The logistics of it all

OK, so these two pictures are my official "before" shots. Taken on Monday, Sept. 28, 2009, the first day of my second round of the weight-loss challenge in 2009. And the first official day of Operation: Get Wedding Hot.

I thought that since I'm now on day three, I'd give a rundown of stats, goals, methods, etc.

So without further delay....*drumroll please*

Starting weight: 185 lbs.

Starting date: September 28, 2009

Target weight: 165 lbs.

Target date: January 1, 2010 (I really had to think about typing 2010. It's weird.)

Method: Basically, I'm doing Weight Watchers without the meetings and without paying for it. I've still got all my resources from when I did it three years ago, so I'm just going on those principles again. I think it's really an effective method of teaching how to eat healthy and still eat things you like. So I'm keeping a food log to keep me on track with that. I'm giving myself 24 points per day and at least for the time being I am NOT doing an activity points exchange (aka if I work out, it doesn't mean I get to eat more). Food is really my main problem with the weight, it's not the exercise. I am an endorphin JUNKIE. Nothing makes me feel better than working out and I work out in some capacity every day, usually going to the gym 5 days per week.

Weigh-ins: I'll be doing my weigh-ins on Mondays, so hopefully I'll remember to post every Monday (with good news!).

Goals: I do have some specific goals I'm setting for myself in the process. They are as follows:

• Drink my eight glasses of water per day - I normally have no probably meeting/exceeding this, so this is a bit of a cop out
• Remember to take my multivitamin daily - I'm horrible at this, but it's really pretty important for weight loss
• Get my five fruits and veggies a day! - I pretty much NEVER get this done and it's a big problem. I don't know why I suck at it because I LOVE fruit and vegetables.
• Alternate days focusing on strength training and cardio - Sometimes I just want to crank it out on the elliptical for an hour, but I really need to focus on strength too, so I'm alternating days on this
• Start attending some of the group fitness classes at my gym - There are some awesome ones to choose from and I've never taken advantage
• Cut back on alcohol consumption - I really only drink about once a week and that's at most three or four drinks, but it's empty calories so I know I need to work on it. But this could be a problem particularly in the month of October when I have a reunion with an old friend, a trip to my alma mater for a concert, a blogger meetup and then homecoming at my alma mater. ...yeahhhh, I foresee failing on that goal in October...

There are some more, but I can't remember right now. I've signed up for SparkPeople (at the suggestion of the always wonderful M) to help me track my nutrition and fitness, so I'm looking forward to getting into using that.

Any other suggestions from folks on what I should focus on?? I'm doing OK so far this week, although today I did engage in some boredom eating, which is a big problem for me. Hopefully I can keep up with the good things though and kick that habit in the booty. :)

I'm looking forward to keeping you all updated on this journey!

xoxo

Late-Night Drama Queen :)

I have confidence in me! (Or do I?)

I think that Sassy will appreciate the title of this post, given how much she loves The Sound of Music and the fact that she just went on the tour in Austria this summer. I'm going to ignore the fact that it should really be "I have confidence in myself," and move on.

So why am I here? Why this blog? Why this method?

Basically, I've struggled with weight for most of my life. My weight has gone up and down more times than the stock market. OK, that might be an exaggeration, but you get the drift. I started gaining weight in elementary school and it spiraled out of control through about 7th grade. I then slimmed down for a

while but gained a lot of it back eventually. Freshman year of college, particularly the first semester, I gained quite a bit of weight. I had just had surgery to remove an ovarian cyst before starting school and I was on physical restrictions for a few months. And all-you-can-eat dining halls were my downfall.

So the summer after freshman year, I joined Weight Watchers with my mom. That also

happens to be the last time I was at a wedding (my sister's). This was me on the morning of my sister's wedding. At this point, I weighed about 199 pounds. This is kind of a big deal for me to reveal this number, but I'm OK with it because I really don't think I looked it. No one ever believes me when I tell them how much I weigh. BTW I loved this dress and I want to wear it again sometime, but I have no clue when I'll have an occasion that warrants it.

Anyway, after doing Weight Watchers that summer, I lost 20 pounds and I was down to 179. I was thrilled! I went up and down a couple more times during my sophomore year and the first half of junior year, but never really a noticeable amount either way, so I was OK with it. Spring semester junior year when I was in Australia, I lost a TON of weight. I don't know precisely how much, but none of my clothes fit me by the end of the five months. I was absolutely ecstatic and I was feeling great about myself. I'm pretty sure I put it all back on in the next three months following my return to the States.

