Avoid Bridezilla Moments with Our Pro Pre-Wedding Fitness Tips!

Meet Lina Antar! Antar is a certified health and wellness coach and a personal trainer in Dubai with a wide ranging experience in health and fitness. Her role is to guide you toward greater wellness by looking at all aspects of your health, body, mind, and spirit. Read on to discover all about staying fit, managing stress and preventing bridezilla moments in this exclusive interview with Pulse.

What can you suggest to help avoid becoming a bridezilla?

It’s only common to find that many brides become bridezillas, especially the ones who tend to be perfectionists.

First, I encourage you (brides-to-be) to delegate your tasks before they become too numerous, otherwise you will end up stressed out. So let people help you out, whether it’s family, friends, or bridesmaids who can take care of some tasks to make your life easier. Next, do not procrastinate: plan ahead of time and try to meet deadlines so you will feel more relaxed when you’re close to your wedding day. It would help if you leave room for unforeseen circumstances and sudden last minute changes.

Last but not least, try to take some time off for yourself, even if it’s an hour or two, and do this during the planning process. This will help you relax. It can either be exercising, meditation, yoga, or pampering yourself with a nice massage – anything that helps you de-stress, just do it. While planning your deadlines, make sure to fit this relaxation time into your schedule, as it’s so important to release your stress during the process.

What would be the ultimate workout plan for a bride to stay fit and fab?

In my opinion, there’s no ultimate workout plan, what I suggest for her to do is to create a structured workout program. In a general way, the best way to split a weight training program would be in this form: three days to focus on the lower body, two days to focus on the upper body and core, one day of active recovery or low intensity, like yoga or anything the bride enjoys doing, leaving one day of rest, as your body needs it to recover.

The split changes depending on each individual, since different bodies respond in a different way to the same training. But this recommendation would be a general guideline that works for the general population.

An important point to add is that, for her to look “fit and fab”, training alone won’t work magic – it’s 70-80% nutrition and 30% training, therefore she needs to make sure to eat healthy and have her macros calculated in order for her to reach her ultimate fitness goal.

She can always ask a professional or a coach to guide her. In a nutshell, for her to reach her ultimate best I’d prioritize the various factors this way: good nutrition, sleep at least 8-10 hours a day, and exercise! What you eat is what you feel and what you see.

What would you advise a bride to be to avoid when it comes to nutrition and fitness?

I would say avoid trying out fad diets, because diets don’t work and they’re not sustainable. It will only work if you follow a “lifestyle diet”, whereby you’ll follow the 80/20 rule, (meaning 80% eating healthy food and 20% of the time eating comfort foods), counting your macros and simply having everything in moderation.

Also, if you want to see great results, don’t follow random workouts that you see online or random classes near your home. If you want great results, you have to follow a structured program tailored for you and your body type. Every body is different, so don’t expect yourself to have a body like a certain celebrity by training exactly the way she/he does. You can always ask for guidance from a trainer / coach to help you reach your desired goal.

Tell us something funny that happened to you while you were preparing for your big day.

Honestly, I was the most positive and relaxed bride to be as I was very relaxed during the preparation process up until my wedding day! Who would’ve thought that I would have a 40-degree fever and couldn’t get out of bed on my wedding day?

Everything that I had planned, like make up and hair appointments, I didn’t even show up to on time. I had to go to the doctor take two shots of cortisone in order for me to get going. I actually asked my husband to keep going with the wedding even if it was without the bride. I finally made it to the venue so late that I missed the bride and groom’s photoshoot session! So I’m left with no pictures before the wedding started. But it was such a fun night I can’t even complain thanks to meds! Lesson learnt, you really don’t know what could happen on any day, things may go wrong or not as planned, but just stay positive.