Goal Setting Your Way to Success! | from White Dress Workout

Hello lovely brides and welcome to this month’s health and fitness feature! As a blushing bride to be, you probably have enough on your wedding preparation plate (so to speak), and when it comes to reaching your ideal wedding body goals, it may feel like a long and impossible task to reach them. If this sounds like you- worry not! I’m here to help you set some achievable goals and get you on track towards reaching them. Sound good? Great! Let’s get started……..

First things first, I want you to grab your phone or a notebook and pen (my preferred option) so you can make a note of your goals. Got one? Great – let’s get to it! OK, I have a couple of questions for you:

How long until the big day?
How much weight do you want to lose?

As an example, let’s say you have 6 months until the big day and want to lose 12kg. Now, 12kg probably seems like a lot of weight to lose but let’s break it down over the 6 months into more manageable and realistic targets to aim for…

12 (kg) ÷ 6 (months) = 2kg per month.

Sounds more achievable right!? Now let’s break this down even further to a weekly target…

2 (kg) ÷ 4 (weeks) = 0.5kg (just over 1lb) per week!

Definitely achievable for most people provide you work hard and measure your progress!

Now we’ve established the ‘what’ let’s move onto the ‘how’…

Calorie deficit.
Increase energy output through exercise and daily activity level.

Baring in mind that 1lb is approximately 3500 kcals – this is the amount of calories we roughly need to burn off through exercise, decrease through a calorie deficit per week, or a mix of both, which, divided by the 7 days of the week is 500 kcals per day. Too much math? I know – sorry, but try to stick with me.

So how can you do this? One easy and not too strenuous way is to walk it off. Now that the weather has finally cooled down, it’s time to get outside and enjoy the fresh winter air.

You could try to aim for a 30-40 minute daily brisk walk (making sure your heart rate is elevated) which should burn off around 200-250 kcals (depending on the intensity). If you have a smart watch or fitness tracker, use this as a guide. You can try to take the remainder of the calories from your food, however this will involve tracking your daily food intake on an app such as my fitness pal.

Top tip -Try to eliminate processed sugary foods from your daily food intake and replace them with a healthier alternative. If you’re a bit of a carb queen then try to reduce your carbohydrates and focus more on lean protein sources that will keep you satiated for longer and work in your favour when it comes to blitzing that unwanted fat.

WEEKLY CHECK IN It’s great that you’ve now set your weekly goal (if you haven’t – write it down!) so it’s time to make sure you measure your progress as it’s super important for staying on track and making sure that what you’re doing is actually working.

Decide on a check in day and time – for me, I like to check in first thing on a Friday morning on an empty stomach. Results will be consistent this way.
When it comes to check in day, take progress photos in swimwear or underwear and then take your measurements (bust, waist, hips, leg) and weight and note them down. If you have a photo grid app, you can slot in your progress photos and write your progress results at the bottom (i.e the date, weight and measurements), this will enable you to see how you’re getting on week by week quickly and easily.

Top Tip – From personal experience and with my clients, it’s important to note that your weight loss, more than likely, isn’t going to be a smooth downwards ride. Some weeks you will gain, some weeks you will maintain and some weeks you will drop. The main thing is to stay consistent with your activity and nutrition and increase your activity/decrease your calories if you’re stuck at the same numbers for 2 weeks or more.

Also, it’s worth noting that at the time of your period you will be holding onto a good few lbs of water weight so don’t stress out and make any drastic changes during this time as it could affect you in the long run.

As I’ve said before, try not to measure your progress (or happiness) by the scales alone. While they’re a good indicator of weight loss (or gain) patterns, they don’t focus solely on fat loss. There can be a lot of fluctuation in the scale numbers (sometimes upto a kilo or more) depending on how much water you’re holding, how much food you’ve eaten, how much waste you’re holding (yes, sorry, that gross stuff) and more. Instead of obsessing over the numbers on the scale, use your photos, measurements and how your clothes fit to measure your journey to your wedding ready body and most of all, try to enjoy the process! Learn as much as you can about the food that you put into your body and stay active. I hope this has helped and I wish you the best of luck with your journey.

For personal training, nutrition and more, please don’t hesitate to reach out and let’s work together on achieving your health and fitness goals for your wedding day, honeymoon and for life. Contact me via email @Thefoundation.pts@gmail.com or instagram at @jen_dubai_pt.