Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday. We're having a great time down in California!

Snow Day!

Well, there is clearly no way that I can get in to work today, so I decided that it has been a long time since I did an inspiration board. Since the ideas have morphed and changed over the last 6 months, I thought I'd reorganize.

There are still some of the original elements, but otherwise lots of changes...

Many of these elements are things that are already a part of our wedding.
The location (center) is Shinneyboo Cabin Creek Resort
Top (tile 4) the sweet dress!
Bottom right: the engagement ring
3rd down on left: the shoes

My dress is in! My dress is in!

I found and ordered my dress on November 29th. That was less than 3 weeks ago. I was told that it would arrive in March or April. It came in today!

I don't know what happened, but I did have an email exchange with the folks at Sophia Tolli about jewelry. Could that have had something to do with it?

Now the conundrum is how and when to pick it up. We're going through Portland tomorrow on our way home for the holidays, but Charlotte's Bridal is closed tomorrow. They'll be open Friday at 11, but by that time we should be well on our way to California. Aagh! What to do?

Fit Bride, Part III: The daily grind

I'm checking in again, and trying not to be too boring or repetitive about the whole business... but it's true, we sort of are in the daily grind portion of the fitness program.

Yoga continues. Besides increasing my strength and flexibility, it's getting more fun too, probably because I'm not suffering the whole time!

In order to keep things interesting, I just got the class schedule for the downtown branch of my gym. It's two blocks from work, which is great, but unfortunately, the really good classes seem to be right in the middle of the work day.

Yeah, I haven't actually done it yet, but at least I'm in the contemplative phase. They seem to love spin classes there, which don't sound fun to me. In fact, the class description used the word pain--which doesn't seem like an enticing way to get people into your class. Also, I googled spin class images, and in all the pics (exhibit A above), people look pretty miserable. So if you've got a great reason to try it, I'm willing to listen. Otherwise, forget the spin class!

I've also learned that completely avoiding Kit Kats and other sweets completely is impossible. I'm allowing small amounts and trying not to over restrict. Otherwise, despite the holiday, the diet is on track. I'm super strict on weekdays, and then on weekends am much more flexible. (Fried chicken last Friday- yum). Still rocking the whole grains too. Popcorn is also a hero food!

Here are the results in graph format. (Thanks, FitDay.com) I should be super-pleased, since I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be, but I guess I had this vision that once I got my act together, the weight would magically disappear. Well, this is the real world and things are working exactly how they should. And for that, I am grateful.

Veiled or unveiled?

I've been casual browsing veils to see 1) whether I wanted one at all 2) what I thought would look good with the sweet dress.

Suffice it to say that with all the traditional veils, nothing caught my eye. Then I stumbled on this one today by Erica Koesler. I thought it was pretty nifty.

It's sort of a combo between the birdcage blusher and a traditional veil, and though I could do without star sparklies, I think it's a good starting point. What do you think?

The "need" for personal eye candy (or wedding porn if you prefer)

As you can see from my last post, I've been struggling with the "stuff" of the wedding and the meaning of the wedding. I mention in that post that Chris and I had decided not to do engagement pictures. We thought it was an unnecessary expense, and for us, self-indulgent.

But this decision has continued to gnaw in the background somewhere. Maybe there is something about capturing the joy of the engagement process that is important. Or maybe it is the cool idea for a photo shoot that keeps this in my mind.

I justify the consideration a couple of ways... Comfort with your photographer is very important, especially for goofy and camera-shy folks like Chris and I. We love our photographer's work. Frankly, I think she's one of the best out there... not just in Tahoe, but anywhere. I want to share her work with you because it is so great.


Annie X photographie

and her blog

Who wouldn't want the opportunity to have some extra photos from Annie? Her work is AMAZING!

Also, isn't it somewhat important to capture this time? We don't need photos to make memories, but they certainly do help sharpen the details in our minds. Looking at them evokes emotion, fills in the color, and provides an anchor for the time.

Finally, my mom has been bugging me for years to give her a photo for her desk. This would be a way to do that without having the photo be of me in a wedding dress!

Of course, we've also considered that we could probably get a friend to do photos for the cost of a burrito and some beer... and that we don't really "need" more photos, since we're getting some from our wedding day. Still, it's not really the same as working with our photographer. For a couple of folks that are committed to keeping costs down and the wedding industrial complex at bay, it feels a little like a compromise.

