Certified Coordinated Bride Dfiza
Journal Entry #3
Self Care
That exciting New Year buzz was amplified for Jesse (my fiancé) and I, with the countdown to our wedding on the forefront of our minds. But as with the start of every New Year, I was bombarded with adverts reminding me that this year could be the year I got the“perfect body”. Like many brides, I’d spent a lot time imagining how I’d look on my big day. So I began to feel rather overwhelmed by some of the expectations put forward by the fitness industry. Luckily for me, I come from a family of beautiful, body positive women, who took the time to reassure me that my health was more important than trying to look a certain way on my wedding day. My mum and sister suggested that rather than trying to diet for my wedding, I should implement realistic lifestyle changes to take with me into my marriage. With that in mind, I’ve started implementing some changes so that I look and more importantly feel beautiful on my wedding day.
The obvious place to start was exercise. Over the last month, rather than exercising to achieve weight loss, I’ve begun to focus on exercises to improve function. I’ve decided I want to be stronger and more flexible and I’ve started making some changes to my lifestyle to achieve this. When our wedding celebrant gave Jesse and I a bit of a rundown on yoga last month, we really enjoyed how calming it felt. So we’ve started doing some basic yoga poses in the morning before we get ready for work. Beginning the day doing a stress-relieving activity together has brought us closer and I think it’s something we’ll continue to do as a part of our married life.
Going to the gym seemed like the best way to improve my strength. Given that my workplace has a highly subsidized gym on site there was really no excuse not to become a regular. To my surprise, it’s been a really great way to bond with my colleagues and it’s awesome having people who keep me accountable when I miss too many gym sessions. In fact, I’ve found that incorporating exercise into social activities, for example taking a walk around the lake with a friend instead of our usual coffee, has been a really positive change.
Eating well has also been an important part of preparing for the wedding day and married life. After going hard with the ‘treat yo’self’ mantra over Christmas, getting back into a healthy eating routine has been slow. I’m lucky to know a few dietitians and they’ve all expressed the same sentiments: if you treat your body well you’ll feel well and it’s all about balance (so no extreme diets here!). With so much to do before our wedding day, I’ve found it really important to make sure I’m full of energy. So I’ve focused on increasing the proportion of fruit and vegetables we eat everyday. Making little changes, like swapping an afternoon tea sweet for a cob of corn has been easy (corn is such an underrated snack). Also experimenting with new salad recipes (shout out to Ottolenghi) has become a bit of a creative outlet. For me eating well means that at the end of the day I still have lots of energy to practice our first dance or writing some more of my vows.
Having said all this, the most important change I’ve made in order to prepare for the wedding is making a conscious effort to make ‘me time’. I’ve found that wedding planning can feel like a part-time a job. To make sure I continue to enjoy this exciting time I’ve really put a focus on appreciating, and as I said before making time for, the little joys as well. For me, this means taking time to get my nails done, spending time catching up with our bridal party and, when I need to, having a little rant to my maid of honor about the inevitable mishaps of planning a wedding.
I’m happy to report that so far these small lifestyle changes are definitely working for me! I feel better already, it seems like it’s only up from here!
Until next time…
