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{Real Bride: Katie} Staying Healthy While Planning a Wedding

Get In Shape Girl!
Photo via retrojunk.com

Sooooo let me just start out by saying that I don’t know where it’s been written that all brides shall be stick-thin on their wedding day, but can we agree it’s a little ridiculous? Sure, I want to look at my wedding photos and think “wow, we were lookin’ good,” but I’m pretty sure I’ll be thinking that anyway (or at least I hope I will). It’s more important for me to look at my pictures and think “wow, that was an amazing time in my life” instead of ”wow, I was so stressed out with trying to lose 20 pounds.” Plus, any dress shop will tell you that dropping a ton of weight right before your wedding will gaurantee a fun-filled night of constantly hiking up your dress that is now too big.

When the pressure’s on it’s always tempting to stay up all night, scouring wedding sites for ideas, while stuffing my face with M&M’s….not cool. Our wedding is also right at the height of allergy season (greeaaat), so I’m trying to do everything possible to avoid being sniffly on our wedding day.

The name of the game for me is maintenance, and I’ve put together a list of all the things I’ve been doing to try to stay healthy and fit for our big day. Please, please, please let me know if you have any other ideas though. Did I mention that I’m really worried about turning into a big, snotty, allergy mess in a white dress?

1. Get plenty of sleep: I think this one is super difficult for brides-to-be. It is so tempting to get wrapped up in all the hoopla and toss sleep right out the window. Not a good idea though, especially since I’m much more likely to pick up every germ under the sun when I’m tired.

2. Cook dinner: okay this one is hard during a time crunch too, but it’s so important. Chain restaurants are now required to post calorie counts in NY and I was stunned by the results. Really Applebees? 1300 calories for salad?! I don’t even want to think about the sodium levels, so for now Mr. Officer and I are trying to stick to homemade every weeknight. We’re finding that it’s kind of relaxing to eat a healthy dinner together right in our own kitchen.

3. Drink lots of water….. and milk: It really is true when they say that sometimes your body sends the hunger signal when you’re really just super thirsty, so I’ve been trying to drink lots of water so that I can tell when I’m actually hungry. I can’t say that I agree with the Master Cleanse program (please, please don’t do this diet program, it’s so dangerous), but I do actually really like the lemon/maple syrup/cayenne mixture. It’s surprisingly tasty and always gets me to drink more water…..not a bad thing. However, Mr. Officer is a big milk drinker, so I’ve started drinking a lot more milk too. I’ve found that sometimes a glass of lowfat milk after dinner helps me to not feel as hungry later. I don’t know why, but there you go!

4. Stock up on healthy snacks: I’m a big snacker, and I always get hungry between meals. In an effort to tempt myself to eat healthier, the kitchen is stocked with clementines, nuts, low-sodium turkey slices, and baked potato chips. I admit, we also have some ice cream and I’m totally okay with a daily bowl of ice cream. Gotta live a little, right?

5. Use the TV to your advantage: we discovered a while ago that we get Exercise TV on demand. Awesome! I mean, why pay the super exorbitant gym fees when you can do a yoga class right in the living room? I also have a Pilates book that my mom gave me ages ago that has gotten a lot of mileage and saved me hundreds of dollars on Pilates classes. Full disclosure though BABs – the biggest saver has been the fancy, elliptical machine that came with our house. The previous owners didn’t want to pay to move it to Florida, so their laziness was our huuuugggge score. Now I reward myself with a Judge Judy episode everyday, while running on the elliptical machine. We’re thinking of expanding our little home gym, and Mr. Officer has discovered that there are tons of people that lose interest in their gym equipment and sell it for super cheap (or free) on Craigslist. Sweet! We’re more than happy to take that piece of equipment off your hands!

-Katie