Preparing for a wedding can be a stressful time. The details, the family, and making sure everything goes according to plan take a lot of foresight and thought. This doesn’t even take into account the physical prep that many brides do to make sure they look their best on that special day.

Wanting to get in shape for your wedding is a perfectly realistic goal. Too often, however, brides become fixated on certain goals that may or may not be achievable. Stress from planning a wedding either gets channeled into perfectionistic workouts or dealt with by sabotaging those goals with emotional eating.

In order to avoid this type of self-sabotage, here are some tips on how to approach your wedding with a level head.

Make a plan

Planning is HUGE — especially when talking about weddings. Make a list of your goals prior to your wedding and then break those down to see what you need to do to achieve them in a realistic way.

Figure out how long they will take, how you will achieve them, and make sure to be as detailed as you can in order to prevent any unnecessary roadblocks. Whether you work on your own or get some help from a personal trainer or dietitian, make sure you know what the plan is.

If you don’t know how to make a plan, enlist some help from the aforementioned professionals to help you reach your goals. I have had multiple clients work with me before their weddings and we made sure to communicate the entire time about what they wanted and how long it may realistically take.

Have someone to talk to

It’s always important to run thoughts and ideas by someone else. Whether it’s a friend, relative, or even therapist, make sure to communicate with someone else. We aren’t always the best judge of rationality when wrapped up in stress.

We are often our own critics, so letting another person know how you feel may help you realize that things are not as bad as you may think.

Don’t beat yourself up

If you skip a workout or enjoy dessert, don’t beat yourself up. Those things are totally normal and your body may be telling you what it needs at that time. Move past it and work on making different decisions the next time around.

If you fall off the wagon for a longer period of time, pause and ask yourself what is going on. Why are you deviating from the plan you made? What can you learn from what’s going on? Take a look at the motivations behind your actions and see what you need to do to get back on track.

It’s only a day

True, it may be one of the most important days of your life, but in reality it’s only a day. I’ve had friends look back on their wedding pictures and wish they hadn’t tried so hard to look a certain way. Brides who have gone to extremes to lose weight find that maintaining that weight is difficult long term and may even use those pictures to shame themselves in their current bodies which are where they may more naturally belong.



Ask yourself if it’s really worth the additional stress to push yourself to drop five more pounds before you walk down the aisle. The most important thing is being healthy, happy, and ready to start on a new life adventure with your partner.

If you’re prepping for your big day, make sure to take a look at our  Reside Rewards  page to find tons of discounts from all of our partners!