How to Get in Perfect Shape for You Wedding

A study found that 80 percent of brides try to get in shape for their wedding day by changing their exercise and food habits - and it totally makes sense. You want to look radiant and beautiful when you get married, while feeling confident in your gorgeous gown. Here's what you need to start doing in the weeks and months before your wedding to achieve your goal.  

Make Working Out Fun

Wedding planning is stressful so you don’t want a fitness plan to boost your stress levels. Choose to do exercise that you enjoy doing and that makes you feel energetic! Instead of heading to the gym after a busy day, go for a run in the park, hit a dance class, or use a hula hoop. There are many ways to get your heart pumping and feel good while you shed the pounds.

Bring Your Bridesmaids

Yes, you kill calories when you laugh lots with your best girlfriends, but you can increase these effects by engaging in exercises that you do together - this is also a great bonding session. So go cycling or to that fun beach volleyball game together and enjoy burning off the pounds while you connect.

Sneak in Exercise

It's not always easy to commit to a long workout session when toning up for your wedding, but you don’t need to. Shorter bursts of exercise can be just as effective, so try to squeeze them into your day as much as possible. For instance, take the stairs, run from your car to the florist, walk to the shop instead of taking the car, and so on. While you're working on wedding seating arrangements, do a set of push-ups or crunches. Fit in exercise as often as you can and it’ll add up fast!

Pick Up Some Weights

Weight training is essential to shaping up. Weights help to build more muscle, which burns fat. So get some weights that you can comfortably pick up and if they're too light, then do more repetitions with them. Incorporate weights into your other workouts, such as lunges or walking up the stairs, for a fitness boost.

Get A Body Brush

What does dry brushing once or twice a week have to do with getting your perfect body for your wedding? It helps to boost your body's circulation, helping to improve the state of your skin, making it look smoother and firmer. It can even help to temporarily make your skin look plumper, reducing the appearance of cellulite.

Cut Out Wedding Diet Saboteurs

It's not always easy to stay away from fattening foods when you're planning your wedding, going to your engagement party and other events. But try to limit your consumption of alcohol and fatty foods. Encourage healthier snacks at these pre-wedding events to help make it easier for you to stick to your diet. Include healthy snacks into your regular days too so that you don’t feel like you're depriving yourself (fainting at your wedding due to starvation is not cool). Examples of healthy snacks include seaweed snacks, nuts, berries and kale chips.  

Be Cool With Cardio

Cardio will trim away layers of fat and give your body an overall tone-up, while also being great stress relief so try to do at least 30 minutes of cardio every day, five or six times a week. Great examples of cardio besides for running include kickboxing and swimming.

Tone Your Arms

One of the body parts brides worry most about is their arms as these are most likely to be on show in your gorgeous wedding gown. To get beautiful arms, do some tricep extensions. This involves lying on your back, holding a dumbbell in each hand and raising your arms. Lower the dumbbells until they are next to your ears, then lift your arms up again. But remember to incorporate other exercise into your day, such as cardio, to give your body a full workout. Targeting just one area of your body won't give you the results you want.

Head to Bed

If you don’t get enough sleep, your body won't be fit! According to research, not getting enough sleep can cause you to carry more weight and prevents your metabolism from working effectively. Now that's a good reason to enjoy more shut-eye, right? Don’t forget that sleep also helps to keep your energy levels healthy so you can get everything done on your task list, it prevents dark under-eye circles, and makes your skin look fresh.

Looking gorgeous on your wedding day is not just about how you've done your hair and makeup - it's also about being fit. Start getting into the daily habit of exercise and eating healthy months ahead of your big day and the prize will be walking down the aisle looking beautiful and feeling confident.