Mimi McMillan comes to terms with wedding lists, plyometrics, 'cheese'cake and pre-natal nutrition...
The days have past in a flurry of wrinkle limitation (current fave – Dermalogica Skin Smoothing Facial), fetching wedding invitations from the printers and deciding on a gift list provider (Wrapit.com). This was once we'd overcome the gratuitousness of ‘wedding lists’ by reminding ourselves that absolutely everyone has one and if they don’t, it's annoying!
And of course, I’ve been at my personal training sessions for four hard weeks now. Indeed, despite only being able to lumber and groan after each session (an upper body class two weeks ago left me unable to lift my overused mobile earward for at least 24 hours!) I'm starting to love my weekly session with Danni.
The close shave between pleasure and pain is getting results and things are starting to morph. Four equally challenging but distinctly different sessions of plyomentrics, kick boxing and ball work mean I can definitely see some definition in the thigh area (there was none before!) and the embarrassing 'batwings' are slowly diminishing as my biceps and triceps tone. I asked Danni if it were possible to totally change one's body shape after a lifetime of looking in the mirror and wishing things were different. “Sure” she said “it’s absolutely possible but to see radical changes you’ll need to eat a clean diet too.”
So I’m trying my hardest to eat a ‘clean’ diet. Danni recommends not getting sucked in by the punishment mentality (ie. obsessively cutting things out) but instead sticking to low GI foods during the week and treating oneself moderately at the weekend. The only problem is, each weekend since I started ‘the wedding countdown’ has featured someone else’s wedding feast as the focal point – and I’ve never been known for my moderate approach to anything, least of all food!
For example, two weekends ago Amanda and Dougie’s chocolate wedding cake was so divine that I felt obliged to eat my neighbours’ too (she was allergic to chocolate) and last weekend Harry and Bryony’s ‘cheese’cake – a towering temptation of brie, camembert, creamy Roquefort and loads of other classics that I can’t remember the names of – was addictively scoffed down (with an excess of grapes to make it appear more healthy).
Ahh well, I guess it's not a good idea to lose too much weight anyway. My beloved has already assured me he loves me just the way I am and would like to recognise me as I walk down the isle, so I don’t want to be so skinny I look like a different person altogether... no, ideally just a more toned version of me.
But there’s another thing niggling me since I turned 30 two weeks ago – we want to have a baby. Now apart from the obvious reasons for being healthy before conceiving, I have learned it’s a good idea to be toned too (apparently you shrink back much faster after the birth if there’s more muscle than blubber on your bones!).
And I’m learning there are other things to consider. Word of mouth has led me to discover a very interesting lady, Zoe Kirby. She specialises in fertility nutrition and her message is simple: preparing for a baby is not just a job for mummy! Daddies need to whip their bodies into shape too (healthy sperm go along way towards healthy babies!). So after a tincy bit of persuading, my beloved and I are whisking our unwitting bodies off to visit Zoe, to learn how we can give that little twinkle in each of our eyes, the very best start life!
Stay tuned for more Beauty & the Bride updates, or if you want to help Mimi in her battle for bridal beauty perfection then email her.
