T Minus 6 Weeks

I am a bridesmaid. The wedding is in 6 weeks. I have once again actively got excited & thought - yeah! I'm going to get in shape for this wedding. The bride was even gracious enough to hook us up with some free Pilates Reformer classes. I've gone twice. Last spring. First time - I overextended myself, pulled a muscle and waited a couple weeks to go back. The next time I managed to get myself to go alone & it was HARD. So exhausting. Since then every excuse comes out..... it takes a half hour to get there in decent traffic; I'm working and don't want to go after - all understandable, valid reasons but really - I have had so much free time to go & it's basically free. I think the thought of driving across town for exercise is killing me. I have a hard time getting motivated. I want to get in shape, I need the exercise, but it's just so hard to get in the mindset of actually doing it. Having a work out buddy would probably work wonders for me.

Last year I did manage to lose over 10 lbs. It was really great. I was inching up to 150 and it may not be obvious to everyone, but I really could feel it - mostly all around the waist. I felt like I was sitting in a tire. That phrase spare tire really is, sadly, accurate. I think I hit 135 at one point just before the holidays & I got so excited. I could start to fit into my tee shirts again. I have to contribute that weight loss to just eating better portions & cutting out more junk. Then came the holidays. Back up to 145. Terrible feeling. I felt like the entire year it took me to lose weight was for nothing. But luckily, once I got back from visiting family & into my normal life, the weight has come down a bit. It's still lingering around 140, but at least it's not pushing 150 again.

So, with 6 weeks to go before I have to wear that bridesmaid dress (which is very tight in the waist) I am going to force myself to exercise. Not my favorite thing to do. Today I started with doing arm exercises w/ weights. There is a good series of free, short, 2-3 minute exercises on Hulu (look up Resolution Solution). I could feel it & I got a little tired, but it's a step forward. I was going hiking quite a bit last year & I'd like to continue doing that when I can. At least wandering around outside feels like fun. I'm going to attempt to go to Pilates twice a week until the wedding. I swear, if that class was closer to my house I would have been going a lot more. And hopefully I'll start taking a lot more casual walks. I would love to take walks around my neighborhood, but I always feel weird walking by myself. I think I have slight social anxiety. I used to get all worked up about walking down to the library. I don't get it. I'm trying to put myself into the mentality of being more active & hopefully that will translate into actually being more active.