RSVP at http://weddinggownchallenge.blogspot.com/ women committed to being fit before, during and well after their wedding day...women who can fit into their wedding gowns days and years after their “big day.”

As brides-to-be across the country starve themselves into unhealthy and unrealistic weights for just one day--their wedding day--The Wedding Gown Challenge reaches its six-week countdown. The Wedding Gown Challenge celebrates like-minded women who have chosen to be fit for life rather than just one day. The concept behind The Wedding Gown challenge is for women to stop thinking of their wedding day as the “big day” when one works her self into a state of unhealthy and unrealistic expectations, only to outgrow her gown on the honeymoon. Instead it's about having the expectation of being fit before, during and well after the “big day.”

Today, there is little expectation that women will hover near their wedding day size. However, the facts according to Yale New Haven Hospital, and others, is that women need only blame five to 10 pounds on pregnancy. Additionally, gaining a modest 10-20 pounds after age 18 materially compromises one's health. According to the New England Journal of Medicine and reported by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), gaining merely 10-20 pounds after age 18 increases your chance of dying by 15%.

Q & A with MeMe Roth, Wedding Gown Challenge host and organizer:

Q: What is the Wedding Gown Challenge?

MeMe Roth: It’s a celebration of women committed to being fit before, during and well after their wedding day. These are women who can still fit into their gowns days and years after their “big day.”

Q: Why now?

MeMe Roth: June Brides all over the country are starving themselves silly as we speak. They’ll get to an unhealthy and unrealistic weight just in time for their wedding day. And by the time they return from the honeymoon? Their gown won’t even fit. Forget those buff bride boot camps. Fitness is for life.

Also, it’s more important than ever for children to see fit grownups. Children are invited to join their mothers during The Wedding Gown Challenge.

Q: Your critics say your idea is sexist.

MeMe Roth: Projecting onto women that once they become wives or mothers it’s okay to just get fat is sexist. It’s no accident Gloria Steinem looks better than ever at 70-something.

Q: Why the sole emphasis on women?

MeMe Roth: Women are the focus because women--married women, especially mothers--are most at risk. On the flip side we’re the most likely to stop the obesity epidemic. It’s never reported that women are central to the obesity epidemic, but we are. Women make more than 90% of food-buying decisions. I hate to give women one more thing to do, but intervening in the obesity epidemic is up to us.

Plus there’s a long list of diseases overweight women are likely to get: Breast cancer, gallstones, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer, dementia—it goes on and on. Not to mention sleep apnea, snoring and psoriasis.

Q: Isn’t obesity hereditary?

MeMe Roth: I come from a long line of obesity and always assumed I would get fat after I got married and fatter still with each child—just like my relatives. The groomsmen on my wedding day even wagered as to how long it would be until I got fat. I don’t blame them; I wondered the same thing.

The worst thing you can do is tell someone her weight is not up to her. Genetics, pregnancy, depression—all great excuses, but unless you have a doctor’s note stating otherwise, your fitness is 100% up to you.

Q: What about Anorexia?

MeMe Roth: This isn’t about women struggling with Anorexia and other serious eating disorders, or those diagnosed with Prader-Willi Syndrome. The Wedding Gown Challenge speaks to the general population of women—where more than half are overweight or obese. Outside of Hollywood and New York City, the bar is set entirely too low.

Q: Any special motivation?

MeMe Roth: I see staying fit as an obligation to my self and my family. Back in the 80s when I was Van Halen’s “number one fan,” I did get the chance to meet the band. Eddie Van Halen made me promise I’d never get fat. He said I looked like something out of Playboy. Talk about making a girl swoon. I kept my part of the bargain; maybe he’ll come to the Wedding Gown Challenge?

Wedding Gown Challenge: August 5, 2005, New York
· Friday, August 5, 2005
· 7am – NBC Today Show window at Rockefeller Center
· 8am – CBS The Early Show window at 59th Street and 5th Avenue
· 9am – Procession to Bethesda Fountain – Central Park
· Special Bouquet Toss (Sponsored by 1-800-FLOWERS.com)
· RSVP http://weddinggownchallenge.blogspot.com/