Married Life Today

A couple of nights ago, my husband, Uvie, and I were looking through some of my old pictures from as far back as when I was about 5 years old. There was a huge smile of admiration on his face with lots of “ooh, you were so cute,” and “aw, my wife is so beautiful.” (The man really does know how to make someone’s head swell 😀)

It was all going swimmingly well until we came across pictures from around the wedding and he paused, took one look at me and said very innocently: “You were a lot slimmer then.” Then casually, as if nothing had happened, he went back to looking at the pictures. I didn’t say anything o, but in my head I was like: “Seriously?! You’re saying I’m fat?!!” 😮 That. Was. Not. Funny.

Later on though, I sat down and thought about it. Uvie was right. I had gained weight since we got married. And worse still, it hadn’t bothered me that much (until he said something). Quite a different story from when I was single. You see, before the wedding, my own self-consciousness meant that the thought of going into the wedding night at a particular size would have completely freaked me out. I was determined that Uvie’s first sight of my body would be of a beautiful, slim, perfect (okay, nearly-perfect!) one. Nope, there was no way I was going to showcase rolls! 😂

However, once I had become comfortable with him “seeing me finish” (which is a good thing by the way) and I’d settled into the security of knowing that he was never going to leave me for a “hotter” mama, I began to believe that I didn’t need to work as hard on my body (and ultimately, my health and fitness) as I had done when I was single. Laziness began to creep in and with time, I cared less and less about exercising and about how much and what I ate. I had gotten to the point where subconsciously, I thought: So what if I gain some weight? Uvie will still love me whatever size I am. God has commanded him to! Lol!

Although that may be true, gaining weight and letting go of one’s appearance after marriage can cause issues. Among other things, there’s the loss of confidence and self-esteem when you don’t look as good as you used to. When a woman doesn’t feel good about her body, she doesn’t feel good about herself as a whole. And that negative self-image is bound to affect other areas of her life, including her marriage and her career.

After all this story o, what am I going to do to turn this around? Well, I thought the best starting point would be to make my intentions public so that there’d be no hiding place. Here goes: in about three months, I will post an update on my excellent progress (can I hear an amen?!! 😀) towards attaining my pre-wedding weight.

If you’d like to join me, this is my personal invitation to you… (UPDATE: PLEASE NOTE THE Back to Slim GROUP IS NOW FULL)

I have discovered that there’s strength in numbers. So, if you too want to get a jump-start on your look-and-feel-fabulous-again journey, then email me: olawunmi@marriedlifetoday.org to indicate your interest in joining my “Back to slim” group (via Facebook and Whatsapp).

Drawing on my experience and competence in leadership coaching, we will work together to set personalised goals, be accountable to one another, stay motivated, and acquire the skills and knowledge necessary for success.

The main caveat is that this blog post must have convinced you of the need for change and you are willing to commit to it for 3 months. If you are only mildly interested it won’t work, so I advise you to wait until you’re ready. You will also need to have reasonable access to the internet.

It’ll be a small group (maximum of 10) to maximise effectiveness and will close once full. Requests, on a first come first served basis, will be accepted until midnight on Friday 21 October. Oh, and it is free of charge. Coaching of this nature usually costs hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.

Launch date: Saturday 22 October.

So if this resonates with you, make a move!

Olawunmi xx

Image credit: Medimanage.com