bought a super cute size large dress from Target for a fancy NYE party my friends and I planned to attend in Baltimore. It didn’t fit, and I wound up buying a not as cute dress in XL. Mortifying. I threw on a cardigan (also XL), so I didn’t have to look at my body.

Bobby Cox’s last home game in October 2010, age 22.

Fatty fat fat at NYE 2010/2011, age 22.

Some days, I was so depressed, I just ate and ate. I finally weighed myself and was stunned by the number. Almost 220 pounds??!?!?!?! How could that be? I was 40 pounds more than my skinny-minny college days, relatively speaking. I vowed to change and signed up for Weight Watchers. All my nutrition education aside, I didn’t really get the WW program. The concept is to teach you portion size and healthy decision making. I ate whatever I wanted and fudged my activity to not exceed my points. Not the best idea or the correct plan utilization.

One day, I read an email from The Knot that offered a bridal boot camp set. I bought it just to motivate myself to work out. At $70, it included a diet plan, beauty guide, and other workout tips. I then stopped eating normal meals and limited my food intake to 3-4 scoops of chocolate protein powder in water and dinner. I was building muscle mass like crazy and slimming my figure, but the scale barely budged. In six months of working out fairly regularly, I lost under 20 pounds. I was feeling super confident and slim when Mac came home on leave. I even bought a dress for our engagement photos in my college size. I was really dissapointed when I saw that I didn’t look slimmer when we got our photos back. Didn’t help that Mac lost 40 pounds during the first seven months of deployment. What was I doing wrong?

Double chin, never attractive. Engagement photos (from Noah Magnifico), age 22.

Then the crazy hit. My BFF, BM Antlers, tried the HCG diet shortly after we finished college. She did the six week program and lost about 40 pounds (and has kept most of it off two years later). I found a clinic in Fayetteville that offered it and signed up. $1200 later (ouch), I had a month’s supply of HCG and a diet plan. I wasn’t 100% faithful to the diet but lost 25 pounds of body fat and 10 pounds off the scale. Mac came home for good, and I vowed to continue the weight loss to hit my college weight by wedding day.

NYE 2011/2012 in New Orleans, age 23.

That didn’t happen. My job makes me totally miserable, and I had a bad stretch (failed audit capped it off) in February. For two or three weeks, I went out to lunch just to get out of the building. The town in very small and only has fast food (like KFC and Bojangles, I really love mashed taters and biscuits). I put on the ten pounds I lost with HCG. I started working out infrequently and irregularly. I nixed the fast food but didn’t totally overhaul my diet. Ten pounds then creeped on. What.the.hell? All in all, I gained back twenty pounds in three months.

So here I sit, almost a month after the wedding with honeymoon pudge to boot. I need to change. I’m tired of being tired, aching joints, poor sleeping, and general lethargy. I don’t want to be a fat Army wife with an attractive, fit husband. I don’t want to be fat before having kids and be fatter after. I’m working on a new diet plan aided by a visit to the Wellness Center of Fort Bragg (it’s free for active duty and families!). I have a stack of fitness DVDs that I’m going to dust off and a few seasons of How I Met Your Mother on instant Netfilx. I’m posting here to increase my accountability. If I tell y’all, I’ll be more inclined to keep up with this. And I’m hoping for some support!
Any of y’all struggle with weight issues?