Hello there! I’m Floriane, a holistic fitness coach and soon-to-be bride in November 2023. It’s my pleasure to share my pre-wedding transformation journey with you in this article. Over the span of six months, I managed to lose 25 pounds and achieve the toned, defined physique I desired for my backless wedding dress. Now, let’s dive into how you can embark on your own incredible wedding workout journey and feel confident and amazing on your special day!
When Should I Start Working Out For My Wedding?
To increase your chances of achieving your desired results, it’s highly recommended to set aside as much time as you can for your wedding preparation. The more time you can dedicate, the better! This is particularly important if you have a significant weight loss goal. Creating a timeline based on how long you think it will take to reach your target is crucial.
What Is A Realistic Timeframe For My Goal?
A healthy and sustainable rate of fat loss is around 1-2 pounds per week, so if you’re looking to shed 25 pounds like I did, you should give yourself approximately 25 weeks or six months. This will give you a grace period and allows you to overcome any unexpected obstacles that may come your way during your fitness journey. We all know life happens and unexpected things come up, so the more wiggle room you have (timeframe wise) helps take the pressure off!
In addition to the physical transformations, prioritizing your emotional well-being is equally crucial. Allotting more time allows you to foster a deeper connection between your body and mind, nurturing self-confidence, and developing effective coping mechanisms to manage the stress of wedding planning. By adopting a more patient mindset, you’ll be able to navigate the entire journey with grace and resilience, ensuring a positive and empowering experience, instead of feeling like you’re doing a short term crash diet and burning yourself out!
Are Plateaus Normal?
Yes!! Throughout your journey, it’s important to understand that progress may not always be linear. There may be plateaus or periods where it seems like you’re not making as much progress as you’d like. But with sufficient time, we can address these obstacles, reassess our plan, and overcome them. Patience and perseverance are key in navigating these challenges and staying on track towards your goals. Some weeks the scale may not budge, and other weeks it will drop 3lbs all at once! This is completely normal, and it’s important to look at your long term trend, not just week to week changes, which can fluctuate.
Patience Is Key
Always remember that your body transformation is a personal and unique journey. Comparing yourself to others is useless, so drop that bad habit as soon as you can. ”Comparison is the thief of joy” they say and its completely true. Focus on yourself and becoming the best version of you. Try to enjoy every step of the process, and celebrate each milestone along the way, no matter how small. Taking inventory of small wins or non scale victories can give you the extra motivational boost you need to keep going! Take a moment to breathe deeply, trust in the power of time, and remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Keep your eyes on the big picture, and don’t get discouraged if your results take a little longer to come. Stay consistent and change WILL happen, it’s only a matter of time.
What Should I Do To Prepare My Body For My Wedding?
Hydration and Electrolytes
As a bride-to-be, proper hydration and electrolyte balance are essential for feeling your best leading up to, and on your special day. When I started taking electrolytes daily was when I started noticing all these positive changes within my body:
Why Hydration Matters
- Radiant Skin and Hair: Adequate hydration contributes to the coveted bridal glow. Drinking a sufficient amount of water helps keep your skin hydrated, promoting a healthy complexion and enhancing your natural radiance. Additionally, well-hydrated hair appears shinier, fuller, and more vibrant, adding to your bridal beauty.
- Energy and Endurance: Planning a wedding can be physically and mentally demanding. Staying hydrated and maintaining electrolyte balance provides the energy you need to tackle your to-do list and savour every moment leading up to your big day. Proper hydration supports optimal brain function and boosts energy levels, helping you feel more alert, focused, and ready to handle all the wedding preparations with grace.
- Stress Management: Wedding planning often comes with its fair share of stress. Hydrating adequately helps in managing stress levels. Dehydration can exacerbate stress symptoms, making you feel more fatigued, irritable, and overwhelmed. By keeping your body properly hydrated, you provide it with the support it needs to cope with stress effectively, promoting a calmer and more balanced state of mind.
- Optimizing Digestion: Electrolyte balance aids in the production of bile salts, which boost digestion, nutrient absorption, and waste removal. This ensures that your body functions optimally and actually uptake of all those crucial nutrients you get through your diet. It helps prevent issues like bloating, constipation, and fatigue, allowing you to feel un bloated and energized along your fitness journey. Electrolytes were a star player in my gut healing journey and I’m so happy I was able to fix my leaky gut and get my digestion back in check!
