10/5/2019- NEED TO DROP POUNDS.

Definitely DO NOT buy a "goals" dress.

Eat clean, work out, and then 10-12 months before the wedding go shopping.

I do not suggest the goals dress idea. But you have plenty of time! Get a trainer at the gym, eat well and you will get to your goal easily I think!

I wouldn't get a goals dress, that's putting too much pressure on yourself. Just eat healthy and work out. Instead of grocery shopping, I order from a meal plan company called Personal Trainer Food. You get breakfast, lunch and dinner all frozen and prepackaged into the perfect portions - and they are delicious! It costs just as much as I'd spend on grocery shopping anyway. I wanted to lose a few pounds too before my wedding, but it didn't happen, and I'm still happy with how I look. I can't imagine if I ordered my dress smaller and then didn't drop the weight and it didn't fit...

You have 2 years to lose as little or as much as you would like to. I wouldn't dress shop until about a year out and please order the dress for how you are when you get fitted and order what the stylist suggests. It's much easier to take a dress in than to let out.

Exercise regularly, eat healthy. That's the best advice - do what works for your body.

I lost weight after ordering my dress and it was a bag on me when it arrived - I have my third dress fitting in a week!

Don't buy a "goal dress". Planning a wedding is stressful and you don't need the additional stress of trying to fit in your dress.

Start eating healthy, drinking plenty of water and working out. Cut out processed foods and additional sugars.

Echoing the no goals dress. Do you use myfitnesspal? I'd start there.

You have a year before you need to start shopping for dresses, and I don't think your goal is unrealistic. Eat natural foods like fruit and veggies and try to reduce the amount of breads/pastas/processed foods in your diet. Get some cardiovascular and strength training exercise in 3-4 times a week. Drink lots of water. Don't starve yourself.

I also don't suggest buying a goals dress but you're over 2 years out from your date so you have time.

If hiring a trainer isn't something that's affordable for you try using a calorie counting app and stick with tracking what you eat. I used MyFitnessPal to help me track what I ate and count calories and I managed to lose about 30-35 pounds in around 9 months and that was with little exercise. Just trying to eat healthy and exercise was not cutting it for me.

I highly suggest you do not buy a goals dress.

Start with eating healthier. Whole Foods, water. Cut alcohol and other beverages (or make it minimal). Make small, attainable goals for working out and then start making those goals harder. Eating healthier can make a HUGE difference. Good luck!!

Edit: My Mom and grandma just started dropping sugar from their diet. My mom lost almost 10 lbs in 2-3 months. My grandma has dropped from size 10 to 6 (not sure how long that took). That's the only thing my grandma changed. My mom also added some workouts in addition to cutting sugar. You'll be surprised how much sugar is in everything. My mom is a big pasta eater but that has a lot of sugar so she replaced it with zucchini noodles so look for alternatives like that for foods you like!

A goal dress is fine, so long as it's not your wedding dress.

When I lost weight, I worked out at least 30 minutes 5-6 days a week (usually high intensity) - mix it up with strength building exercises and cardio. I really like Jillian Michaels videos and PopSugar Fitness on YouTube. Drink lots of water. As far as diet goes, I found it helpful to focus on eating "heart healthy" - that meant very limited red meat, sweets, fast food, fried food, and white grains (no white bread, white rice, etc). Reduce saturated fats and be mindful of how many calories you're taking in.

Do not purchase a goals dress. Choose a dress that you think you'd love and post a picture of it where you can see and use it as motivation.

You are looking at losing 22-32 lbs. Not improbable. Totally doable. You just have to be really committed. Monday-Sunday. Choose a support group or system that you like, Weight Watchers, Fit Girls Club, My Fitness Pal. After my child was born, I actually spent the money to go to a nutritionist. It was pricey but, really worked. I lost 18 pounds in 6 weeks and continued to lose after that. You just need to find what works for you. Find a workout program you like, that makes you want to move and you look forward to doing.

