After trying on a lot of different dresses at many different stores I cannot find my dream dress. So, I am going to have my dress made. I am basically, putting my hopes and dreams in the hands of a random dressmaker.

I am in southern California and there are a lot of wedding/quinceanera/prom dress shops nearby my house. I went into about 6 of them and asked questions and got a quote. I took a few pictures from magazines and catalogs of dresses that I liked and then I pieced together everything I wanted in one dress.

Last night I went back and got measured so they could start on it. I am nervous about it, but I kinda felt like I had no choice. None of the dresses I tried on gave me that, “This is it!” feeling. So, I hope my dress comes out like I am thinking.

On a related note: Despite the title of this post, I do not want my dress to be a BIG FAT anything! So, I am started a new chapter of this blog where I actually make an effort to lose weight. More to come…

So, I think I mentioned that we found a location for the wedding. Did I neglect to mention that we set a date? I am getting married in 5 months folks – June 20, 2009. Yes, that’s a 2009. When I went dress shopping recently there was another girl looking for a dress for her June 2010 wedding. I am a year behind!

I am extremely stressed out right now and I have about 283 things that need to get done NOW. In addition to planning the wedding in 5 months we are also trying to keep a very tight budget while doing things nicely. So, this is the challenge of the century. Luckily, I am good at the thrifty game. I have a lot of tips for brides on a budget, but in order to provide good/complete info I am going to wait and post it properly.

Training for a marathon makes you hungry.

This is frustrating. You would think that running so much would mean the pounds are just melting off. Nope, you are burning a lot of calories with all those runs, but that means your body wants more fuel. Spending hours on your feet is very taxing on your body, proper recovery through good food is important.

I was not that hungry the day of my long runs, but the next day I was an eating machine! Then, there would be  another random day during the week when all those miles would catch up with me and I would be hungry. For some reason it was very hard to feel satisfied. I made sure to drink a lot of water too. I wanted to be sure it was hunger and not thirst, but my body still wanted food. I didn’t want to hurt my recovery so I listened to my body and ate what I wanted. I did not lose weight while training for the marathon. That kinda sucks because I really want to, but I am proud of myself for putting my desire to lose weight aside to achieve this goal.

Some people actually gain weight while training for a marathon. This is probably from building muscle mass, so it shouldn’t be looked at negatively.

From my personal running experience I would say that if your goal is to lose weight you should train for a 10K or maybe a half. That is the right amount of mileage to get those calories burning off without jarring your metabolism to a state of starvation. But, no matter what distance you are running – if you are hungry or thirsty listen to your body and fuel properly. If you want to make running part of your life you have to eat like a runner.

Just be warned: Racking up the miles makes you hungry!