A wedding can be a significant milestone in someone’s life. It celebrates the love of you and your partner, and it’s a very special and emotional day, that you and your partner will remember forever.

However, while it’s a beautiful occasion, there’s a lot of planning and preparation that goes into it. Planning a wedding is definitely not the easies job in the world, and there’s so much to think about.

One of the big things brides tend to focus on when preparing for their big day is changing their eating habits before the wedding, as it can bring a lot of benefits.

First of all, it can help you stay healthy and active throughout the preparation phase, and on your actual wedding day - you’ll want to look and feel your best, and have enough strength to be able to enjoy the day properly (there’ll likely be a lot of standing and dancing involved, and you don’t want to get tired every few minutes). You also don’t want to be feeling bloated on your big day, which is something that can be prevented if you have healthy eating habits, a proper wedding diet plan, and are eating healthy meals that nourish your body.

Having a healthy lifestyle can truly make you look healthy and glowing on your wedding day.

Plus, if you feel like you’d benefit from losing weight, changing your eating habits before your wedding day and changing your pre-wedding diet can impact weight loss. It can also help you feel confident in your gorgeous wedding dress. I know that most future brides are wondering how to lose weight before wedding, and that’s one of the most common questions I get from soon-to-be brides.

That’s why in this post, I’m going to help you change your eating habits for the better in preparation for your wedding.

Changing Eating Habits Before Your Wedding

Changing your eating habits before your wedding might not be the easiest task, but if you start on time, don’t make drastic changes at once, and follow the right tips and strategies, it can be a much easier and smoother process. It’s supposed to be a natural process that doesn’t feel like torture.

So, let’s go into some tips that will help make that happen.

Pre-Wedding Diet Tips

Start as soon as possible

First things first, let’s talk about when you should start making changes. My answer is: as soon as possible. Ideally, when you get engaged. Now, is it impossible to lose weight if you start closer to the wedding? Of course not.

However, there’s a reason I recommend starting as soon as possible. Your main goal shouldn’t just be to lose weight for your wedding. Your goal should be to build healthy habits that you stick to long-term. Basically, your goal should be shifting to a healthy lifestyle.

To make that happen, you can’t make any drastic changes and torture yourself. You have to make sure your new eating habits are something you can stick to long-term, but still something that gets you the desired results you want for your big day.

Therefore, starting as soon as possible, and making small changes as time goes is the best way to seamlessly reach your goals.

Start with small changes

As mentioned, you want to go slow and steady.

So, don’t make any drastic and huge changes when you start your journey to building healthy eating habits. Instead, start with small changes, and gradually add them on. That’s the benefit of starting on time.

Instead of cutting off all unhealthy food at once and lowering your calorie intake by a huge amount within a day, start with some small changes.

For example, you can start by making sure one of your meals in a day is healthy. Then over time, you can make changes so you end up with a completely healthy diet.

Or, you can start by incorporating more fruits and vegetables into your diet. Without worrying too much about calories, simply start by eating more fruits and veggies, and then gradually make other changes.

Another small change you can start with is limiting fast food or fried foods. Or limit sweets, carbohydrates drinks, etc. - whatever you know is not really great for you, but you tend to intake a lot of it.

Whatever change you want to start with, when you know you have enough time until your big day, you’ll know you have time to really get used to that change and make another change later on.

If you start with huge changes, you likely won’t be able to stick to them long-term, or you’ll hate the process, which is never something you want.

You want to love the process of building healthy eating habits and you want to actually enjoy your meal plans, not dread them.

Eat balanced meals

The key to healthy eating habits is of course having healthy and balanced meals.

Make sure that all of your meals are balanced. What does that mean? That means that each meal should contain fiber (fruits or veggies), lean protein (chicken, salmon, turkey, tofu, etc.), healthy fats (greek yogurt, avocado, peanut butter, etc.), and healthy carbs (brown rice, potatoes, etc.).

When your meals are balanced, you’re getting the right amount of nutrients and minerals your body needs, plus you’re setting yourself up for success - not just weight loss-wise, but also health-wise.

Stay hydrated

Staying hydrated and drinking lots of water throughout the day is one of the most important things you can do for your health. It’s not only great for weight loss, but it’s extremely important for your overall health and well-being.

If you struggle with drinking enough water, one of the first things you should start with on your health journey is increasing your water intake.

Some things that can help with that are big water bottles you can carry with you wherever you go, or apps that remind you to drink water throughout the day.

What To Eat Before Your Wedding

As I mentioned, you need to have a balanced diet if you want to change your eating habits for the better.

So, let’s go over each food group you need in order to be healthy and get enough nutrients throughout the day.

Fruits and vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are not only full of fiber, which is necessary for your body, but they’re also full of nutrients and minerals that your body needs. Make sure all of your meals contain at least one fruit or one vegetable.

Whether that’s including fruits and veggies in a morning smoothie, eating grilled, baked, or boiled veggies as a side dish for lunch or dinner, or eating a big salad filled with fresh veggies - you need to include them in your diet.

Lean protein

Another thing your diet needs to include is lean protein. If you eat meat, that lean protein can be chicken, salmon, turkey, tuna, etc. If you don’t eat meat, you can get protein from eggs, tofu, beans, chickpeas, and so on. But if you’re eating a plant-based diet, make sure you’re getting enough protein throughout the day, as it’s important for your health.

Healthy fats

Don’t be afraid of fats. Lots of people think that in order to lose weight, you can’t eat any fats, but that’s not true. Healthy fats are actually good for you, and they won’t make you gain weight if you eat the moderately. Some great sources of healthy fats are: greek yogurt, avocados, olive oil, nuts, and seeds, etc.

Healthy carbs

Another misconception I often hear is that carbs make you fat. They definitely don’t, if your diet is balanced. So, feel free to include healthy carbs in your diet, such as brown rice, quinoa, potatoes, whole-grain bread or tortillas, and so on. If you choose to go with a low-carb diet, you can also find lots of tips on that on my blog.

Pre-Wedding Diet Plan

Here’s an example of a diet plan for one day that includes balanced meals.

Of course, the number of calories you need will vary from one person to the other, so you might need to eat more or less in order to lose weight, so use this as a guide on how to structure your meals - don’t focus on replicating the number of calories.

Remember, you need to make healthy changes, so don’t eat less than your body needs.