Try to focus on hitting your goal first. Work hard to lose as much as you can in the first year, then you can spend the year building up to the wedding learning how to maintain your weight and getting comfortable in your new lifestyle.

Remember through all of this, you are beautiful the way you are, your FH loves you the way you are and if you don't lose a damn pound you are still going to have a wonderful wedding and look amazing.

Start slow and work your way up. My FH and I go for 3 hour walks on Saturdays and Sundays. Everyday we have a salad for dinner with some sort of baked meat (mostly chicken). We drink water most of the day. I have lost anywhere between 2-4 lbs a week.

I suggest trying the Kayla Itsines workouts and diet plan. I wasn't overweight when I started...I was 5'9 and 145lbs...but it was the worst I looked in my life (college). I started these and the diet plan makes it easy to turn into a lifestyle and the workouts are only 30 mins! and you can do them in your own home. They worked so well! I lost 20lbs and gained a lot of muscle. Since then I've moved on to kickboxing and heavier weightlifting, but it's absolutely a FANTASTIC starting point. Good luck

p.s. don't buy a goal dress because that's too much pressure

Agreed, no goal dress. You have about a year until dress shopping. Losing 20-30lbs is totally possible.

Drink lots of water, cut out bread & pasta, eat lots of veggies, & use fruits as your dessert.

Myfitnesspal can help to track your calories but I'd suggest going above their 1200 calorie recommendation. Maybe start with 1500 calories so it is more realistic.

Try not to stress over it, it could have a reverse effect.

I am late 2019 and trying to lose some weight/firm up for the wedding too. I am basically giving myself a year to do what I can, then go shopping a year out, and then just working towards mantaining my ideal weight. My biggest problem is my weight is healthy and I do work out but I am trying to go for a weight I feel more comfortable with my body at (not underweight but just at the beginning of healthy weight catergory). I think buying a dress too small or buying a dress at your start weight causes so much extra stress. My suggestion is buying the dress in a year after eatting clean and exvercising 5-6 days a week (strength training and cardio).

DO NOT DO A GOALS DRESS.. I made that mistake and regretted it the moment I asked my seamstress to let it out to my originally measured size. I hadn't gained any weight, did loose a few pounds, but not enough to fit into the goal dress I purchased. There was too much going on in my personal life to focus on the weight loss. Either wait to buy the dress.. or buy it in your size. I promise you.. goal dresses are NOT the business and not motivation.

I would suggest not getting a goals dress. When I got fitted for my dress my bust and hips were a 1/2 size bigger then the recommended size to order a 12 instead of a 14. I took the chance because I had been working out and eating healthy to buy the size 12 dress and make it fit. I bought my dress in May and it came in August, when I went to try it on she could barely get it zipped and when she did it made my back fat all come together and was tight. From May until August I had lost 12 pounds I still have time to lose more but it isn't fun stressing about something that didn't need to be a problem.

I think that is putting too much pressure on yourself which can result in unhealthy dieting. Starting out I would look into getting a trainer. Someone to get you on the right track with diet and exercise.

Get a trainer and/or nutritionist, track your intake (myfitnesspal is a good app for that), and talk to your doctor. Depending on what issues you have there might be certain medications that can help you (safely) lose weight.

Definitely do not get a "goal dress", at least not as your wedding dress. 1) You're two years out, you might change what you want in a year. 2) It's a lot of added stress you don't need. A dress can be made smaller, but going bigger is a lot harder. When I bought my dress the shopkeeper was telling me about another customer who insisted on ordering two sizes down because she was going to lose weight. She didn't and her dress didn't fit, so she essentially stopped eating for the final month. She did ultimately fit into it, but she was miserable and it showed.

Make a lifestyle change and the pounds will fly off. I picked becoming a pescatarian and it was the best decision ever. Some become vegan, some decide to become runners or swimmers or just dont eat bread or sugar. Pick something and stick with it