Remember, hydration is not limited to drinking plain water alone. Electrolytes, such as sodium, potassium, and magnesium, are essential for maintaining proper fluid balance and muscle function. You can replenish electrolytes through hydrating beverages, electrolyte-enhanced drinks, and consuming electrolyte-rich foods like fruits and vegetables.
So, sip on refreshing fluids, incorporate hydrating foods into your diet, and prioritize electrolyte balance. By doing so, you’ll ensure that you radiate beauty, vitality, and confidence throughout your fitness transformation (and as you walk down the aisle!)
Focus on Nutrition
No matter how hard you work in the gym, the key in achieving lasting results is keeping your nutrition on point. Having a proper macro balance and calorie goal will make your efforts in the gym so much more rewarding and effective.
Log Your Food To Make Informed Choices
Tracking calories is essential for developing awareness of your eating habits and making informed choices. It promotes accountability, mindful eating, and effective weight management. By monitoring your calorie intake, you can adjust your eating habits to achieve your desired weight goals, whether it’s losing, maintaining, or gaining weight. Calorie tracking also helps identify patterns and areas for improvement in your diet, empowering you to make informed decisions about your nutrition. Ultimately, it gives you greater control over your food choices and enables you to work towards a healthier and more balanced lifestyle. Not sure where to start? Download the free app MYFITNESSPAL and use my free macro calculator here. Input those calorie and macro goals, and begin logging all your meals snacks and drinks in the app. No matter what your objective is, doing this will help ensure you fast track your goals!
Hit Your Daily Protein Needs
Protein plays a crucial role in both weight loss and muscle gain, making it particularly relevant to your wedding day goals. Adequate protein intake supports weight loss by promoting satiety, helping to control appetite and cravings. Additionally, it boosts metabolism, preserves lean muscle mass, and contributes to the calorie-burning process during digestion. For muscle gain, protein provides the essential building blocks necessary for muscle repair, growth, and strength development. The recommended protein intake varies depending on factors such as activity level and body composition goals. As a general guideline, aim to consume around 0.8-1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass per day for both weight loss and muscle gain purposes.
Get Enough Sleep
Getting sufficient beauty sleep is crucial for optimizing your physical and mental well-being, especially when aiming for fat loss and optimal recovery. Quality sleep aids in muscle repair, allowing your body to recover and rebuild after intense workouts. It also plays a significant role in regulating hormones related to appetite and metabolism, supporting your weight loss goals. Adequate rest promotes healthy skin by reducing dark circles and enhancing your natural radiance, ensuring you glow on your big day. Prioritizing sleep will make your fitness journey so much more enjoyable and sustainable.
Manage Your Stress Levels To Avoid Becoming A Bridezilla!
One of the biggest components of my bridal transformation was stress reduction! The whole reason I had gained weight over the past 2 years was stress and poor coping mechanisms. I was over worked, anxious and burnt out. I even got my cortisol tested and my levels were through the roof! When I decided to lose 25 lbs last July, I KNEW I had to change my approach to life and get my stress levels under control. No more people pleasing, saying yes to things that didn’t align, overworking and overcommitting, and a lot more saying no thank you or not right now. Setting those steadfast boundaries was very difficult for me as a recovering people pleaser, however it was necessary and looking back now I am SO GLAD I did it. So, all this to say, is if I can do it, so can YOU! Managing stress levels minimizes the chances of succumbing to binge eating or emotional overeating, enabling a healthy relationship with food throughout your wedding fitness journey. Prioritizing self care such as baths, meditation, reading a good book cozied up in your favorite blanket, or dancing around to your favorite genre of music can all be healthy ways to de stress and keep yourself relaxed throughout the process of planning a wedding AND transforming your body. Embrace a balanced (YOU-centric) lifestyle during the preparations. Be selfish when it comes to prioritizing your time, setting healthy boundaries, focus on self care and de stressing, and most importantly enjoy the process so that you can continue living a balanced and harmonious lifestyle beyond the wedding, setting the foundation for long-term well-being and happiness.
Finding The Right Workout Plan
Okay so you know you want to embark on a fitness journey, and how have a general idea of how to lift weights at the gym, but how do you know WHICH workouts to do to yield best results?
