Tips For The Modern Bride – Keeping A Balanced Approach to Weight and Staying in Shape

Your Wedding is such a special time –planning, preparing, spending quality moments with the people you love. I remember my own wedding, where I can honestly say that I remained a very calm and present bride-to-be. I didn’t allow the little details to stress me, I surrendered to it and had full trust that the day would be all I ever wished for.

However, I ’d be lying if I said I didn’t put pressure on myself to look and feel my best for the day. My old mentality started to creep back in – putting all kinds of restrictions on myself in the pursuit of perfection. Things like: no alcohol for 6 months (Needless to say this totally backfired), pressure to sleep well every night (backfired!), pressure to exercise more than usual, not treating myself like I normally do with foods I love etc.

I can honestly tell you, coming from personal experience, all that restriction backfires. When you put pressure on yourself, your body gets filled with stress, your mind obsesses over it –and this is not healthy. Your body functions best when there is less stress and pressure. Your weight will actually balance when you let go of those restrictive eating habits, you’ll be more carefree, your skin will glow! Trust me.

So what can you do?

Remember, healthy living is a lifestyle, not a short term phase or fad. We have to change our mind-sets from weight obsessed to health conscious. A healthy weight is the result of a healthy life.

I don’t believe in extremes, diets or deprivation, instead I think we should be nourishing our bodies with good food most of the time while knowing how to indulge with moderation. My suggestion is to not go on any sort of extreme diet because this is when people seem to want to overeat or over indulge after the wedding – because they have been depriving themselves for so long.

My suggestion is to make clean choices as much as you can – but not to put yourself under any sort of extreme with food and exercise. Start with these simple, wholefood swaps:

• Swap soda’s (diet soda’s) for sparkling water with lemon and herbals teas.
• Swap two/three/four coffees/day with one coffee a day before 10am. Be careful with how much milk you add. I recommend a piccolo coffee. Small amounts of cows milk is preferable or swap to nut milk. Enjoy chai tea, green tea and dandelion root tea as an alternative.
• Swap wheat and gluten to gluten free wholegrain/carbs such as brown rice, quinoa, gluten free oats, sweet potato, pumpkin.
• Swap your sugar, honey and artificial sweetness to stevia and or cinnamon (low calories/low fructose/ and won’t spike blood sugar levels).
• Swap carb heavy dishes at night to veggie based dishes e.g.: potato mash to cauliflower mash or white rice to broccoli/cauliflower rice – enjoy sautéed greens instead too.
• Swap milk chocolate to dark chocolate –70-85%.
• Swap non organic dairy to organic dairy.
• Swap sugar alcoholic cocktails to red wine or vodka/gin with lemon juice and sparking water.
• Swap non organic meats to organic and grass fed meat.
• Swap candy/junk foods to a nature made candy such as fresh dates with nut butter, berries or a whole food treat.
• Swap all vegetable oils to olive oil and or coconut oil in your cooking.
• Swap packaged foods to whole foods that are fresh and locally sourced where possible.

After the wedding – just think balance. Continue eating well 80-90% of the time but then allow yourself indulgences. Be kind to yourself. Don’t put yourself under any sort of strict rules with food – it usually backfires. Fill your body with good foods because it feels good. Let go of the numbers and calorie counting and focus on whole foods. Focus on eating everything with balance and moderation.These day’s I choose to be kind to myself, not cruel. The fact is that a wedding can trigger a lot of negative feelings surrounding food and weight. Choose instead to be kind, to fill your mind with positive thoughts, let go of the diet mentality and love yourself. My 8-week online program is the perfect solution to help you heal your relationship with food, achieve hormonal balance, cleanse your gut and liver, teach you how to cook with ease and reach a balanced weight.

For more information, visit http://theprogram.jessicasepel.com/

Jessica Sepel has just released The JSHealth Program an 8-week plan to quit diets forever, reach your balanced weight and live the healthy life. It’s full of amazing recipes, cooking demos, meal plans and tips to increase energy levels, manage stress and heal a complex relationship with food. Her second book, Living the Healthy Life (with over 160 AMAZING delicious recipes), goes hand in hand with the Program and can be found in all good bookstores and online from her website: http://www.jessicasepel.com. PLUS EXCLUSIVE to Wedded Wonderland fairies, we’re able to offer you $25 OFF just by using the discount code: JSHEALTH25 when purchasing online!