31st October 2023
Welcome to ‘Wedding Workouts’! Our new series where we speak to Mezz & Rachel, from The Wedding Coach, on their incredible transformations, tips & stories to help couples look & feel their best on their wedding day.
According to the experts, your wedding fitness journey & wedding workouts should start at least 6 months before the big week, in order to create healthy & sustainable routines, as opposed to the last-minute unhealthy extreme-cleanse diets.
Mezz & Rachel have years of experience on working with clients on their wedding planning journey, to create suitable workouts & diet routines through their 1:1 online coaching plans.
This month, we’re taking a look at the incredibly radiant transformation of Namita for her Big Fat Indian wedding.
Namita was buzzing about her engagement but also super stressed about the pressure on her to look her best at the various different ceremonies and events. Coming from a big family in India, she knew the events would be massive with thousands attending. The pressure was on; she wanted to look and feel her best.
Life in London meant a desk job and zero time at the gym. Exercise was foreign to her. She’d mostly eat home-cooked South Asian meals, and when she didn’t, she’d grab whatever fast food was easiest. The result? She felt worn out and sluggish 24/7.
Namita stepped on our scales at 74.2kg but had her sights set on hitting 66kg. She didn’t just want to shed the weight; she wanted to do it without feeling miserable in the lead-up to her big day. She also didn’t want to give up the flavours she loved from her South Asian diet.
She was also worried about going shopping to choose her wedding outfits e.g. lehenga, because a lot of stores don’t stock outfits beyond a certain size (usually size 12) and couldn’t stand the thought of not being able to try things on due to her weight.
Feeling stuck, Namita knew she needed help. That’s when she came to us.
During her initial assessment we looked at her lifestyle, struggles, nutrition, fitness, work-life balance and her timeline for the wedding.
It was soon apparent that:
● Namita’s diet was high in processed foods and sugary drinks when she wasn’t being catered for because these foods were easy to grab on the go whilst her traditional South Asian diet consisted of high in fat foods but with little protein.
● Her fitness level was extremely low. She didn’t exercise regularly, and she wasn’t strong.
● Her work-life balance was poor. She often worked late and was exhausted when she got home.
Based on this initial assessment, we determined that the best course of action for Namita was to:
● Start her lifting weights properly with an onus on toning the upper body, building her legs and bum, and strengthening her core.
● Help her clean up her diet, cut down on junk food, and get her fit.
● Get a timeline in place for her wedding and the various milestone events leading up to it so we know when to go through different types of training/fat loss phases.
With 9 months until the wedding is was important to map out when
she had events, when she had trips to India and when the bulk of her fat loss needed to occur.
She indicated she would go to India for 7-10 days to choose her outfits around 6 months before the wedding. This gave us 3 months to lose as much fat as possible so she could walk into those stores without worrying about if she’d fit into their stock.
We’d then have a further 6 months to lock in her results and work on her muscle development to make sure she looked toned, her posture
was good and leave room for further fat loss where tweaks could be made at later fittings.
She had multiple engagement photoshoots planned along the way so it was important to make sure for each one she was feeling strong and radiant. We made sure there was enough time before each shoot to reverse any dieting phase so she would be well balanced nutritionally thus, her hair and skin would be in perfect condition.
We used a similar approach in the run up to the actual wedding where she was in the condition she wanted to be in a good 3-4 weeks beforehand. This allowed us any wiggle room for last minute tweaks but also to concentrate on her overall wellness to make sure she not only looked how she wanted to but also, but also felt radiant and beautiful.
We wanted to split her workouts into 3 different sections: cardio/core, upper body and legs with each part a different style of training to the others so we could develop her strength, fitness and a shape she’d be happy with alongside improving posture.
However…
Namita didn’t have much experience in the gym and was anxious about going to a new environment where she felt she might look silly.
So we didn’t jump into a complex workout system, we started off with very simple movements using pin loaded machines that were easy to hop onto and use but were also at a good intensity to make sure her first fat loss phase was already in play before her trip to India.
Then, gradually, over a period of weeks/months as Namita became more comfortable with the gym environment and enjoyed it more and more, the exercises progressed to more complex compound movements.
The onus was to get fit…VERY FIT! We used a combination of treadmill and stairmaster interval workouts to help her improve her breathing, stamina and recovery as quickly as possible. This would then benefit her in all other areas. We also added in abs exercises in combination to this to help strengthen her breathing techniques, postural strength and tone up her tummy.
As with most ladies, Namita was afraid she’d bulk up and look too masculine. We assured her this wouldn’t happen and had it covered. So we developed a high intensity, full upper body workout using a combination of cable machines and free weights to develop toned, solid and small upper body muscles that look great without bulking. She would do this a maximum of once per week.
Namita wanted to be strong in her legs and ‘have a nice perky bum’. So, unlike the upper body, we had a broader scope to get her lifting heavy on some days whilst others were more for building shape and endurance, perfect for all the upcoming dancing she’d be doing.
She started out doing 1-2 leg days a week but ultimately moved onto 3 different leg days that targeted specific muscles in specific ways, especially to shape the peachy bum she was looking for.