Preparing for your wedding day calls for a structured workout regimen that offers accountability and sets the stage for success. By following a structured program, you hold yourself accountable to your fitness goals, ensuring that you stay motivated and committed. It also helps prevent overuse injuries and muscle imbalances, as a well-designed regimen provides balanced training, targeting different muscle groups and energy systems. The principle of progressive overload, integrated into a structured program, allows you to gradually increase the demands placed on your body. This progressive approach ensures continuous improvement and prevents plateaus, enabling you to achieve the desired results in time for your special day. Not to mention, a structured program enhances efficiency, optimizing your time at the gym by focusing on exercises that directly contribute to your goals. It provides a framework for tracking progress which is one huge benefit, theres no better feeling than when you KNOW you’ve gotten stronger!
Once you progress, the right program should continually challenge you and adapt to your increase in strength. This adaptability ensures that you can fine-tune your workouts, keeping them challenging and effective as you advance towards your wedding day, ultimately helping you look and feel your absolute best.
On my 6 month bridal fitness journey, I tried and tested may different exercises to achieve my desired physique, and I came up with the perfect workout split to yield the dream bridal body. Here are some of my findings:
What Are The Top Areas Brides Should Focus On Toning For Their Wedding Day?
1. Shoulders and Upper Back: Strengthening the shoulder and upper back muscles helps create an elegant posture and enhances the appearance of the upper body in wedding dresses. Exercises like shoulder presses, lateral raises, and rows can help tone and define these areas.
2. Arms: Well-toned arms can add a touch of grace and confidence to your wedding look. Target the biceps and triceps with exercises such as bicep curls, tricep dips, and push-ups to sculpt and firm the arms.
3. Core: A strong core provides stability and helps maintain an upright posture. Work on exercises like planks, crunches, and Russian twists to engage the abdominal and lower back muscles, contributing to a slim waistline and improved posture. Working on your core will ensure you look snatched in your dress!
4. Legs: Toned and defined legs can complement your dress, especially if it has a slit! Incorporate exercises like squats, lunges, deadlifts and calf raises to target the major muscle groups in your legs, including the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves.
5. Glutes: Firm and sculpted glutes can enhance your silhouette and contribute to a well-proportioned physique. Exercises like squats, lunges, hip thrusts, and glute bridges help strengthen and shape the glute muscles into the perfect bridal booty 😉
Remember, it’s essential to have a balanced approach to your training program. Include exercises that target all major muscle groups for overall strength and aesthetic balance. Working with a qualified fitness professional or personal trainer can help customize a program specifically tailored to your goals and ensure proper form and technique.
If that all sounds great to you but you still feel overwhelmed about creating your own workout split, I’ve compiled it all in an easy to follow online workout program, complete with video form demonstrations and the best part is it is adaptable for home or gym!
Should Brides Invest In A Personal Trainer In Preparation For The Wedding?
The answer is a resounding yes, depending on individual fitness levels and goals, and if it fits within their budget. Investing in just 1-2 personalized sessions with a qualified coach can provide invaluable guidance and set you on the right path to achieve your short-term goal of getting wedding-ready. A personal trainer not only demonstrates targeted exercises to help you attain your desired outcome, but also serves as a source of motivation, keeping you focused on reaching your goals. The wedding planning process can be so tough and if you add a fitness goal into the mix, having a trainer by your side to help cheer you on and keep you accountable is a great way to keep things feeling manageable. The best part of hiring a trainer is that all you need to do us show up! They will come up with a program for you to follow and do all the thinking (and counting reps!) for you, so all you need to do is execute. Talk about a huge load off your shoulders as a busy bride!
If hiring a personal trainer isn’t feasible within your budget, there are alternative options such as following a structured and tailored program like the bridal bootcamp. This specialized program is designed specifically for brides like me, ensuring a precise and comprehensive approach to your wedding preparation.
In summary, embarking on a wedding workout journey requires careful planning and dedication. By allowing yourself enough time, you can navigate any obstacles, nurture a positive body-mind connection, and achieve your desired results. Prioritizing hydration and electrolyte balance ensures optimal physical well-being, radiant skin, and sustained energy levels. Tracking calories and incorporating adequate protein supports effective weight management and muscle development. Getting sufficient sleep and managing stress contribute to overall well-being and a positive relationship with food. Targeting specific muscle groups adds confidence and enhances your appearance on your special day. A structured workout program enhances efficiency, prevents injuries, and promotes continuous progress. Whether you opt for a personal trainer or a tailored program, investing in a structured approach to your wedding workout journey sets you on the path to success. Embrace the transformation that awaits you, and get ready to shine on your wedding day!
And now please enjoy my viral tiktok about bridal prep :
