How one dress changed my LIFE!

You would think that I would be talking about this dress that I wore August 7, 2010.. but NOPE. 

Ironically,  I am talking about another white dress. 

A White Dress that I purchased to celebrate my 5th year Wedding Anniversary on August 7, 2015. 

I was out shopping with my mom and we went through the dress section. After getting married and gaining love weight and then baby weight, I reminisced on a time in which it wasn't so hard to find something off the rack that I wanted to wear and wasn't bound to perhaps two stores. 

When I got married, I got down through bridal bootcamps to a size 10. I ordered my wedding dress in a 12 and was determined NOT to pay extra for plus sizes. 

I saw this dress ...

and tried it on and saw my fluffy gut and how the dress rose above my thighs because it just was not fitting right. I thought it was too pretty and used it as motivation to get myself back together! I had been on supplements and felt better than ever, but beyond getting out of my bed to go to work and walking to get lunch, I was not doing a single fitness anything.

  SO... What did I do? I purchased the dress anyway and made it my mission (and the mission of my household) to go on a diet! I decided I needed someone to tell me what to eat and when to eat it in order to meet my goal. I am not too disciplined in the area of making up a meal plan.  The one that I found to be the best was Dr. Ian Smith's Shred Diet Plan.  It was super simple and I liked the promise of losing 2 sizes in 6 weeks because thats exactly what I needed to do in order to look decent in that dress.  I felt like I had done a decent job of getting baby weight off but I wasn't consistently getting anything off or keeping it off... lets face it - I love food. I am a self proclaimed foodie.  I took a picture of where I started and went from there. 

I was off to a good start  - then about day 3 or 4 where I had to get creative with the two vegetables that I was allowed to have with my protein, I got bored. 

 I started making stuff like Jalapeño Sweet Potatoes and sautéed Kale. 

Amos was about threw with me and this diet probably after week one, but he stuck it out with me. 

I had to start looking for things on the menu that I could eat that would fit within my diet. 

I fell in love with this Ahi Tuna salad at Matchbox Restaurant.

I had to pick a cardio that I was supposed to do at least 5 times a week. 

I decided that my cardio would be 250 reps on a weighted jumprope and a youtube fitness instructor led class. I wanted to eliminate the excuse of not being able to go to a gym.

What didn't help is that I had to host two Ice Cream Socials for Probation and Parole Week --  

I HAD to cheat... I admit I have zero will power, but I made it up for it with an equally bland and super low calorie dinner. 

I leaned to my friends for encouragement and motivation and would send them pictures of my food to hold me accountable... except they would send me pics like this back. 

I signed up for every exercise opportunity that they offered at work. 

Even tried some kind of cardio square kickboxing thing... 

AND. IT. KICKED. MY. BUTT.

But after 6 weeks - I GOT IN MY DRESS!!!!

Have you ever tried a diet program or set a fitness goal that kicked your butt?! 

Needless to say, I will try this again.... much later on.