It’s important to note that strengthening the legs properly is extremely important for metabolism, body shape, injury prevention and posture.
Every client is different and what suits their lifestyle in a way that still gets results while allowing for the method to be sustainable can vary greatly.
For Namita in particular we used an approach where she’d be strict in some areas to have the flexibility to keep her South Asian diet in place when her food was out of her control.
Given her calorie levels were way too high for the activity level she was at and her protein level was way too low, these are where we started.
Logging food doesn’t often work cohesively with a South Asian diet because of the huge variations in the way different people make the same dish.
But with Namita, most of her food throughout the day wasn’t home cooking, so we had her logging everything that goes in her mouth that wasn’t home cooking making sure she stuck to a maximum of 1200kcal with a minimum of 105g protein.
This then left leeway with her dinner which was often cooked for her and we set some boundaries with the amount she could eat along with how much bread etc she could add to any one meal.
Sticking to these boundaries meant she didn’t need to have different dinners to her family.
The idea was that as she became stronger and fitter her activity level would naturally increase and so, we could increase her calorie
targets in stages to build her metabolism whilst maintaining a good level of fat loss.
We allowed her use of the nutrition tracking part of our app to monitor her intake when necessary whilst being able to add photos of her home cooked food to make sure she stays accountable to sticking to her boundaries and worked very closely with her to make sure she was hitting targets in a healthy balanced way but also enjoying her food.
She did eventually start to make use of the 2 recipe databases we have available and our hybrid meal planner too.
Over the months, we managed to get her eating around 2400 kcal daily giving her much more freedom with her food, more energy and no sense of dieting whilst still maintaining a good level of fat loss and muscle development.
Namita wasn’t a huge drinker but she did enjoy a glass of wine on weekends when out with her fiance or friends. Although she didn’t want to give up drinking entirely, we educated her on how alcohol
can interfere with sleep and recovery, and it can also lead to weight gain.
We showed her ways of choosing wisely when and what to drink to avoid the above.
She didn’t give up alcohol at all and still enjoyed her time out with friends.
Given Namita already worked hard, it would have been difficult to add in training days without helping her plan her week.
We looked at how much time was wasted throughout the week doing things that aren’t a priority and using communication with ourselves as well as webinars we make available to clients, Namita learned to plan her week in very little time which actually freed up so much time for herself she no longer felt like she was always on the go.
Another thing that needed addressing was her lack of activity being behind a desk all day. This can cause laziness and a desire to sit down
constantly hence her feeling like she had low energy all the time and feeling sluggish.
We dealt with this by setting a daily step goal that Namita had to achieve and tick off whilst keeping her accountable daily using daily reports with us. We showed her how to factor in small walks that increased her activity level hugely whilst simultaneously giving her a mental refresh.
Namita saw results well beyond what she’d originally wanted and expected.
She went from 74.2g to 59.2kg, which is 7kg more than her original 8kg target.
She built a lot of muscle, improved her posture and had far less stress. She also had more energy, slept better, and felt more confident about herself leading to a dramatic improvement in her mental health.
At her wedding she felt absolutely amazing, getting tons of compliments from people about how good she looked.
She managed to enjoy the occasion to it’s absolute fullest with all the worry from months earlier no longer an issue. She looked absolutely stunning and confident in her wedding outfits.
● Weight Loss: Namita lost 15kg in total (7kg more than her target) on the scale and toned up considerably.
● Posture: Namita’s posture improved significantly after she started lifting weights. Her shoulders went back, her chest
opened up, and her back pain disappeared.
● Strength: Namita became much stronger after going through our coaching program. She was able to lift heavier weights and perform more challenging exercises which corresponded to almost everything in everyday life becoming easier.
● Fitness: Namita’s fitness level improved dramatically after she started working out regularly, especially because we worked specifically on her lung health and ability to recover quickly. She
had more energy, and she was able to do things that she
couldn’t do before, such as running and hiking.
● Energy: Namita’s energy levels increased significantly because of the ongoing tweaks we made to her nutrition to build her metabolism and make sure she was getting the full spectrum of nutrients she needed. She was no longer tired all the time, and she was able to focus better at work and at home.
● Sleep: Namita’s sleep quality improved after we helped her regulate her lifestyle, activity levels and nutrition intake better. She was able to fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer.
● Body Confidence: Namita’s body confidence increased dramatically after she lost weight and built muscle. She felt amazing about herself.
Namita’s transformation was nothing short of amazing. She shed her old self and emerged a new woman, strong, confident, and radiant.
Understanding what was important in the run up to the wedding was extremely useful and enhanced the overall experience for Namita from day 1.
It allowed us to plan out the journey to fit in with what was
important to her eg the shopping trip to India so she could really enjoy the run up to her wedding with no negative experiences.
It shows that anything is possible with the right guidance and understanding of overcoming potential barriers.
Using small lifestyle changes along with a fully tailored exercise and nutrition program whilst being coached through the process helped Namita become so much happier in herself.
In the words of Rachel & Mezz:
“We have helped hundreds of people achieve their fitness goals and improve their overall well-being. We are confident that we can help you too.”
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