243 Days: The Bridal Diet...

…is a ridiculous concept.  It puts a lot of pressures on brides-to-be and with everything else we've got going we don't need any extra stress!

Personally I’m not a big fan of diets anyway although having never had to do one I guess it’s not really my place to comment.  It does seems that there are a lot of diets out there offer a quick fix and the moment you reach your target weight and return to normal eating, the weight may return - possibly not immediately, but gradually.

I am lucky that I’ve not really had to worry about my weight (doesn’t stop the odd ‘fat day’ rant), but with impending nuptials and all the pressure to look good on our wedding day I wondered whether I should rethink my diet and exercise regime. 

I haven’t stopped eating chocolate or drinking wine and we’ll still have take-away (when finances and fiancés allow), but I’ve introduced some things into my daily routine which I know I can maintain.

Water: The first thing I’m attempting is to increase the amount of water I drink. I sit at a desk all day with access to water as and when I need it, but often during a busy day I find I don’t drink enough, or sometimes don’t drink anything.  Water is great, it’s cheap/free and a great way to flush toxins out of your body.  Sometimes when I feel hungry, it’s actually just dehydration.  If I’m drinking enough water I don’t get headaches, I notice my skin is clearer and looks healthier, and I generally feel like I have more energy.  I find it much easier to drink water in the summer when it’s warm but am determined to continue drinking as much water now autumn and winter are approaching. My mum bought me a Bobble Bottle which has an in-built filter and is BPA free.  This has definitely encouraged me to drink more water and I can also see how much I drink each day.

Fruit & Veg: Being a Vegetarian who really loves fruit and vegetables, you’d think I’d find it hard to prepare a meal with no ‘green matter.’  But often, when I’m tired, veggie sausages and mash or cheese on toast are my go to meals. I’m making a conscious effort to get my 5-a-day from 5 different sources, and eat at least 3 pieces of fruit on my lunch at work.  I find this stops me wanting to snack on crisps or chocolate (which will be helpful as we end up with lots of boxes of Roses/Cadburys Heroes over the festive period!).  We’re really lucky in Leicester to have an amazing fruit and veg market  - @LE1Market (which I’m relatively reliably informed is the largest outdoor covered market in Europe – or at least was at one stage). The produce is really great quality and really affordable, so we tend to do our fruit and veg shopping there rather than in a supermarket – I don’t know any supermarket where I could get 8 sweet peppers for £1!!

Exercise: When I was at school I played on a few sports teams (netball, hockey, athletics) and had after-school dance classes 3 or 4 nights a week.  When I started university I attended just 1 netball practice.  Some of the girls at the practice played for Northern Ireland and were extremely rough and ruthless.  I quickly realised I didn’t have the ‘competitive gene’ and didn’t return. (I also, ridiculously, got lost coming out of the PEC and Jim had to come rescue me from Ormeau Road!)  I never enjoyed going to the gym and always chose fitness or dance classes since I could keep fit, have fun, and make friends. After I finished uni, apart from walking to work, I didn’t really get much exercise.  

But about a year and half ago I started to see lots of tweets about Couch to 5K on my time line.  I’d always been interested in taking up running, but had been very much a short distance runner, and this seemed like the perfect way to ease myself into longer distance running.  The NHS had a great podcast, which I downloaded for free, and I began heading out early in the morning to run round the streets and parks near were we live.  Running early in the morning meant less people saw me, and I also found if I got up going first thing there were less things to distract me and put me off.  I really enjoyed getting out, putting my headphones in, and pounding along Great Central way, away from the traffic and away from whatever real life things I had going on.   

Since then I have started going to evening Bootcamp sessions, run by our friend in a local park. It’s great as the class offers options for people of all levels of fitness and our instructor is also happy to tailor workouts for particular things if asked. (People of  Leicester follow Fit Start Bootcamp on Facebook & Twitter and come along and check it out!!) 

I’ve really missed all my dance classes, so as well as bootcamp and running, I have started Irish dancing!!  It’s an adult class and having never attempted Irish dancing the whole time I lived in N.Ireland I really thought I ought to give it a go.  I’m really enjoying it and the rest of the girls in the class are lovely. I am finding it difficult to keep my arms by my sides but hope as time goes on I’m getting better! The rest of the girls in the class are lovely.

So that’s it as far my bridal diet goes!  Nothing to out of the ordinary.  These are all things I think I would have started anyway and things I’ll definitely be able to continue once we’re married.  I think all things combined have given me more energy and I think when we get closer to the wedding having the exercise in place will be great for relieving any wedding stress I might get and give me something else to focus on.