| Quick Search | |
 |
|
|---|---|
As a young girl I always thought I’d get married, but as time passed, so did my twenties, thirties and then part of my forties. I must admit I’d discounted the idea as one of those dreams you have when you are young but had (happily) accepted that my life would be slightly more unconventional than most. On the upside, I didn’t have the responsibilities which come with marriage and my time was my own; time that I filled with competitive sport and a loving cat!
Then I met the man of my dreams and within 12 months (I’d waited this long I sure as hell wasn’t going to leave it any longer!!) I was planning my perfect wedding.
Every bride wants to look their best on their wedding day and I was no different. I had 12 weeks to go before the big day. Planning; that’s something that sport has taught me. I thought about what I wanted to achieve on my wedding day.
My goals; to look healthy - good skin and hair and to look great in my dress - slim and toned.
So how was I going to achieve these things on the most important day in my life? The first thing I decided was to look at my diet to see if it could be improved. I really believe that the start to having good healthy hair and skin comes from within. I decided to try and eat as naturally as possible; plenty of fruit and vegetables and go easy on the carbohydrates. Although these are good energy foods, too many carbs make me gain weight despite the amount of exercise I do with my daily work. I planned my healthy eating programme for 12 weeks, which would give me plenty of time to make any adjustments I needed.
A sample of my daily food intake is as follows:
Breakfast
Mid-morning 1 orange
Lunch
Dinner
On the days that I was training for more than 2 hours I would also add a portion of wholemeal rice or pasta in the evening as I needed more energy food. The only dressing I used for the salad was balsamic vinegar with no added salt in any of my meals. At the weekends I substituted the muesli for scrambled egg on toast and I would always take a multivitamin and mineral to ensure I got the nutrients I needed.
My next step was my skin care regime. I decided to book 3 facials at 4 weekly intervals to give my skin some help. A visit to the Chanel counter was also invaluable (and of course, expensive!) with some light reflecting makeup suggested. If it says “anti-wrinkle” I’ve got it! The final part of my beauty regime was to book a good haircut with a treatment a few weeks before my big day.
Now to my training regime. It was important to keep up the cardio element of my training as (like many brides-to-be) I wanted to shed a few pounds for my wedding day, but more importantly I wanted to have a good shape. I decided to add more resistance training to my workouts, although I didn’t want to appear overly muscular so I felt that reformer/gravity Pilates sessions would be just the thing to give me the shape I wanted. This is a great way of adding muscle tone, includes lots of work for the abs and keeps the body looking long and lean.
This is an example of my weekly training programme. I always try to add a variety of different workouts, as the body gets worked in different ways and it helps avoid injury and also getting stale:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
I tend to treat the Thursday as my rest day as there’s no cardio element!
So I’d organised my diet, skincare regime, hair and exercise programme, one thing I forgot, WHAT AM I GOING TO WEAR?
It was a mere 8 weeks from my wedding and friends were urging me to go shopping (I think that’s putting it mildly) I might be good at exercise plans but shopping is one of those things I don’t particularly enjoy and the task seemed so daunting that I almost couldn’t face it. My husband-to-be helped by organising a shopping trip. While he went off to choose his suit I walked up and down the street. Almost in despair as I hadn’t seen anything I liked I went into Versace.
And there it was - my dress! It was the first one I tried on and I made up my mind there and then to have it (bolstered by some very generous financial contributions from a friend and my mother) It was just what I wanted - the only problem being that I would need some form of frontless, backless, strapless, no vpl, skin colour underwear - more shopping! The dress was great but very fitted with no room for any lumps, bumps or bulges. I made up my mind to cut the carbs on the last week.
Almost there.
Everything had gone to plan. I was spending the night before in a hotel with six of my friends and meeting another 18 in a nearby restaurant for dinner. I stuck to the salad and one glass of champagne, and watched all my friends drink the bar (almost literally!) dry. Needless to say it wasn’t the quietest night ever. I had decided on my wedding day to do a run around the grounds of the hotel to calm my nerves much to the amusement of my friends who shouted “encouragement” every time I completed a lap. I’d done more preparation for this than for any race, but it was worth it!
The sun was shining in every way on my wedding day last June…
Advertisement:
