Every bride wants to feel and look their best on their big day, and achieving this is no easy feat on top of a busy lifestyle and endless wedding prep. The trick is smart preparation far in advance through an array of simple and sustainable wellness hacks tailored to your goals.
From mindful movement to nourishing foods and stress-busting supplements, here are seven habits to add into your daily routine to hit your wellness goals and greet wedding season feeling the best version of yourself.
1. Colourful & Skin-Glowing Foods
Aim for a variety of colourful foods on your plate daily such as vegetables, fruits, pulses and wholegrains due to their rich content of fibre, water, micronutrients and phytonutrients such as polyphenols and flavonoids.
For context, try to fill half of your plate with ½ nutrient-dense fruits and vegetables, ¼ fibre-rich complex carbohydrates and ¼ plant-based or lean protein sources.
For skin-glowing benefits, focus on orange-coloured foods like sweet potato and carrots, all of which are beneficial for skin health thanks to their beta carotene content. Beta carotene, a form of vitamin A, keeps the skin healthy and will give you that glow!
Try our Glow Up Cleanse – a three day cleanse that targets skin health, as well as energy and immunity.
2. Hydration with Benefits
Keeping your body sufficiently hydrated is one of the simplest ways to elevate how you look and feel. Drinking enough water is vital for a myriad of reasons such as delivering nutrients to cells, maintaining the health of our organs, warding off infections, lubricating our eyes and joints, and facilitating digestive function.
Staying hydrated in the lead up to your big day is key for achieving glowing skin and promoting healthy digestion to avoid possible bloating or other forms of digestive discomfort. If you’re not a big fan of drinking ‘plain’ water, try to weave in other types of natural drinks into your routine – juices, juice shots, herbal teas and soups all count towards your daily hydration intake.
3. Stress-Reducing Supplements
It’s very easy to become overwhelmed with negative emotions, particularly in today’s busy world. With the added pressure of planning a wedding, it’s possible that feelings of stress and fatigue can creep in. To support your nervous system over the long-term, aim to include a range of resilience-boosting nutrients such as Vitamin C and Magnesium.
Vitamin C supports the normal functioning of the nervous system, however, high levels of stress can reduce vitamin C stores, and therefore it’s particularly important to stay topped up with citrus fruits, bell peppers, strawberries, tomatoes, cruciferous vegetables and white potatoes. Try out Ginger Immunity Shot for 100% of your daily intake of vitamin C.
Magnesium is an essential mineral for reducing stress and supporting with fatigue, helping with balanced moods and promoting a sense of calm. Similar to vitamin C, it can become depleted during stressful periods and hence it’s key to include an abundance of magnesium-rich foods such as dark green leafy vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and whole-grains into your daily routine.
Explore our range of green juices for a hit of magnesium to give you a lift and gear you up for the big day.
4. Mindful Movement
Moving mindfully on a regular basis is the gold standard for releasing anxious energy and managing stress levels. In the lead up to wedding season, it may be tempting to incorporate back-to-back high intensity activities into your everyday routine to feel as if you’re really on your way to getting results.
As a woman, the appropriate type of activity will change during the month and it’s important to listen carefully to your own body to understand what is most beneficial. At certain times, a sweaty HIIT class might be the right option for you, and at other times a soothing Yin yoga class might hit the spot. The important thing to remember is that you should feel relaxed and uplifted following exercise. Aim for that feeling and you’ll be well on your way to a highly effective pre-wedding season workout routine.
5. Gut-Healing Meal Plan
A healthy balance of bacteria in your gut, also known as the centre of human health, may be the most effective addition to your pre-wedding day wellness plan. Maintaining the right balance of friendly bacteria may be linked to a plethora of benefits such as supporting the immune system, balancing the nervous system and promoting good digestion.
Probiotic-rich foods are the cornerstone of any gut-healing meal plan, and plant-based sources include sauerkraut, kombucha, miso, tempeh, kimchi and sourdough bread. Also give our Berry Gut Health Shot a go, containing millions of live cultures to support your microbiome.
Additionally, prebiotic fibre is equally important as it provides the fuel for beneficial bacteria to flourish. Examples include chicory, artichokes, plantain, onions, leeks and asparagus.
6. Herbs + Superfoods
The secret to successful wedding day prep is promoting relaxation and building emotional resilience to tackle any challenges that come your way.
Lemon balm, also known as Melissa officinalis, is a triple-threat herb as it might be associated with alleviating stress, improving sleep quality and boosting cognitive function. In its fresh form, this herb can be added into salads and used in pesto for pasta sauces and topping risotto dishes. It can also be dried for use as a herbal tea or taken as a supplement, approximately one hour before going to bed to reap its sleep-boosting benefits.
Ashwagandha, Withania somnifera, has been applied in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years as regular consumption might be linked with reducing stress levels, improving energy levels and supporting hormonal balance. Classified as an adaptogen, Ashwangdha is thought to carry health benefits that help the body to respond to stress, and is typically consumed as a herbal tea or in supplement form.
7. Intermittent Fasting
Intermittent fasting is one of the easiest techniques to take your health to the next level, and involves limiting your eating window to a set period of time. Research suggests that intermittent fasting may support healthy weight loss, reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, as well as lowering insulin resistance and hence the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Giving the body a break from digesting food may stimulate cellular repair within the body, a cell cleansing process known as autophagy. A popular intermittent fasting method that is particularly convenient for wedding season preparation is the 5:2 diet. This involves eating a normal balanced diet five days a week, and consuming 500 calories for two days of the week.
Try our 5:2 programme and drink six of our cold-pressed juices on the low calorie days.
Author: Plenish Nutritionist, Katie Morley
DipNT, mBANT, mANP, CNHC
Email: katiemorley@holsome.uk
Website: www.holsome.uk