That kind of brings me to where I am now. I currently weigh 185 pounds. Ideally, I would like to lose another 20. During the summer, I began a challenge with myself working toward "A Better Me." You can read about that over at my personal blog here. At the beginning of this challenge, I weight 190 pounds. So since then, I actually lost (and kept off) 5 pounds. I also lost an inch in my waist, which is HUGE for me. But I haven't done anything in the month of September. I lost motivation. I lost confidence. I kind of stopped caring.

Confidence has always been a huge problem for me. I've been at the point where I'm content with my body, but I'm not happy with it or confident in it. I want to get to that point.

Let's get one thing straight: I WILL NEVER BE SKINNY. And I'm OK with that. I just want to be happy with myself again.

When I lost those 20 pounds in the summer of 2006, I was happy. When I lost the weight in Australia, I was happy. I haven't really been confident in my physical appearance since then. I have days where I feel pretty, but there are many, many more where I feel ugly and undesirable. My time in Australia instilled so much confidence in me in every aspect of my life. For the first time ever, I knew who I was, what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be. And it was amazing. I've lost that all again. I struggle. I stress. I feel unattractive.

So those are my general goals and motivations. Confidence. Happiness. And health. I'll go more into detail in another post about my concrete goals, my methods and some specific instances that spurred this challenge of a new me. I started over again yesterday, and I already feel a little bit better.

I wanna be hot

Hello all! As LNDQ so eloquently said (and if we're doing nicknames, I would like to be Sassy. I thought about being SS, but that's a little too "Nazi secret police" for me), I wanna be hot. I've struggled with weight since...well, forever, but I think I'm finally at a place where I'm ready to take control. I've graduated from college, so no more of this "college lifestyle" excuse anymore. Granted, I am in grad school full time, but that will not be an excuse. There is a perfectly good YWCA within eyesight of my apartment building, and there are so many cookbooks and websites for healthy cooking, there is no reason I can't start eating healthier. I am gonna get hot.

Now, I don't know about LNDQ (well, actually, I do, but I don't want to put words in her mouth or anything!), but my definition of hot does not look like either of the following:

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credit

I think of hot as a mindset. If you think you're hot, you're hot. Now that could easily turn into delusion, but I'd like to stay in the real world, so I have some idea of how I envision myself looking when I am hot. But I also have an idea of how I'll feel. Like I can go clothes shopping with all of my friends and not feel self-conscious about trying things on. Like I don't really dislike what I see when I look in the mirror in the morning (afternoon/evening...whenever). Like I can not worry about whether or not people are making snap judgments about me based solely on my appearance. Those kinds of things. There will be more on this later, when I talk about goals.

My ultimate goal is to be healthy. But honestly? A huge motivator in this is wanting to look awesome at my best friend's wedding (also, I have like, six best friends, so I'll use initials to keep them straight when I talk about them). I had this revelation last night, when I was desperately trying to get to sleep but couldn't seem to turn off my brain. You can read the entire post over at The Sassy Seminarian, but I'm copying and pasting the important part over here. You can read that below.

I'm excited about this new development. I'm excited that LNDQ and I can do this together, even though we're 62 miles apart at the moment. I'm excited that some of my friends at the seminary have already agreed to work out with me so I have some accountability there. I'm really excited to see the changes that are going to happen over the next few months, both physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. But most of all, I'm excited to finally get this one aspect of my life under control, something I haven't been able to do in the past.

I hope you'll bear with me through this process. I am already mortified at the thought of posting before/during/after photos here, for everyone to see. Just fyi, I probably won't post my actual weight, because the numbers thing is terrifying for me. I'll do +/- (hopefully only the latter!) updates...which means I should probably get a scale...anyway, I'm hoping that committing to this with someone else will keep me accountable, and the public aspect of it will help keep me motivated.

So, without further ado, the post that started it all. Basically, the first few paragraphs deal with my intense love for weddings. I'll say it here too: I. love. weddings. But anyway, here's where we pick up the important part:

That being said, I practically passed out with joy when said newly-engaged best friend (ALP, as she will be known henceforth) asked me to be a bridesmaid in her wedding. I've never been in a wedding before, and I couldn't be more honored to be asked to be in this one. It's even more exciting because, as I mentioned, her soon-to-be husband (JD, for space's sake) is also a good friend of mine, so there won't be any of the awkwardness of "who is this guy you're marrying?" going on. Added bonus: her maid of honor is her younger sister (RP), who I've met a few times and is completely fantastic, and the other bridesmaid (LFT) is my other best friend from college! LFT and I always have more fun than I believe is legally allowed at dances and weddings, so ALP & JD's wedding is going to be absolute insanity. Oh my word, I am excited.

