If your wedding is coming up and you want to get into the best shape of your life, consider these “steps to lose weight”. They’re healthy and effective!
You got the ring. You have the venue. Now your perfect day is quickly coming, and you want to make sure that you look downright stunning for the special occasion.
Did you know that over 30% of brides start a new exercise routine or diet before their wedding? Makes sense! Who doesn’t want to look their best one of the most photographed days ever?
Taking the right steps to lose weight can help you feel beautiful on the best day of your life. Let’s get into what you need to know!
1. Start As Early As Possible
Even confident and secure brides experience pre-wedding jitters and anxiety. Crash diets often make these emotions even more volatile.
Rather than deal with the chaotic yo-yo dieting, consider a long-term strategy for losing weight. If you can start six months to a year in advance, you won’t have to feel deprived because the diet won’t feel punitive.
Write down realistic goals for yourself. Invest in a gym membership or dietitian. Create a plan of action for meeting your expectations.
2. Calculate Your Caloric Needs
To establish realistic goals, start by calculating your total caloric needs for each day. You can then determine how many calories you can safely cut based on a variety of factors including your:
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current weight
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target weight
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goal weight
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age
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height
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lifestyle habits (i.e., being very active)
You’ll subtract your current calories from your recommended calories to obtain your caloric deficit.
Keep in mind it’s okay to exceed your calorie limits here and there. It’s more about maintaining a consistent deficit trend over the long-term.
3. Keep a Food Journal
It’s easy to overlook a few nibbles of a cookie or forget about the excess creamer in your morning coffee. In other words, it’s easy to lose track of your total caloric intake.
To hold yourself accountable, consider keeping a food journal. If traditional pen-and-paper means don’t work well for you, consider downloading a free tracking app like MyFitnessPal.
4. Add Exercise
Exercise helps torch calories, and it also helps improve your overall appearance (which is key for your wedding day!).
That said, you don’t need to train marathons or scale mountains to achieve your desired effects.
If you’re not an avid exerciser, start small and take it slowly. Consider combining cardio-based exercises (running, swimming, dancing) with strength-training exercises to build muscle.
The most important part of the exercise is consistency! You need to commit to your gym time as you would commit to any necessary appointment.
5. Drink Water
You already know you should be guzzling down plenty of H20, but are you actually consistent with it? If you’re alternating between a coffee, soda, and wine diet, you’re drinking hundreds of thousands of excess calories every day!
Think about it: water has no calories, it’s hydrating, and it can even help suppress appetite. Best of all? It’s completely free.
Can’t stand the taste of plain water? Consider adding in some fruit or vegetables for a boost of flavor. You’ll feel like you’re indulging at a spa resort.
6. Eat Whole Foods
When it comes to shaping your diet, the basics are key. Stick with whole, natural foods like vegetables, fruits, lean meats, nuts, and oils.
Many dietitians use the phrase, shop the perimeters, to reinforce the importance of following these basic principles.
In other words, you want to reduce your intake of packaged or convenience foods. These foods are often loaded with added sugar, sodium, and fat. Fortunately, whole foods tend to cost loss, so you’ll also save money during your weight loss journey!
7. Find And Use Support
Losing weight can be challenging. After all, all those boozy brunches and cheap happy hours can be so incredibly tempting. Socializing isn’t the most diet-friendly activity, but you shouldn’t let your friends derail your hard-earned progress.
That said, having support can make a world of difference in keeping you grounded and accountable with your work.
Find a friend or family member who is also willing to join you on your new health kick. Can you set up daily texts to remind each other to stay on track? What about getting your spouse-to-be on board?
8. Plan For The Week Before
A week before your wedding, you should aim to severely reduce or eliminate all refined sugars and flours. You should also cut back on heavy, fibrous vegetables (like broccoli and cauliflower) and beans. Even though these are healthy options, they can attribute to additional bloat.
Instead, drink plenty of water and foods with high water content, like tomatoes, cucumbers, berries, and melons.
On the day before your wedding, don’t starve! You’ll already be stressed, but you don’t want to pass out due to hunger! Instead, sit down and have a nice breakfast.
Eggs and whole wheat toast or yogurt make for a great option. Furthermore, you should pack a small snack bag with nuts to munch on while getting ready.
Save the booze for nighttime (preferably after all the photos). You don’t want to sabotage your energy levels or become dehydrated.
9. Consult With Your Healthcare Provider
Still not losing weight? If you’re doing everything “right,” there may be an underlying medical issue to rule out. It’s always worth consulting with your physician to make sure your health is in check.
Whether you have an expensive PPO plan or Medicare supplement plan g, most health insurance policies offer support for weight loss.
Final Thoughts On The Best Steps To Lose Weight
Taking the steps to lose weight before your wedding will help you feel beautiful and confident on your special day. And if you’re shelling out on professional photography, it’s a commitment worth taking!
Interested in more weight loss tips? We have you covered! Check out this article today.
