How to Be a Fit Bride

The Women's Health Fit Bride gives a final status update before the big day




Drum roll, please—after more than 150 Barry's Bootcamp classes (thanks, FourSquare!) and untold amounts of uneaten pasta, here I am (Check out my before photo).

Sculpted abs! I've never seen mine look like this before. It's a huge point of pride to be able to flex my midsection and actually see something, if not the sculpted chunks of muscle adorning so many Olympic waistlines (Get a gold-medal core with this Olympics Abs Workout!). Then there's my face—no fear, the double-chin's not surfacing here. I've never sported shoulders this toned, and though you can't see my glutes, trust that hours of uphill treadmill sprints have done them good.

What did I learn since I started this process late last year?

Let's break it down into a Top 3:

1. Excessive drinking = detrimental. Yes, wine is good for you. Vodka is (relatively) low calorie. And maybe you, like me, used to be able to throw back a few and wake up feeling fresh as a daisy and ready to run. But when it comes to working out, drinking too much drags you down. It doesn't matter if you don't feel hungover the next day, those calories will stick to you like Nutella to a carrot stick (which might be one of the bizarre things you eat when you get drunk), and they'll impede your progress. My new rule: alcohol's kosher twice a week, in moderation. The rest of the time, it'll be seltzer, thanks. Get all the facts on exercise and alcohol.

2. Wake up in the morning feeling like P. Diddy. And by that I mean, wake up and conquer the world by working out. I never thought I'd be able to drag myself out of bed and into a gym. But once I got in the habit of early-morning Barry's Bootcamp sessions—and that took about two weeks—I grew to love the sense of accomplishment that comes from starting the day by breaking a sweat. No matter what happens afterwards, I know I've done something good for my mind and body. Granted, AM workouts may not work for everyone, but know that "I'm not a morning person" isn't an excuse to hit the snooze. Need a little help kick-starting your routine, give this morning workout a try!

3. Break the mold. For years, I would go to the gym, spend 30 minutes on the treadmill running at a comfortable enough pace to mouth the words to "California Love," do 15 minutes of some resistance exercise with light weights, stretch out my quads, and call it day. Can you say boring? No wonder I despised working out and wasn't seeing any results. Over the past nine months, I've done things I never thought I'd do—sprinted at 11.1 miles per hour, kicked a guy in the stomach (he was teaching Muay Thai), and run a 3.6 mile race in 28:30. Physically and mentally, I'm a better person for it. Plus, you know, trying new stuff is fun. Try it for yourself: Keep your body guessing with these new twist exercises.

There you have it: stop drinking, workout early, try new things. Ah, one more—sleep. I've learned that I need at least six and a half hours to be productive on the job and in the gym.

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