Eat, weigh, love? Why pre-wedding diets can lead to unhappily ever after.

Image by Eleanor Davis for the Washington Post. Original here.

Check out my latest op-ed, published in this weekend's Washington Post. 

"Eat, weigh, love? 

Why pre-wedding diets lead to unhappily ever after" 

Here's a teaser, but you'll have to go HERE to read the rest!

After a bride-to-be says yes to the dress, she often starts saying no — to carbs, desserts and other high-calorie foods. 

When I was planning my 2011 wedding, I felt the pressure to do all I could to look my most beautiful on my wedding day. In our culture, beautiful usually means thin. Indeed, a glance at the top three national bridal magazines published this month found an abundance of weight-loss advice, including “clever ways to shed those last few pounds,” tips for choosing a low-sugar juice cleanse and lists of “bloating” foods to avoid.

But dieting is exactly what brides shouldn’t do if they want to be happy, healthy, calm and confident on their wedding day. Sure, there are plenty of great reasons to be more mindful about your diet and exercise habits, but looking like a twig for your nuptials isn’t one of them. In addition to not working 95 percent of the time, dieting makes us poor decision-makers, depletes our willpower, darkens our mood and can be toxic for our intimate relationships....

Did YOU diet before the big day? Was it worth it? Did anybody else out there manage to resist the hoopla?