Going ‘Bridezilla’ on Your Weight?

By The FIRM Master Instructor Alison Davis-McLain

A girlfriend of mine forwarded a blog to me about brides who go overboard to try to lose weight for their wedding day. It said nearly half were willing to adopt extreme dieting strategies including skipping meals, taking unprescribed diet pills, liquid diets, and even smoking, laxatives or induced vomiting!

WOW — 50 percent?! I find this statistic staggering. But it hit home after my engagement last year, when a close girlfriend got engaged as well.

The story of Polly, a one-time bridezilla.

My friend, whom I’ll call Polly, is getting married this May. She’s been over her ideal weight (based on height and age) for some time now. Polly doesn’t exercise on a regular basis, and LOVES to eat BADLY! Since her engagement, however, she’s become a bridezilla when it comes to diet and exercise. When I went to dinner with her recently, she had already dropped visible pounds and was eating only iceberg lettuce for dinner! She felt that weight loss was what mattered most, no matter what it took to get there!

Your wedding a special day and you want to be as beautiful as you can be. You want your friends and family to look at you and say “Wow, you look great!” And it’s all captured in picture after picture after picture.

I had my own bridezilla moments!

I fell in love at first sight with the very first dress I tried on. It was a little out of the budget. So I tried on other dresses at other stores … I’m sure the sales associates hated me because I didn’t like ANYTHING as much as that first dress! One lady told me, “You need to think about what your style is, because obviously you don’t know!” I got so mad that I pulled out a picture of THE dress and showed her exactly what I wanted. She didn’t have the dress or anything like it, so I left the store.

It’s easy to lose sight of what’s really important in the quest to be the most beautiful bride ever. Everyone you know will be at your wedding, and you are the star of the show! It’s so hard not to give in to the pressure to make yourself crazy with dieting and exercising.

Weight that’s lost fast probably won’t stay off.

Bottom line: Your lifestyle has to change Monday–Sunday, every week of the month, every month of the year. You can’t focus on cardio alone because it “burns the most calories,” nor on weight training along because it “speeds up your metabolism.” You can’t starve yourself because you “feel skinnier,” or take diet pills because they “burn fat and suppress your appetite.” I’m here to tell any bridezillas out there: It does not work!

At first Polly dropped weight, but after a month or two she began to GAIN! She was gaining because she was ruining her metabolism and her body was in starvation mode, so it was holding ALL the fat that she absorbed into her body. FIRM Instructor to the rescue!

Polly’s new plan is transforming and sustainable.

I’ve taken Polly under my wing and have been helping her through this process. Today, she follows and journals a very sensible diet, much like our Nutritionist Sara Ryba’s 1,400-calories-per-day  meal plan we recommend for our FIRM Believers. She alternates cardio+sculpt with cardio days and two rest days (per week), much like our workout rotation calendars. She’s beginning to see her body “transFIRM,” looking leaner every day! Not to mention — she’s not starving herself, so she has much more energy throughout the day and for her workouts at night.

Bridezillas, or anyone who thinks that quick fixes will do the job, please believe me when I say that they WON’T! It’s about lifestyle management. So keep FIRMing and journaling your food intake, and you’ll get there!

Alison

The FIRM Master Instructor Team blog is shared courtesy of The FIRM Believers Club, an online community that helps you reach your fitness goals. With maximum-efficiency home workouts, support and motivation from The FIRM Master Instructors, daily tips, personalized workout rotation calendars, and access to other members through discussion boards, The FIRM Believers Club provides all the tools you need to get in the shape you want.