1. Go to bed!
Sleep is the closest thing you are going to find to the fountain of youth. You need to get plenty of restful sleep in life in general let alone leading up to the marathon day of joy and stress that will be your wedding. If you usually get six hours of sleep aim for seven plus. If you are closer to seven on average try to bump it up to a healthy more ideal eight. If you get less than six hours on a regular basis this is your number one area to focus on that will give you the biggest results. Sleep burns fat and restores all of the cells in the body. Don’t sleep on sleep! It’s your best weapon to look and feel your best!
2. Drink more water now!
Like sleep, water is essential to your body’s most basic functions. If you are dehydrated everything becomes more work for your body. Don’t hold back. Take your body weight and divide it by two. That’s how many ounces of water you need to drink per day. So if you weigh 120 pounds you should drink about 60 ounces of water per day. Water aids in digestion, metabolism and detoxification. With an abundance of H2O in your system your body can flush out the bad and build up the good. It might be good for you to find out what your ideal weight is for your height.
3. Eat lots and lots and lots of green vegetables!
It’s easy advice to give and harder to put into practice. Nevertheless you have to up the vegetable content in your diet. Start with a salad everyday for lunch. Once you have that down pick your favorite green and steam a big pot of it every other night.
4. Exercise hard and often!
First get the consent of your doctor then get out there and burn it up. You know this, everyone knows this! Yet if you apply the above points in order you’ll begin to see compounding effects. Most soon to be wed couples run off to the gym to try to make up for the lack of the above three points. However when exercise is applied with plenty of sleep, hydration and quality nutrients the effect can be extremely significant. The point we need to make here is that exercise won’t make up for lack of sleep, water and greens.
5. Don’t drink your calories!
This means don’t drink alcohol, smoothies or juices. Alcohol is basically empty sugar calories that slow down your metabolism. If you want all of your work to be for nothing then drink it up because alcohol destroys progress. With regards to smoothies and juices, this tip is a caveat to No. 3 eat lots and lots of green vegetables. The operative word is eat. When you turn to juices and smoothies you are consuming the nutrients of more vegetables than you could possibly chew. As a result the rate of absorption goes up just like you are drinking a Coke. I hear you. You’re saying there isn’t enough sugar in spinach or kale to affect your insulin. That may be true but I don’t know of any pressed juice that doesn’t add fruit for taste. I’m sure you can find it but for the purpose of weight loss and simplicity don’t drink your calories!
6. Cut out the white stuff!
Phase one: cut out any foods that are white. No milk or cheese, no potatoes, no white rice or white bread or pasta. If it is white don’t eat it. Phase two: cut out anything that could be white. This means if in phase one you cut out white bread but continued to eat whole wheat or multigrain, then in phase two you cut out bread entirely. Same thing goes for sweet potatoes, brown rice or any other food that could be white. If you have any doubts, don’t eat it. Pro tip; rather than focusing on what you can’t eat focus on what you can. Vegetables, meats and other whole foods will come alive once you start to pay them more attention.
7. Cheat!
By all means give yourself a cheat day or a the very least a cheat meal once a week. You are under a lot of pressure to make everything work out by the big day. Let yourself off of the hook once a week and remember what it’s like to be normal and not in the middle of the vortex that is the engagement period of wedding planning. It will be so worth it to come out the other side and enjoy all of your hard work paying off. Know that if you don’t let off the gas a little bit each week you will burn out and risk falling off the wagon. It’s better to pause, relax and indulge a moment rather than derailing your whole program. Besides after your moment of relaxation and deliciousness you’ll come back to your goals with more vigor and renewed commitment.
At the end of the day, have fun! This could be number eight but please let’s not make fun a checklist item. Infuse everything you do with a sense of play and enjoy the ride. Attitudes are infectious and a little bit of levity goes a long way. Remember you aren’t the only one stressing. All of the professionals you hired want their piece of the puzzle to fit in seamlessly. It’s how the whole thing works in concert that makes sure the guests have a fun and memorable experience. No need to get cranky just because you are trying to lose a few pounds.