As of now, the wedding is potentially in July of 2010...meaning I have about ten months to get Bridesmaid Hot. I'm going to be honest here: ALP, RP and LFT are flat-out hot. We don't mince words here at the seminary, in case you haven't noticed. I would like to be hot as well. So, that means a few things:

• Raid my fridge and eliminate anything that is disgustingly unhealthy. This should be easy, since my fridge is kind of empty now.
• Only get lunch in the refectory (read: mini-cafeteria) on days that have healthier food. Sadly, this means I will not get to experience the wing bar or creamy pasta sauces, but I will indulge in huge plates of salad with generous portions of cucumbers, carrots and broccoli, a sprinkling of sunflower seeds, and some fat-free dressing.
• Eliminate soda from my vocabulary. This is very difficult, especially when it tastes so good mixed with a little bit of rum. Which brings me to my next point...
• Cut down on alcohol consumption. Honestly, I don't drink that much (and I'm not just saying that, it's actually true). It's like my incredibly-strict-on-alcohol undergrad institution is still looking over my shoulder with every sip, so it's a little like a guilt trip every time! But sometimes, when we're sitting around a campfire and having a grand old time, we lose track and have one too many watermelon Smirnoffs, and then all you have is a stomachache and empty calories coursing through your body. Unnecessary.
• Use that YWCA pass! The seminary pays for most of our yearly memberships, so students only have to pay $25 for a whole year at the Y. This is an incredible deal, which I did take advantage of. I've gone to a few Zumba classes (Latin dance workout...incredible) and I've used the elliptical a few times, but I have not been diligent. Tragically, an increase in workout time means getting up at 5:00 so I can be at the gym by 5:15 (it's a blissful two-minute walk from my apartment), back by 6:00 and ready for my 8:30 class. This will require quite a bit of motivation, but it's probably the most necessary part of this plan.
• Get more sleep. I'm currently running on an average of 5 hours a night. That is definitely not enough. In addition to making me unhealthier overall, when I'm tired, I don't feel like cooking. When I don't feel like cooking, I end up eating something quick, easy and really unhealthy, or something that a friend cooks, which is delicious and home-made, but also really unhealthy.

So, on that note, I should probably get to sleep, since I now have 3 hours and 53 minutes until my alarm is going off. And it's not like I can hit snooze and roll back over for a few more hours. I have to read a lot of material and then write a paper on it, so coherence will be a necessity. Thankfully, God made coffee for this exact purpose.

Although, come to think of it, I should probably cut caffeine from my diet as well. What have I gotten myself into?

Welcome to Operation: Get Wedding Hot

Oh hey!

We're Late-Night Drama Queen (sometimes LNDQ) and The Sassy Seminarian. We've been best friends since second grade (after hating each other in first - and yes, we always tell people that) and we have just passed the 15th anniversary of our friendship. *sniffle*

Enough sentimentality...

Both of us have struggled with our weights for most of our lives, fluctuating up and down multiple times. We've done Weight Watchers together (well, at the same time at least) and now we're at a crossroads.

In the summer of 2010, The Sassy Seminarian is going to be a bridesmaid in the wedding of one of her best friends from college. And she wants to be HOT (LNDQ already thinks she's hot stuff, but will support her anyway).

LNDQ, while not in any wedding parties, will be attending two weddings (so far) the same summer. And really, who wants to go to a wedding (most likely without a date) and not look hot? After all, isn't it supposed to be a good place to meet men?

So here at Operation: Get Wedding Hot, we're going to be chronicling our journeys over the next eight months or so. We've each got our goals and our plans (which we'll fill you in on separately later) and this is going to be our way to hold ourselves accountable. Hopefully along the way we will gain some followers who will help us celebrate our successes and pick us up from our failures setbacks. Because there will be setbacks. Like not drinking as much alcohol...?! WHAT?! Just kidding, not that big of a deal. Or is it? We're also hoping to offer some tips/advice/helpful tools and maybe some inspiration for others if when we're successful.

We hope you'll join us in this journey!

xoxo

Late-Night Drama Queen and The Sassy Seminarian