Weighty Matters

In the spring of 2011, bridesmaids Madonna and Irish and I went on a wedding adventure. Bridesmaid Madonna was starting her search for a wedding dress (she got married this past summer), and we set off on a girly adventure full of brunch and dresses. We first headed to Vows in Watertown, where the girls convinced me to try on a few dresses for my then-two-years-away wedding. Not knowing anything about wedding dress sizing, I grabbed a few and took them to a dressing room where I discovered that I did not fit in a single one of them. The frazzled consultant grabbed a dress that I would actually fit in, and when I saw the size on the tag the panic that set in took a fair bit of time and chai to settle down. The large selection of plus size dresses at the David's Bridal we went to later that day certainly gave me more options, but did no more to ease my own embarrassment about my size. 

I was heavy my whole life, loving brownie sundaes and french fries and finding as many excuses to get out of gym class as possible. The dining hall Ben and Jerry's and Monday mimosas in college certainly didn't help, and the novelty of adult life (why yes, I will have cookies for lunch) took a while to wore off. The idea that my habits would kill me much quicker if I continued along that path, combined with a burning desire to be a confident bride, made me turn things around in the summer of 2011. I tracked my eating, dusted the cobwebs off our elliptical machine, and started my journey toward feeling deserving of Vader's plentiful compliments and reassurances. 

Tomorrow morning I'll run 2.5 miles without dying walking, then have a balanced and low calorie breakfast, and then daydream all the way to work about how different next weekend's adventure will be compared to the spring of 2011. And that's because....

...I'll be going wedding dress shopping on Saturday! And with 90 pounds less of me than there was two years ago, I'm over the moon excited to find a dress I feel great in without feeling the need to hide behind it.