It’s no surprise that brides often feel a crazy amount of pressure to look good on their wedding day. Not only is there the worry of fitting into your dream wedding dress, but an endless amount of pictures will also be snapped over the course of the day.
Unsurprisingly, over 90% of brides hope to shed extra pounds before getting married. However, perhaps more shockingly, as many as one in three will resort to crash dieting in an extreme bid to get their ideal bridal body.
The good news is that crash dieting is completely unnecessary – which is great seeing as it has no benefit to your overall health and is unlikely to give you the results you want anyway.
When Should I Start My Fitness Regime?
There’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach to when you should start your wedding fitness regime. It really does depend on your starting point and how much weight you want to lose. The sooner you start the better. Don’t wait until the last minute to try and lose weight and then expect miracles.
You should be thinking about your diet and exercise plan as soon as you start your wedding planning, so that you don’t end up resorting to a crash diet in a bid to lose pounds at the last minute. Ideally you should aim to reach your weight loss goal within 4 weeks of your wedding, in time for the final dress fittings. That way you’ll be able to focus more on the finishing touches of the wedding planning rather than worrying about fitting into your dream dress.
Set Yourself Short Term Goals
Make sure you take regular exercise over the first four to six weeks for general fitness, then start to target specific areas such as your stomach, thighs and bottom. Keeping a fitness diary will also monitor your progress and help you to feel good about your achievements.
What if I’m Short on Time?
Finding the right kind of exercise regime to suit your needs and schedule can vary from a brisk walk to a full workout in the gym or an exercise video that you found online.
If you have a demanding work and life schedule that rarely allows you to fit exercise in, then try to make lifestyle swaps wherever you can. For example, ditch the car and walk to work or the shops and try to take the stairs instead of the lift – even just taking up small exercises like this will help you keep trim.
High intensity interval training (known as HIIT for short) is great for a busy bride. This consists of short bursts of intense exercise mixed in with small rests, which could benefit you more than a long session in the gym.
You need to start sweating and exercising alongside a healthy diet to make great changes to your body but this doesn’t mean that you need to spend hours on a treadmill.
Above all, have fun and don’t beat yourself up if it takes a while to get the results you want. Getting fit and losing weight healthily takes time, but stick with it and you’ll feel fabulous inside and out when you finally get into that wedding dress.
