Planning your wedding is stressful, but in order to overcome stress and anxiety, you need to prepare for the coming months. First and foremost, you need to take care of your health and body. To do that, you need to have a pre-wedding fitness program. Here, we will describe some fitness Tips and diet tips you can follow as well as some workouts.
Fitness and Diet Tips
- Monitor exhaustion levels to make sure you aren’t burning yourself out. If you fall asleep too quickly, it’s a sign you are sleep deprived. Ten to 15 minutes is a healthy amount of time in which to nod off. If you are in a deep sleep in less than five minutes, it’s a sign of exhaustion.
- Write up a good meal plan which has a mix of all the season’s fruit and vegetables. Make several servings at a time and freeze extras so you have good meals on hand.
- Don’t think of exercise as a chore to get through to slim down but rather as a stress reliever to help you better plan for your big day.
- Partner up with your fiancé for some bride and groom workouts such as CrossFit or even begin a yoga program, then keep going strong on your honeymoon and beyond!
- To get through your days, exercise in the morning with a brisk walk, preferably 3 km a day 3-4 times a week.
- Get a personal trainer and do some light weight training. Cardio is a great exercise, but lifting light weights burns calories faster and longer.
- With cardio workouts, get intense and do some High Intensity Interval Training. For example, sprint at a high intensity for 30 seconds then low intensity for 60 seconds. These workouts can last as much as only 10 minutes and burn calories for longer.
- Squeeze some lemon or lime juice into your water in the morning and add a dash of mineral water in the afternoon. The vitamins and minerals will help your body hold onto the water and all the healthy food you’ve been eating.
- Booking a course of spa treatments is a guarantee that you will slow down. Make sure the beautician or masseuse understands that you want the treatment to be relaxing as well as rejuvenating.
- For healthy skin and hair, eat plenty of healthy oils such as salmon and tuna, plus flaxseed and olive oils. Take fish oil supplements and buy flaxseed oil to add to cooking.
- Rather than deprive yourself of all feel-good foods and snacks, just cut down on the major no-no’s, such as any kind of sugar, soda, ice cream and pizza. If you really want to consume them, switch to diet soda and low-fat ice cream.
- Keep an exercise and diet journal or chart in which you jot down your daily diet consumed as well as fitness to help you track your weekly goals.
Work Outs
Twists
Stand with feet hip-width apart and knees slightly bent. Imagine you are holding a ball in between your thighs. Squeeze your thigh muscles, then pull in your belly and tuck it under your pelvis (so you’re in a slight sitting position). Lace your fingers together and place your hands behind your head.
Keeping your chest high, slowly twist from side to side without moving your lower body, so that your upper body turns from left to right. Keep it slow, you won’t get the full benefit if you’re relying on momentum to get you around. Repeat 40 times.
Standing side crunches
Stand in the same position as you did for the twist, with your abs tucked in and your toes facing forwards (but drop the imaginary ball).
Lift your left knee towards your left arm, bringing your elbow down to meet it. Hold, then return to the starting position. Repeat on the right and do a total of 20 repetitions on each side.
One-arm rows
Stand with your left side next to the front of a bench (or a coffee table or couch). Place your left foot and left hand on the bench, bending your right knee. Keeping your torso parallel to the ground, hold a dumbbell in your right hand. Let your arm hang straight down with your palm facing your thigh. Slowly pull the dumbbell up and back until it is in line with your hip. You should feel a muscle contraction in your upper back (that means it’s working!). Repeat 10 times, then switch sides.
Pullovers Lie on the floor with your knees bent, hip-width apart, and your feet flat on the floor. Hold a dumbbell in each hand and extend your arms up over your body, so that your arms form a 90-degree angle with your torso. Keeping your elbows slightly bent, slowly lower the dumbbells back behind your head as far as you can. You should feel a stretch in your back muscles. Next, lift the dumbbells back into the starting position above your body, squeezing your back muscles as you go. Do 10 repetitions per set.
Bicep curls
Standing with your feet hip-width apart and knees slightly bent, pull in your stomach and tuck your pelvis under. Hold a heavier pair of dumbbells at your sides, palms facing forward. Keeping your elbows close to your sides, slowly curl the dumbbells towards your shoulders.
Then reverse direction and lower the dumbbells to the starting position. Avoid locking your elbows. Do 10 repetitions per set. Slow and steady wins the race here: you’ll get a bigger benefit from this exercise if you use concentrated, controlled movements. If you feel as though you’re whipping the weights around to get them up, your dumbbells are too heavy.
Downgrade to a lighter weight so that you can move more comfortably.
Flat dumbbell fly
Lie on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, shoulder-width apart. Stretch out your arms on the floor so your body makes a T. Hold a dumbbell in each outstretched hand, keeping your elbows slightly bent. Keep your palms facing up towards the ceiling.
Slowly raise the weights upward in a rounded arc (as if you were hugging a tree), gently touching the dumbbells together at the top above your body. Hold for a few seconds, then slowly lower the weights back to their starting positions. Do 10 repetitions per set.
Triceps dips
Sit on a sturdy chair. Place your hands on the front edge of the seat, fingertips facing forward. Keep your feet flat on the floor, hip-width apart and out in front of you. Slowly slide your bottom off the seat of the chair, keeping your hands where they are.
Keeping your arms close to your body, bend your elbows until your upper arms are parallel to the floor, allowing your buttocks to descend past the edge of the chair. Using your arms to lift you, reverse direction and push yourself back up to the point at which your arms are straight. Work up to 15 dips per set.
