Monday, April 16, 2012

Saving $$$, Losing ###'s

So life can measured by milestones, right? Infants are held to them for proper growth and development, children celebrate them with wild, primary-colored, sugar-sprayed scream-fests of reckless abandon, young adults hasten them in while nail-biting parents pray for good insurance coverage, and us "mid-adults" race towards their milestones, desperately trying to collect them like coins from the "Super Mario Bros" that we used to play as children.

As for me?

Well, at 28 years old...I'm a "racer".

So far, I've done the college thing, graduating with a BSN in Nursing in 2010, I've made my first big relocation, moving 200 miles north into Central Michigan back in May of 2010, I bought a house in December of 2010, and in December of 2011...?

I got engaged.

And after all the celebrating, the tears, the flashing the bling to complete strangers and using my ring finger to nonchalantly "scratch that itch on my nose", I came to two milestones as they crashed together in one wild, (but fun!), fire-y explosion of happiness and reality.

I tried on wedding dresses.

I picked a beautiful dress, enjoyed an afternoon of "ohhhh's" and "ahhhhh's" from my fiance and his aunts, but I had one nagging little chunk of truth pulling insistently at the hand-beaded and picked-up hem of my dream dress.

I was also about 30 pounds heavier than I had been about 2 years ago. And that was even after being diligent about going to the gym, weight-training and riding my road bike like a bat out of hell 5 months out of the year. The difference? I was "cooking for two!"

But I was eating for 12.

So after some tears, some sadness, some pity-eating, and some self-affirmation, ("Well, Kim Kardashian has the SAME BODY as I do!"), I decided to embark on the next milestone: we gotta fix this!

So in February I started Weight Watchers. And I also embraced a new challenge. Saving for our wedding.

In November, my fiance and I are taking off for Cancun, Mexico to exchange vows at the BEAUTIFUL Palace Resorts Beach Palace, (Google it, trust me), and I not only need to lose some weight, (because this little belly I have somehow acquired does not look good with a fitted, trumpet style dress), but I also need to do this while saving some money.

The challenge has begun. Let's lose it at home!

So far, I have acquired a fetish for Jillian Michaels DVD's, I threw my 2008 Specialized Ruby Elite on a CycleOps Mag trainer, I have become best friends with Mari Winsor for Pilates Core Training days, and...

I've lost about 25-30#, (depends on whether or not I'm wearing clothes).

But this hasn't been met without it's challenges. Working out at home can be boring, (hence, my new collections of "home entertainment"), working out at home can be difficult to achieve ideal growth and development, (not everyone can afford to put a cable-pulley system in their living room), and working at home does make for some interesting "scent issues". (When sweating up a storm in your living room, my recommendation would be to invest in good windows, vacuum A LOT, and make friends with Febreze).

My fiance, at first, was pretty skeptical. "But you love going to the gym," he responded, when I told him of my initial plans to lay waste to the extra real estate that had taken residence on my butt, hips, thighs, and belly by staying at home. "And you look great. I don't even notice the fact that you're 5# lighter than me."

I knew I was marrying him for a reason. :)

"But I'm not happy with myself. And I know I could look better, and feel better. And really, think of the money we'll save! $450 saved from my gym membership, plus the extra tank of gas that I'm burning every month just driving back and forth to the gym alone...it will all add up. And when the weather gets bad, it's not like I'm out running around,"  I pointed out.

My fiance looked at me, and finally relented. Step one complete.

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