I’m fascinated by a story from one of my heroes, Dawn French.  The British comedian best known as The Vicar of Dibley and half of French and Saunders is hilarious, sexy, smart and… an unapologetically large lady.

So the story she tells is this:

In the lead-up to her wedding to comedian Lenny Henry in the eighties, she went on a really full-on diet (which she later described as “deluded”) and lost six stone.  SIX STONE!  Prior to this, French had never felt any need to apologise for her size and was quite comfortable in her skin. But something about getting married led her to lose her mind and go on this crazy diet.

According to her version of the story, the resulting wedding photos looked so unlike the “real” Dawn French that much later she paid a small fortune to have the photos redone once she’d regained the weight!

Top 5 wedding wastes of money

1. The super-fancy wedding invitation penned by an expert calligrapher.  Yeah, we’ve all received one of these – and recycled.
2. The overseas wedding.  It’s a lot of money to spend on the off-chance that your horrible relative won’t be able to make it.
3. Bonbonieres.  Also known as “favours”, are a gift from the bride and groom to each of their guests.  Trouble is, they’re almost always ignored by tipsy guests, forgotten in a taxi, or more often than not, left at the wedding reception.
4. Celebrity celebrant.  (Here’s a tip: That guy is not really Elvis!)
5. Marrying the wrong groom.  You married the wrong guy!  OMG!  This is gonna cost a fortune to rectify.

Did you lose a truckload of weight for a big event only to put it straight back on immediately afterwards?

In her book ‘Dear Fatty’, French describes walking down the aisle and thinking about what delicious contraband she would eat the moment the wedding was over.

Thankfully, I didn’t catch wedding madness when I got hitched. But I can admit that in the lead-up to one Logie Awards I ate bird rations for an entire week in preparation.  I also did soft-sand jogging in midwinter IN MY BIKINI prior to that particular ceremony (2012) and in the end felt as lean, fit and brown as I was ever going to feel walking the red carpet.

No one ever said to me “lose weight” or “you’d look better skinny” but in the preparation for the big event, I felt this stupid, invisible pressure.

A good friend lost 11kg for an overseas wedding.  It wasn’t her wedding, but she hadn’t seen these people for ages and wanted to look her best.  The motivation of having this big event to look forward to worked brilliantly and she has since managed to keep the weight off.

It’s worth thinking about when you’re struggling to eat right and make time to exercise.  Looking good is a model’s job.  It’s not your job.  Of course a model is motivated.  The motivation you experienced before your wedding day/nude scene/jockey weigh-in is the kind of pressure models experience on a daily basis.

Just like the basic skills that got you your job, and that you bring to work every day, so too must models look as lean, fit and healthy as their job description requires.

And just a heads-up: That’s not most people’s job description.  Including mine, and including yours.

About the person who wrote this

Yumi Stynes

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Yumi Stynes was planning to die young, leaving behind an unfit and bloated corpse until an epiphany sent her on a health journey that continues today. She's been interviewing rock bands, actors, chefs and other inspiring creative types since 2000 and most days can be found going for a run, cooking incredible food or trying to make someone laugh.