So my wedding dress doesn't really fit. I mean it does - but it doesn't. I can get it on alright and it looks pretty. But it bunches in places and I probably couldn't consume anything larger than a grape without it bursting. The Chinese lady at the (discount) bridal shop that I bought it at said "Just lose 20 lbs and you won't need to have it altered!"
And so I started my weight loss quest.
Or, in reality, re-started it.
About 4 years ago I was pretty thin due to running regularly and not being able to afford restaurant food. I wasn't skinny, but I felt comfortable in my skin and even wore a bikini that summer. That was the year I met my fiance. Since then I gained about 20lbs and have always felt a little bad about tricking him into thinking he was dating a fairly attractive and active person when really I'm pretty darn lazy.
Anyways fast forward to a trip to Malaysia where I ate noodles and curry for 2.5 weeks and an imminent wedding and you can imagine I was feeling pretty motivated. And this time I was determined to make it work - because lord knows in the past, I have tried and failed to lose weight more times than I can or care to count. So I was gonna do things differently this time.
And what I'm about to tell you is not a secret. It's the same thing everyone will tell you when you ask or google "How to lose weight". I knew it back when I failed to lose weight all those times, but I didn't BELIEVE it until I gave up trying to lose the weight as quickly as possible.
You see, the things you do when you try to lose weight as efficiently as possible are the things nobody wants to do. They're things like eating raw vegetables, and doing intervals and lifting weights and avoiding carbs. That is the WORST. LIFE. EVER! So nobody can do it for very long because it sucks.
The trick is - do and eat what you love.
So I joined a spinning class. I had taken one years ago and enjoyed it, but I read that it wasn't "the best way" to lose weight, so I figured why bother? It's a waste of time.
The next thing I did was join a swimming class with a bunch of my fellow grad students. It is so much fun that the hour flies by and it doesn't feel like exercise at all. But can you guess why I never bothered with it until now? Exactly. Somebody once said that swimming is not great for weight loss because of the buoyancy or something. Bullocks!
The final thing I did was eat soup. I hate vegetables. I hate them so much and I feel angry when I am made to eat them. And the only thing I hate more than vegetables is RAW vegetables. But I did always enjoy a nice soup once in a while - I even like making soup - so that's what I did. I traded in my dreaded salads for delicious soups and I was so much happier eating my meals!
And that's it. Find some activity you like doing even if it's not super high intensity or only uses your leg muscles or doesn't require you to wear a heart monitor and ENJOY doing it. And don't eat salads if you don't like salads. Find some other lower calorie food that you like to eat and make that your staple meal.
Oh - my last piece of advice is this: Eat cheat meals! One hamburger with fries once a week will not throw you off your weight loss goals especially now that you've agreed that we're not in a big hurry. If you are a food lover like me, you will not survive a new healthy regimen without cheat meals. Trust me.
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