7 Women Share How They Felt About Losing Weight For Their Weddings

“Several months into my engagement, I found out that I was pregnant and would give birth two months before our wedding date. I was a size four or six at the time. Thanks in part to my own dieting history and social media, I was sure I could get back to where I was in time for the wedding. Not so.

“When I didn’t lose weight fast enough, I would push harder. I slept less, exercised more, and found myself completely depleted. Instead of losing weight, I began to gain weight. So I postponed the wedding—not the marriage, which was still on schedule for October. The big wedding was postponed until the next year. Leading up to that, I kept putting stricter goals on myself, but I kept gaining weight instead of losing it. So I postponed the wedding again (and again after that).

“It wasn’t until 2015 when I was diagnosed with diabetes and PCOS that I started doing my homework and took control of my health. I stopped caring about a wedding dress. I thought more about where I was going to be in 20, 30, 40 years from now. That’s when I started running, lifting weights, and learning how to eat right. My entire mentality shifted from how I would look in a dress to how I could improve my body inside the dress. Now, I’m training for my first half-marathon, I can deadlift 200 pounds, and you can see my biceps when I flex. I weigh 145 pounds, wear size six to eight, and am no longer diabetic. If I wanted to, I could probably fit into that dress. But for now I am just happy wearing my regular clothes and knowing that I am actually healthy.” —Athena Warner, 29

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