So I ask those of you who are engaged or married, did you do engagement photos? Are you glad you did or did it end up being unnecessary? Did it help to practice with your photographer? For those of you that know me well, do you think I'm losing sight of our goal by doing something like this? Should we just forget it? Or should we go for it?

Next things next

Now that I have a dress, I have to admit that I'm kind of at a loss for what to do next. I feel like most of the macro issues that you are supposed to do for weddings are taken care of now.

Venue-check (even if they are trying to sell it... yikes!)
Catering-check (thanks, babe!)
Color scheme-check
Photographer-check
Officiant-check
Best folks/dog-check
Obligatory paper lanterns-check (and from a long lost friend that I found through a wedding blog!)
Invitations-holding pattern, but decided

I feel like a little hamster running frantically on that wheel thingy, thinking of all these little details like jewelry, wedding yoga, horse and carriage, music playlist, ceremony, favors, best people gifts... The list seems like it has the potential to be endless...

hackedgadgets.com/.../_human_hamster_wheel_2.jpg


I'm actually starting to create extra work for myself because I keep dreaming up new things. My latest is an idea for an engagement shoot (really cool idea, I might add!), but that would mean having to get engagement pictures, which weren't in our budget and are not something we were planning on doing. Now that I'm considering them, I have to wonder is it self-indulgent busy work or something I should really be doing?

So what's a girl supposed to do next? And where, oh where, do I draw the line? This stuff is really fun, and a bit addictive I might say... but I don't want our wedding to be about "stuff" and really cool looking images. This is about a great new life together, the start of a new family and the growth of love-- these are the most important things to me. Isn't doing more "stuff" a step toward losing sight of that?

Fit Bride, Part II: It's all about the yoga!

I planned to hold myself accountable for fitness progress and pitfalls weekly. Because of the holiday, I didn't quite make it... but I'm checking in now.

So far, I've been sticking to the plan pretty well. I've been doing yoga about 3 times a week and doing cardio, well, not enough, but some!

I swear yoga is the best exercise for me. It changes my metabolism so that I burn more calories all the time, and my flexibility and mental health are improving too. The last time I did a big healthy push was in my second year of residency. I tried everything with very little success. I was working out and eating smaller portions, but I just seemed to bulk up muscle-wise. I added yoga, and dropped down to my pre-residency weight. So, I knew yoga worked for me, but it seemed too expensive for me to do sustainably-- until I joined a gym that had classes. Yay!

Here is a snippet from a review article (science geek alert) that I read,
"There is a need to have yoga better recognized by the health care community as a complement to conventional medical care. Over the last 10 years, a growing number of research studies have shown that the practice of Hatha Yoga can improve strength and flexibility, and may help control such physiological variables as blood pressure, respiration and heart rate, and metabolic rate to improve overall exercise capacity."

J Altern Complement Med. 2002 Dec;8(6):797-812.

Psychophysiologic effects of Hatha Yoga on musculoskeletal and cardiopulmonary function: a literature review.

Raub JA.

In addition to the yoga, I've cut out simple carbs. It was hard to do initially, but you start to get used to it after a while. Whole grains can actually taste good, and I've learned to love Wheat Germ! I've increased my fiber from next to nothing to nearly 30 grams a day... no easy feat...

I've also cut down my processed sugar intake. This is so hard for me to do... Sometimes I just crave something sweet. I can't help it. So, I haven't been perfect on this, but I'm not binging on Kit Kats either ;) and hopefully I'll get there with baby steps.

I'm also using www.fitday.com where I can track every single thing I put in my mouth (if I wanted to) and all of my activity. It's a bit obsessive, and it sends me into a slightly anorexic freakout mode, so I use it sparingly...

The net effect is that I've dropped 4 lbs, in 2 weeks, healthily. I know it's better to only drop a half pound a week, but I'm just going with what happens and not depriving myself, so I feel ok with it. That's great, right? Well, in just the course of me changing my dietary habits and going to yoga, Mr. Chris managed to drop 10 lbs!!!

First of all, I'm jealous (and a little frustrated), but secondly, he doesn't need to lose any weight-- at all. So now I have to figure out a way to shrink myself while keeping the boy adequately fed. Sigh.