I’ve been waiting a while to write this post and I’m so excited to finally blog about this! I wanted to wait until it was just about wedding time to really show the journey I’ve been on. Now, let me start by saying that I’m not a fitness expert or a nutrition expert or any expert on healthy living. But these are the tips and tricks that have really worked for me over these past few months on my journey to getting wedding bod ready.
I always told myself that my wedding would be the perfect motivation to get in the best shape of my life.. but of course a year is a LONG time to get focused and stay on track. The holidays came and went and there I was with my usual extra holiday pounds come January 1st. I knew I had to get serious with the wedding in less than 6 months. I’ve always been pretty petite so my focus was mainly shedding a few pounds and toning up a lot.
So I started my usual clean eating routine and workout routine (4-5x a week). I was making progress but I just felt like I needed something more. In late February after my first dress fitting, I reached out to my best friend who just finished her nutrition program to ask for her advice on how to change my diet to really see the results I was looking for. Now, I’m pretty lucky to have Christina as a best friend. She is so passionate about healthy eating and nutrition! I really trusted all of her suggestions and took it all to heart.
Christina has so much knowledge about nutrition to share with the world and I can personally say that her suggestions have changed my life and my entire mentality on food and nutrition! Her ability to evaluate your diet and personalize the advice she gives you based on her schooling is incredible. What you get is a personalized diet plan that is guaranteed to improve your health and lifestyle.
If you are interested in having a consultation with her to improve your diet and nutrition habits, you can contact her at nutrition@christinaobriennc.com and let her know I sent ya! 😉 Christina is based in the SF area but can provide consulting remotely as well. You can check out her website here.
MY FITNESS ROUTINE
High Waist Alo Moto Leggings // Swell water bottle // Nike Roshe Run
I have always had a love for Pure Barre. In fact, some of you who have been following me for a while know that I loved it so much I was on my way to becoming an instructor! (You can read about my Pure Barre training experience here). Unfortunately, life got pretty hectic at my corporate job and I wasn’t able to fully go through with teaching. It’s something I have always kept in the back of my mind though and I hope someday I can teach 🙂
Every year, Pure Barre has a march madness challenge where everyone who participates in the challenge tries to take 20 classes in 31 days! If you’ve never heard of pure barre before, check out my post all about the workout. It’s such an effective workout that targets all the typical problem areas women have. I love the energy in each class and I absolutely love my pure barre family. Getting to spend an hour of my day with all of the amazing women at Pure Barre West Portal is simply the best. I’m happy to say that I completed the challenge for the second year in a row!! This challenge really helped jumpstart my consistency in workouts heading into the final months before the wedding – it basically holds you accountable to workout almost 5x a week in order to complete the challenge in a month!
My favorite workouts
I try to work out 4-6 times a week and like to switch up what I do to make sure my body doesn’t burn out. I always do cardio at least once a week but my primary form of exercise is pure barre all the way!
-20 minutes on the stair master for 100 floors at high intensity
-Quick two mile run with sprint intervals
-Yoga classes
-Pure Barre
MY DIET
Disclaimer: Again, these are the suggestions she recommended for me based on my current diet and lifestyle. These suggestions may not work for everyone, which is why I’m promoting working with Christina to get a individualized meal plan that is tailored to your specific needs and goals.
Christina started my diet plan by asking me what I typically eat in a day. From there, she analyzed my eating habits and created a personalized plan for me to lose my last few pounds and tone up before my final dress fitting in April. As many of you brides know, it’s great to get to your ideal shape before your final dress fitting. Then it’s all about maintaining so you can ensure perfect fit in your dress on the big day! Her suggestions were:
- Cutting out ALL cow’s milk – Now if you know me, you know that my favorite thing in this whole world is ice cream.. lol so I wasn’t stoked about this one. However, cutting out dairy has had THE biggest impact on my body. My body leaned out like crazy and I finally saw the tone in my muscles I always wanted to see.
- More high quality fat – so adding things like avocados, olive oil, coconut milk, coconut oil, nuts, seeds, fatty fish, etc. into my diet – Once again, I was skeptical about this one. I personally have always demonized fats so it seemed strange that I could LOSE weight by eating MORE fat. What I came to find was that the healthy fats actually filled me up for longer periods of time and left me feeling satisfied between meals.
- More protein in my breakfasts – I’ve never given protein much thought when it comes to breakfast.. in fact, I’m one of those people that used to skip breakfast a lot. I know I know.. it’s so bad. Adding more protein into my breakfast has been one of my favorite changes to my lifestyle! I always look forward to a hearty fulfilling breakfast to kick start my day.
- Quality of food – I’ve never really been one to buy organic/free-range anything like that, but I was committed to taking all of her advice so off to Whole Foods I went. I personally don’t taste the difference but I do feel better knowing that what I’m putting into my body is high quality.
- Gluten free – I personally don’t eat a ton of gluten in my diet usually, so this one wasn’t too hard. I usually just eat quinoa as a grain 🙂 Christina mentioned that I should only try to be about 85-90% gluten free since cutting out gluten completely wasn’t the best for me.
- Cutting out candy and excess sugar – again… this was probably the saddest sacrifice to me. I absolutely love candy and sweets. But letting go of eating candy every day and being more conscious about my sugar intake has definitely given me much more energy.
WHAT I TYPICALLY EAT IN A DAY
This is what I typically eat all week, but of course I do have the occasional cheat meal! It’s important to let loose sometimes. I try not to cheat too much though 😉
Breakfast
Chia Seed Pudding with raw almonds, cinnamon, and fresh fruit
2 eggs/sausage link
Egg scramble with veggies
Lunch/Dinner
I usually eat similar meals for lunch and dinner. I always have some type of protein with quinoa and a veggie. Whatever is left over is packed for lunch the next day!
Proteins
Chicken breast/Turkey meatballs/Shrimp/Salmon/Sausage
Veggies
Brussel sprouts/Broccoli/Asparagus/Zucchini/Sweet Potato
Salads with nuts, dried apricots, red onion, cucumber etc
Sides
Whole Foods Kale Soofoo salad (SO GOOD!!)
Quinoa cooked with low sodium chicken broth
Snacks
Raw almonds/KIND bars/Oatmeal/Fresh Fruit
Desserts
I recently discovered THE BEST non-dairy ice cream ever.. Nada Moo ice cream! It’s coconut milk based and to be honest I can barely tell it’s non-dairy. There’s so many flavors and the consistency is amazing. It’s available at Whole Foods
THE VERDICT
Measurements: Just under 5’3”, 34/23/32
In just 5 weeks, I got down to my lowest waist measurement ever, I lost the last few pounds I wanted to lose, and I’m more toned than I’ve ever been in my life! I felt so amazing at my final dress fitting in April and now all I’ve been doing is maintaining for the big day. Like I said earlier, this experience has really changed my mentality about food and nutrition. I really do love eating healthy and treating my body well now. Of course, I love the occasional cupcake or slize of pizza (because hello, who doesn’t!) but I’m really happy that I’ve made these changes in my life. I owe it all to my best friend and her amazing knowledge she shared with me! If you are thinking you need to make a positive change in your life, don’t hesitate to reach out to her for a consultation – you won’t regret it. I feel 100 times healthier in mind and body. ♥