Wedding dress worries.

My wedding dress has arrived! An email from the store this week evoked feelings of both excitement and dread. On the one hand I can't wait to put it on again, but on the other I am filled with the worry that it will suddenly no longer suit me, or that it won't fit...

When I bought the dress, the lady in the shop insisted on ordering me the smaller size. In many ways, this was flattering, the 10/12 was too big and I would therefore be walking down the aisle in a size 8/10. If you'd told me that when I was a chubby 15 year old I would have laughed in your face. That said, there was that nagging thought in the back of my mind that this decision by her would turn out ill advised and that I would find myself trussed up like a Christmas turkey and bursting the dress at its seams.

After I got engaged, I always said I wouldn't diet for my wedding. Of course, I want to be the best version of me on my wedding day but I never wanted to force myself in to an impossible, unsustainable aesthetic. One that would make the months preceding my nuptials miserable and every glance at the photos of the day a painful reminder of how slim I was then, thus making me feel terrible about the inevitable return to normality.

For the most part, I've done really well in this, but the ordering of the smaller size did threaten to throw a spanner in the works. I have lost half a stone since then, but actually this isn't to do with dieting (unless you count too much wine and too many biscuits as dieting...)

I bought the dress only a few weeks after returning to running following my knee injury and it just goes to show how exercise alone can change your body. Fingers crossed that all goes well when I go for my fitting next weekend.

In other fitness news, my training plods on. I've kept up the strength training on Wednesdays and have countered the time issues preventing running by introducing short HIIT sessions when I can. All this means I am managing to maintain 4 sessions a week of various exercise or fitness activities and I have been pleased with the positive impact the strength training is already having on my running. I am already finding that I can push up hills with that little bit more power, and maintain speed more easily on those same inclines.

As the wedding approaches, dress worries aside, I do feel that I have managed to maintain perspective and that I haven't thrown myself in to crazy diets or regimes to prepare for it. When the day comes I want to feel that I am a fit, healthy and, most importantly, REAL version of me.