Wedding Countdown: 300 Days to Go!

We are just about halfway through the month of January, and so far, I am sticking to my resolutions! I was weighed at my training session with Bonne Marcus yesterday, and I'm down four pounds since my last weigh-in two weeks ago. Next week, we will take my measurements and see how I am looking there, which I am feeling confident about — my clothes are getting bigger and bigger. How is everyone doing with their own resolutions?

Last week I had a very successful week with my workouts and diet. Here is a recap:

I kept up with the “no starch” diet throughout the week. For breakfast, I ate hard-boiled eggs or just hard-boiled egg whites, snacked on unsalted almonds and fruit when hungry, drank only water and coffee, ate my veggie burgers and vegetables for lunch, and made lots of healthy dinners. We had plenty of grilled chicken and vegetables, split pea soup, and salads. At the beginning of the week, I found myself craving carbs, but by Thursday, I didn’t even want them, which was awesome.

Yesterday, I went food shopping and stocked up on healthy dinners: Mahi Mahi to cook tonight with asparagus and spinach, ground turkey to make turkey meatballs, and some more chicken and tons of vegetables to grill. I didn’t have time to make my own veggie burgers this weekend to eat for lunch, so I bought Boca veggie burgers to test them out. I cooked them on my George Foreman grill last night, then added steamed sugar snap peas and a cut-up apple to complete the lunch. I’ll let you know how I like them next week.

healthy lunch ideas

For my workouts, I did cardio six days this week and strength training three times. On Tuesday, I did a workout at my gym from Bonne's upcoming book, Fit To Be Tied; The Wedding Workout. This was a total body workout using the machines that was easy to do, yet definitely made me sore. Thursday, I completed a kettlebell workout at home, and on Sunday, I trained with Bonne.

This week’s workout focused on tons of upper body exercises, which explains why I could barely blow-dry my hair this morning! Bonne introduced a new type of push-up, where one arm is closer to the side of your body and one arm is out:

at home workout

I had to do 10 push-ups and then switch arms and do 10 more, and they are not easy. I recommend trying them because it is definitely a great exercise. We also did a lot of ab exercises on the ball, which I love! I actually went straight to Modell's after our training session and bought my own because I have a feeling it is going to be my new best friend. Last night, I even stretched and did some more exercises on it. I highly recommend getting a ball if you don’t have one. It’s so easy to fit in a quick workout while you're watching TV or waiting for dinner to cook when it's right there in front of you! 

fitness ball

This week, I am going to try the same routine: Do the workout from Bonne's book on Tuesday, the workout from my training session at home on Thursday, and then train again with Bonne on Sunday. Tonight, I plan on just doing cardio at the gym when I get home.

My greatest challenge from the week was on Saturday. I attended a baby shower for one of my best friends, and I found myself tempted to cheat on my diet. The food looked amazing, but I didn’t want to ruin my day, especially because I knew I would have a few drinks later on. I ate a piece of fish and some grilled zucchini, plus a glass of white wine instead of the champagne and sorbet punch.

baby shower

Later that evening, I went to my girlfriend’s apartment and had two glasses of champagne and one glass of wine. My friends wanted me to have shots of Fireball with them, but I looked it up and saw that there's 100 calories in each shot, and said no way! They had tons of cheese and crackers, but I only ate the cheese and had some pretzels and dip. Knowing I was going to face these challenges today, I made sure to do cardio at the gym the previous night, and I took a spin class early on Saturday morning.

Seeing results has definitely helped me curb my cravings and not give in to making bad decisions and letting others influence me. I still had a great time without drinking or eating too much, and in order to reach my end goal, I realize I am going to have to make sacrifices along the way. Another thing that helped was realizing I’m only 300 days away from my wedding! Time is flying, but I’m seeing more and more that this is all worth it.

wedding countdown clock

—Jennifer Crow