I’m under the 3-month mark out from my wedding this fall, in my final dress fittings, and getting ready for the big day.
Some questions I’ve gotten - What is my diet for getting ready for the big day??
I don’t believe in diets. Diet culture has infiltrated our society. Normalizing behaviors around big life events such as weddings or milestone birthdays, or even as young as senior prom. When it comes to such big moments, there is a lot of pressure to “look your best” and to “drop the unwanted weight” before the big day.
This is just another sneaky way diet culture has normalized behavior that isn’t healthy for your overall wellbeing.
Yes, you might lose the weight in a healthy way without crash dieting and instead by changing what you are eating, eating more salads and cutting out processed foods & excess sugar, maybe even adding in more movement. But it's deeper than that. It's the mindset and the why behind the change.
✨ It is for a temporary, single moment (like a wedding?).
✨ Don’t you want to have lasting change so you feel your best all the time? Even after the wedding or whatever big milestone inspired that change?
✨ If your why is just for a single event, what happens after?
Instead of getting myself to look my best for my wedding, I’m staying true to myself. I’m focusing on how I want to feel day by day and what is best for my body in my current season of life. My why is rooted deeper than just wedding day photos. Instead, I want to do what's best for my body now and for my longevity while also living my life & enjoying it!
So what is keeping me feeling me best day by day?
Mindful Movement
I know I feel energized and genuinely better every time I move my body. It makes me feel good Now this doesn’t mean I am working out extra hard or more often in order to shed extra weight. Some days it's Lagree, some days it's just a 10-minute Melissa Wood Health video, and others it s a walk with Bubba. It's already a part of what I do on a daily basis (even before I got engaged and was planning a wedding). I love how I feel after I move my body, the endorphins, the energy boost, and sometimes the time to clear my head! My mindset around movement is based around loving my body and gratitude for what it can do. It isn’t my workout to fit into the size for my wedding.
2. Eating the foods I love
This doesn’t just mean all the salads and smoothies. Don’t get me wrong I love those too! But eating the foods I love also means having dessert, making pasta for dinner, eating a burger and fries..you get the picture. A huge pitfall to dieting (besides the idea of cutting out entire food groups…!) is the feeling that we are failing or falling off when we eat something that is restricted from the “diet”.
Instead of restricting, I allow myself to still enjoy them when I want. This supports my healthy relationship with food because I don’t feel like I’m given one specific day (aka a cheat day) to enjoy sweets or that I have to use willpower and hold out until my wedding day passes and I can have as much as I want! Or that I can only enjoy these on special occasions so I gorge on them. Again, it comes back to mindset. Allow yourself to have the foods you love. All of them! And in doing so, I still prioritize proteins, fats, fiber, and greens (all the stuff that I know makes me feel good & prioritizes nourishing my body) without any of the restrictions. This concept of an addition mindset is one I love to share with my clients.
3. Hydration is key!
The body is 60-70% water so drinking enough water is important to several functions in the body and will reap benefits in multiple areas. Energy levels, brain clarity, skin complexion, and digestion to name a few. Drinking enough water throughout the day can feel overwhelming but I like to start my day with a glass of water, right out of bed, pairing it with taking my Seed Symbiotic to help rehydrate my system after sleeping. And then keeping a water bottle with me as I coach or by my laptop to act as a visual reminder to drink up!
4. Stress Less
I know, I know, easier said than done. There is a lot of stress in our day-to-day lives not to mention around planning a wedding. But stress can cause issues with digestion, our gut, cortisol levels, but also our relationships, mental headspace, and ability to be in the moment! Specifically related to the wedding, Joey and I have been adamant about having a stress-free planning process. The wedding is supposed to be fun and something we want to remember. Not just the day of but the whole thing. So having open communication and giving ourselves plenty of time to plan has been really helpful in keeping stress levels low. When things come up that start to trigger stress responses or thoughts, my meditation and mindset practice have been what I go to immediately. My daily reminders consist of:
I can only control what I can control.
I am doing enough. I am enough
I am willing to release what is out of my control.
Meditation and focusing on my breath immediately help with shifting my body back into a restful state and out of fight or flight (and reducing the cortisol in my body!)
So if you have a big moment in your life coming up, that's great! Get excited and ready to celebrate whatever that may be for you. But instead of stressing about having to look your best for that day, change the narrative. Try using that as a spark for a bigger change. Change in your mindset around your routines, relationship with food, how you move your body, and how you show up for yourself. Because when you are making changes for your long term, not for one moment, they will last long term, long past that one celebration!
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