6-Month Wedding Slim Down!

It's official, only six months until our wedding. Time to kick this bride's booty into gear! Consider this your real-girl guide to losing weight. Good food, great sweats and few genius ideas will leave you and I both feeling our hottest. Let's do this thing...

Welcome to the Hey, EEP slim-down plan! Real talk: I'm not a fitness expert. But I know what needs to be done to tighten this bod and make myself feel fabulous and I'm sure these tips will help you too. 

I'd love to start out by saying, I know I'm not overweight. I've had body issues in the past and I finally found a happy place. That said, I've been slacking recently and I'd love to tone things up, feel my best and really commit to my health and happiness before taking the plunge. Here are my "before" photos. And here's what we're going to do to make things even better...

1. Eliminate Processed Foods: I'm not into deprivation. To make a healthful impact on your body, focus on eating well and eating clean, not starving yourself. Leading up to the wedding, I'm cutting out processed foods. My only exceptions: Wine (because, duh), Parmesan cheese and my daily Siggi's strawberry yogurt. I'm loading up on fresh veggies, fruit, protein and whole grains.

2. No Fewer Than 12,000 Steps Per Day I'm a FitBit rookie but I think this gadget will be a great ally to my wedding weight-loss. We walk a lot in New York City! My goal is 12K steps per day, about 5 to 6 miles. It's actually harder to accomplish than you'd think. Hopefully this will be the motivation I need to get up and get moving during the day.  

3. At Least 30 Minutes Cardio One thing I've noticed is that it's way easier to reach your FitBit goal when you hit the gym (duh)! I'm adding 30 minutes cardio to my routine 3 to 4 times per week. I'll likely beef this up closer to the wedding. For now, just getting back into a consistent treadmill routine will do the trick. 

4. Drink The Most Water! Are you drinking enough water? Here's how you know: Multiply your body weight by 2/3. That's how many ounces you should be drinking per day, plus 12 extra ounces for every 30 minutes cardio. I'm not great about drinking water, so I bought a fancy new water bottle to bribe myself! It's a 20-ounce bottle, which means I need to drink 5 to 6 each day. 

Did you see what happened when that woman drank 3 liters water per day for a month!?

5. Commit To Your Twenties Everything's easy broken into bite-size chunks! Each day this bride-to-be will be doing 20 crunches, 20 push-ups, 20 squats and 20 tricep dips. It's not a ton but it's a great place to start. I'm hoping to tone my arms and build some more ab strength so I can really kick thing up closer to the big day.

6. Write It Down The best way to hold yourself accountable is to write down your progress each day! I'm adding a column to my Ban.D0 Large Agenda where I track my water intake and exercises. Initially I planned to track my food as well but that's a scary trigger for me and honestly, I just rather not. 

7. Make Mental Room Life is stressful! Wedding planning is super fun but it certainly doesn't make things easier. I recently downloaded the Stop, Breathe & Think app and I'm setting aside time twice a week to check in with myself—it's amazing! You pick five words that describe how you're feeling and the app suggests a few guided meditations, perfectly suited for your emotional state (good or bad).

8. Watch The Booze There's no way I'm cutting it out completely but here's what I'm prepared to do: Keep it under five. Under three? Per night. Yeah, yeah. I know. I don't drink every day but alcohol / going out does come hand-in-hand with my job. In New York City, where no one has to worry about driving, it's super easy to overindulge. My strategy is to embrace the "one cocktail, one water" rule. Hopefully that will curb my consumption without much effort. 

9. One New Fitness Class a Month My exercise "routine" is boring. When I feel chubby, I run. There was a time when I took ballet class, practiced Bikram yoga, heck, I even swam! To spark my weight loss (and keep me interested), I'm committing to try one new type of exercise each month. 

Do you have any suggestions? Is there an awesome exercise class I should try? 

STATS
WEEK: 1
DAYS TO WEDDING: 183
WEIGHT: 134.2 lbs
FEELING: Jiggly 


That's it! That's the plan. Is there something you're looking to slim down for, as well? Can we do this together? I could really use a few fitness friends. I'd love to hear about your goals and thoughts. We have plenty of time. Now let's push these bods! xo Erin