To prepare for my wedding, I felt a desire to workout and get in shape like never before. Sure I was always an athlete in my younger years, throughout high school, and the start of college, and then I played intramural sports and did Insanity/P90X to stay in shape during my undergrad years. But once I got engaged AND started graduate school, it was a crazy balance of wanting to get in shape and finding time as well as overcoming the stress of being a grad student.
Stress has always been difficult for both my mind and my body to overcome. My weight fluctuates when I'm stressed, and depending on what I'm stressing about, I either find it difficult to eat anything, or I have an uncontrollable appetite to calm my nerves. I finally had to capitalize on my mind set and overcome my stress to become a better me. In the 6 months leading up to my wedding, my husband got me into serious lifting. Again, I had lifted for sports, but this was different. This was all for me, and it was something that I truly wanted to accomplish. For a little over 5 months, I lifted heavily for about 4-5 days a week, and I also ran a few miles a day 3 days a week. I lowered my calorie intake to only 1,200/day, and I tried to watch the types of food that I ate. I had incredible motivation to get in shape, and I kept a food/workout journal to hold myself accountable.
With only about 20 days left before my wedding, I had a dinner date with our Best Man Charles, who is also a personal trainer. Over dinner, we discussed my fitness goals and I mentioned that I was starting to plateau in my workouts. (My drive to get the best body possible made it hard for me to accept that you cannot lift every part of your body every day, so therefore I was plateauing and not increasing my weights.) He suggested that I start lifting with him, and he promised to get me to my ideal goal before my wedding. (I had about 4 more pounds that I really wanted to lose.)
For 3 weeks, I lifted with Charles, and our routine was a lot different than what I had been doing on my own. I felt great, I looked forward to each and every workout, and I lost those last few pesky pounds before my wedding. For the first few weeks of my life, I truly felt confident in my body, and on my wedding day, I wasn't uncomfortable in my dress. I was also able to enjoy 2 fabulous weeks in Hawaii with my new husband. I wasn't ashamed to wear a bikini, and I didn't even wear shirts and shorts to cover up in the water. To me, it felt like I had finally accomplished my goal, and if I kept working out and continued my clean eating, it could only go up from here, right?
Wrong.
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