The Wedding Workout
Bridal Fitness and Exercise Program

It's time to kick-start your exercise program. Or would you prefer to have your dress safety pinned, glued, stapled, and velcroed to your body because the zipper won't close?

I've heard stories of some "brides to be" deciding months ahead of the wedding to order their dress one size too small, just for a little added weight loss motivation. It's an interesting concept, but probably a bad idea to intentionally order the wrong size of what is likely the most expensive dress you'll ever buy, especially when you consider that you'll only be wearing it once.

I'm all for motivation and creating goals. However, when you set hard and fast deadlines, such as "I must fit into this tiny dress in three months" you create more opportunities to fail than you do motivation to succeed.

I'd urge you to make sure your goals are realistic based on your starting point. If you set a goal to lose fifty pounds in two months, you're going to fail. The only way to achieve such a lofty goal in that time period is by employing drastic measures that are not good for your long term health and are almost certain to result in even more weight gain than before you started.

I know... the date is approaching. It's a fixed deadline and you're feeling a little stressed about your appearance. That's ok. You don't need to embrace failure, but you do need to accept your starting point. Come to grips with your current weight and appearance, and decide what is realistic and what isn't in the time you have before the wedding.

Here's what is realistic...

The most you should even attempt to lose is two pounds per week. Let me stress that even this can be a difficult pace to maintain, depending on your current weight and activity level. It is quite possible for many people. Attempting to lose weight faster than two pounds per week is unsafe. A more reasonable goal is around one pound per week.

I understand it may be frustrating, but this is what you have to work with. Let me stress again, that no amount of starving yourself or exercising until you drop is going to change your starting point. If you go overboard you are likely to burn yourself out or cause long-term injury that will hamper your final results. So keep your wits and stick to your realistic goals.

Once you've determined that your new goal is realistic, don't give up on it. As long as you stick to a comprehensive program of healthy eating and exercise, you're going to do fine. If you stick to the program, you'll be ready to start again with entirely new goals right after you get back from your honeymoon.

This is an important point, because although fitting into that wedding dress may consume your mind now, your quest for fitness cannot end on your wedding day. It is a lifelong journey to live a more fulfilled life. If you plan to have children, you should be in the best shape you possibly can before you get pregnant, and you should maintain your good nutrition and exercise patterns throughout your pregnancy. This is vital if you want to minimize weight gains after pregnancy.

Some women seem to let themselves go once they learn they're pregnant, giving in to the fact they'll gain some weight. This is a critical mistake. Not only is it more difficult to lose weight after pregnancy, but giving up on your health just before and during your pregnancy is giving up on the health of your unborn child as well. So even if children are years away in your current plan, it's not too early to start preparing your body for the strains it will undergo.

I should also point out, that if you're a skinny girl who doesn't exercise much and you're planning to have children one day, the above points are doubly important. For one thing, you'll want to start building muscle to deal with the extra weight from carrying a baby. Second, you should be aware that you are unlikely to keep that skinny-girl appearance after pregnancy without altering your habits.

Back to your current struggle: getting in shape as fast as possible, without jeopardizing your health.

Here are some specific suggestions on how to make a vast transformation in a short period of time, without wearing yourself out or setting yourself up to gain all the weight back.

First thing is to evaluate all of your eating habits. Cut down on refined sugars and processed grains (white flour for example). Cut out liquid calories and artificial sweeteners. Be sure to eat numerous small meals throughout the day. Do not start eating only one meal per day. This is the worst thing you can do.

Try to eat foods in the most whole and natural form possible and practical. For example, eat whole oranges instead of drinking the juice. Choose unbleached, non-enriched whole-grain products instead of highly refined grains.

The next thing is to begin a comprehensive exercise program. It doesn't have to be totally overboard. Depending on your age, physical condition, and current activity level I would recommend you spend between 30 and 60 minutes per workout and that you workout at least four days per week. You should take at least one if not two days per week to rest and recover. You can still be active on those days, but you just won't do your normal exercise routine.

Your exercise program should consist of resistance training and cardiovascular exercise. Resistance training goes beyond lifting weights. You'll want to stick mostly to functional strength exercises (you'll be standing or using core strength for most every exercise). Instead of plain "cardio" you'll want to incorporate anaerobic training into your aerobic routine. This is where you go beyond your aerobic capacity and really challenge yourself. This is done through interval training.

During interval training instead of just running (or performing some other cardio exercise) at a constant pace, you'll speed up and slow down according to set time periods. For example, instead of doing 20 minutes of jogging, you'll instead warm up and then sprint at a much higher pace for one minute. Then you'll rest (jogging/walking) for a minute, and then go right back to sprinting for a minute. You'll repeat this for 10 rounds and then cool down with some light jogging.

When performed with an emphasis on heart rate and using proper interval patterns, you'll find much quicker results using interval training over standard cardio, and you can complete your workout in less time. The same goes for functional strength training as opposed to simply lifting weights as in typical isolated strength training. The gains you make will come more rapidly and apply more to every day life because you won't be isolated underused muscles, but instead developing the important muscles responsible for motion, balance, posture, and strength you can really use on a daily basis.

This is only a brief introduction to the advanced training and nutrition concepts that can rapidly carry you toward your wedding weight loss goals. For more information, I'd advise you pick up my comprehensive program Three Weeks to Thrive. In this program I'll guide you through all the concepts mentioned here (and a whole lot more) in step-by-step detail over the course of 21 days. This will help you set a healthy path toward the perfect wedding and the healthiest life with you and your partner to follow.

Start Your Healthier Life Today with Three Weeks to Thrive