Morning you lot! 😉 It's a bumper day on Love My Dress today. I'm bringing you a one-off collection of four blog posts, starting with this morning's guest post from Emma Meek, owner of and Director at Surrey based bridal emporium extraordinaire, Miss Bush Bridal Wear. Emma pours forth with her funny and inimitable style of writing on the battle to get fit and shed a bit of weight, and considers the issue of self-confidence and being comfortable with the way we look…
This feature comes to you as part of Laid Bare themed week on Love My Dress…
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This week has been an odd one, a mixed bag of dieting and fitness emotions that I think only, perhaps, women like me that struggle with weight can really get their heads round. If I was a 45 year old man, (Surrey business owner, reasonably grown up kids) I think it would perfectly acceptable for me to be greying and carrying the portly waistline of an expense account bon-viveur.
I am not though. I am 45 year old 'spinster of this parish' in a county of well maintained, SLK driving '50 is the new 40' hotties.
So this week although the diet and fitness have gone brilliantly I still need to examine why my confidence is rocked so badly by my appearance and how to go a bit easier on myself…
Image credit Liberty
Starting Stats
Bust 47"
Waist 40"
Hips 43"
Weighing in at 13 stone 6lbs
Week 4 Stats
Bust 44 3/4"
Waist 37"
Hips 42 1/4"
Weighing in at 12 stone 13lbs 8oz (ie I lost half a pound)
Total weight loss 6 1/2lbs
So training last Thursday, a run on Sunday, training Monday evening and Tuesday morning is properly impacting on the stats. Hence my record of measurements as it is a rather tiresome fact that as you burn fat and develop lean muscle you occupy less space but sometimes don't see the dramatic weight drop.
I am happy with being able to run again – albeit not as far or as fast. Whilst googling for a Caitlin Moran quote – (why the hell do I lend my favourite books out and never get them back btw) about how running was like sex I chanced across another blog Run Fat Bitch Run and fell upon this…
"Caitlin Moran’s brilliantly funny column in the Times magazine on Saturday is on the same page. She too is a working mum, who just wants to fit into her size 12 clothes – I bet she doesn’t give a shit about her bingo wings (sorry Caitlin if you don’t in fact have them or do, and care very much). She doesn’t have the time to consider that if she had done 7minutes of strength training with weights at the gym beforehand she would have burnt off more calories on her four mile jog!
She wants as many endorphins as she can get in the shortest possible time and she knows that running is the answer. For many of us ordinary women who don’t have the time or money to devote to muscle sculpture, let alone afford gym membership, strength and resistance training is something we cannot afford to waste time faffing over…"
Effectively my point – now I have battled my fitness up to running capacity – I should be able to run more, further, faster, longer and with each stride drop weight quicker and feel better emotionally. It is, when you are ready, better for good mental health than anything else I know…
Image Credit – Gritty Tees
And whilst I am on the subject of Caitlin Moran, quotes and clothes this really sums up what want wrong with my week end and why my much anticipated love-in was an unmitigated disaster…
“When a woman says, ‘I have nothing to wear!’, what she really means is, ‘There’s nothing here for who I’m supposed to be today.”
Caitlin Moran, 'How To Be a Woman'
I was expecting to be whisked away to Brighton on Saturday for a (surprise) romantic but probably fun and silly night out. Brighton is great because although it is jam packed with cool, green, trendy, student, gay fantastic-ness it is also accepting of end of the pier day-trippers and less than cool people that want to eat fish and chips and look at the sea.
I packed accordingly from my very limited, middle-age clothes that fit. I packed Saturday morning before work and thought no more. As the lovely Marshy* came to collect me I found out about the change of plan. It was now London. I was immediately downcast. I wanted salt air and casual.
Perhaps only girls can understand this and hence why the Caitlin quote has such resonance. I had nothing to wear for what I suppose or believe London wants me to be. It got worse – when it should have got better. We were booked in at The Dean Street Townhouse . It is lovely, truly beautiful. The location is perfect for a hip, urban night out – had I known on Thursday or even Friday that this was where we going I could have ransacked everyone I know's wardrobes plus every shop in Guildford…
I could have dressed for who I was supposed to be. What I arrived in was a pair of my daughter's leggings, a jumper a bought at Christmas when I peaked weight-wise, a pair of boots with the sole coming away and a fake fur coat too short to hide the jumper.
I felt hideous, fat, old, unfashionable – generally foul. Whatever I did and however I tried I just felt worse and worse. So a room service dinner and an early morning exit was the result. Lots of money wasted with the additional guilt burden that I ruined Marshy's weekend.
I dispense advice daily about body confidence and clothes. I agree, I need to take some of my own advice here. I have punished myself for being fat with a bad wardrobe, I have put new purchases on hold until I have lost a few pounds. I know that with a good frock, hair and make up I can rock 13 stone as well as I can 9!
I will not endanger my relationship with this again – providing I'm given a bloody clue where we are going!
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Emma Meek is the owner and director of Miss Bush Bridal Wear. *Marshy is her partner.
Emma's knowledge of bridal fashion is second to none. She can talk grading, pattern cutting and the provenance of wedding dresses until your ears drop off. And she has a killer collection of designer wedding frocks hanging in all their resplendent beautiy from the rails at her Surrey wedding boutique, including, Jenny Packham, Cymbeline, Rosa Clara, Jesus Peiro, Ugo Zaldi and Stephanie Allin. I very highy recommend a visit to Miss Bush Bridal Wear.
You can see more from Miss Bush Bridal on Love My Dress here, follow Emma's very funny twitter updates and find her lurking on Facebook too.
Ladies, let's get some more discussion going this morning – I was away all of yestedray so am about to dive into the chat over here. But for now:-
Have you been working to lose weight to fit in to your wedding dress? What has the experience been like so far?
Has planning your wedding helped you embark on a new fitness regime and if so, how are you working to get and stay fit? Are you enjoying the experience or not?
Do you struggle with finding the right clothes to wear to make you feel good?
Do you think brides are under too much pressure to 'shed to wed?'
All and any comments welcome as usual.
You can visit all other posts that are part of this week's 'Laid Bare' theme here. You might also want to visit the new Body Image category and this popular feature on 'Why Size Matters'.
Lots of love all,
Annabel
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