I have struggled with my weight from a really early age. Over the course of my life I have successfully lost a significant amount of weight several times only to gain it back. In 2013 I had climbed to my heaviest and vowed to make a change that would change my life, not just the shape of my body. I began a blog about my journey and over about two years I changed how I ate and began to make exercise an important part of my life. When we got engaged last June I was 50 pounds lighter.
I wouldn't have done this any other way. I knew that when I was preparing for my wedding I wanted to focus on the parts I wanted to remember and not on how to lose the most weight before the big day. For the most part I have been successful in making that happen for myself. I still have about 15 pounds to lose before I hit my goal but summer is my best time for getting fit because the weather allows me to walk with Brutus which gets me most motivated to exercise. When the days are long we walk about 5 miles every day. It is so therapeutic and has added so much value to my life. It helps me focus on what is important.
That being said, when the days are short and I can't walk with Brutus after work, my progress falls off the map. I like to think I'm a morning person because I thought my life would include being the host of a morning radio show but since it has taken another turn I am finally admitting to myself that mornings are not all that attractive to me. The idea of them is but in practice it is so hard for me to pull myself out of bed super early to go exercise. One thing I learned about weight loss and maintenance is that you have to have an option that you actually like to do otherwise it is a chore and you're bound to fail. This winter has killed my momentum and now that the days are longer I am so excited to get back to walking.
I am starting this Spring at 170lbs... 5 pounds heavier than when I began this winter and that's not all that bad at all. By the time the wedding comes I anticipate that I will be at about 155, my original goal when I began my weight loss 3 years ago.
losing the 15pounds isn't really my goal though. I'm moving on from the number on the scale and paying attention to toning myself up. I don't care what I actually weigh on my wedding day but I do know that I want to make my arms stronger. I want to tone my stomach and build some muscle all over my body. Walking really helps me build that in my lower half so I plan to spend more time on my upper body to achieve similar results.
This wedding is about having fun and having a day with our family and friends that we remember for a lifetime. I am so excited about the photographer that will be documenting our day. He's incredible and I'll have a whole blog post all about him and his work but I am so looking forward to spending two hours with him, just Ben and me. We had a blast on our engagement shoot and I love the pictures so much. I spend so much time behind a camera that I almost never spend time in front of it but this will be the one day that I will be thrilled to be the subject and I really want to be fit. Partly this is vain because I want to look gorgeous but it is also about how I feel. I want to feel healthy and fit on my wedding day. I feel like my wedding day is the start of my new life as a new woman. I know it is symbolic and that the day after we are married we are still just the happy couple we are now but it feels like a big milestone and I want my fitness to be a part of that.
I feel like all my romantic teenage dreams are coming true and back then all I wanted was to be skinny and have the boys take notice. Today I have more than a boy, I have an amazing man who is everything I dreamed about. I don't just want to be skinny anymore, I want to be fit. I want fitness to be a part of who I am for every day of my life as a Luce. That is what is going to motivate me and make me feel like exercising isn't to make me skinny. It is to make me happy.
<3 The Future Mrs. Luce
149 Days to go
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