Five Top Tips for Looking & Feeling Great on Your Wedding Day
1 Drink lots of water. In my experience, the vast majority of the population are dehydrated. If you suffer from lethargy (both physical and mental), afternoon headaches or dry skin try drinking more water. Even if you don’t suffer from these symptoms drinking lots of water will make your skin glow, your eyes sparkle, enable you to think more clearly and feel more energetic. And if you’re trying to lose weight water also helps to create a feeling of satiation. A word of warning, though: don’t try and increase your water intake suddenly. It takes a couple of weeks for your body to adjust to receiving additional hydration. Flooding your body with water when it’s not used to it will create abdominal bloating and all-over water retention.
2 Eat regularly throughout the day. You should be eating three nutritionally balanced meals each day, and you should have at least one or two healthy snacks. By regularly keeping your ‘metabolic furnace’ stoked you’ll have more energy, will drop dress sizes, have more stable blood sugar levels and be less inclined to reach for that coffee and sweet treat at 3pm. You’ll also have more energy and stamina for the demands of the day.
3 Never, ever skip meals, especially breakfast. To give yourself maximum energy on your wedding day and for the days and weeks leading up to it, you need to eat breakfast. This is especially important for brides who want to lose a few kilos before their wedding day. Even if you don’t exercise at all – breakfast remains the most important meal of the day. Your breakfast should contain complete proteins and complex carbohydrates (if you’re trying to lose weight, you should eat the bulk of your complex carbohydrates at breakfast and lunch and only have vegetable carbohydrates at dinner). On your wedding day itself you probably will be feeling too nervous and excited to think about eating. Even so, try having something small and light: your body will thank you for it!
4 Remember the benefits of exercise. Remember that feeling of euphoria you experienced after a particularly good work-out? You experienced that feeling because the most powerful “feel good” drug in the world – endorphins – are coursing through your veins. If there is a panacea, it’s exercise. Nothing feels better than the post-work-out high you experience after exercising. Revel in that feeling. Let it wash over you and truly experience it. Etch that feeling in your brain. It will fuel your motivation on those inevitable days when you just don’t feel like exercising. Being physically fit affects every single aspect of your life: you sleep better, eat better, love better, overcome stress better, work better, communicate better, and live better! On your wedding day you’ll positively glow and you’ll have the stamina that you need to really enjoy your big day. Exercise has also been shown to effectively reduce stress. Exercise regularly in the weeks and months leading up to your wedding and you’ll positively sail through the day with a big smile on your face!
5 Set exercise appointments with yourself. Use your diary to set appointments for exercise – and then stick to them. Make your health your number one priority: you wouldn’t miss a fitting for your dress or appointment with your wedding planner, would you? So don’t miss your exercise appointment with yourself. Nothing is more important than your health. Nothing. Everything else will crumble around you if your health goes south. So make your exercise appointments a priority. If you find it difficult to keep these appointments, then consider hiring a personal trainer who will hold you to your commitment. On your wedding day itself aim to go for a short walk: it will help to dispel some of that nervous tension and start the day on the right note!
