Here are some of their secret weapons to help you get sexy for the season!

Plan toward your Goal

Chris Gaines of Equinox Fitness in Palo Alto, California offers these key steps:

1. Set a goal: Get specific about what your goals are, write them down and make a firm commitment to achieve them. (For example: Loose 10 lbs in the next 6 weeks)
2. Set a plan: By creating “stepping stones” or short-term goals, we give ourselves the opportunity to celebrate minor victories, which help us stay motivated. (For example: I will aim for 1.5-2 lbs a week.)
3. Practice time management: It is critical that we set aside the appropriate amount of time in each day to accomplish daily goals and schedule it in like an appointment with the same urgency and priority as a dress fitting. (For example: I will go running in the morning twice a week, work out at the gym 3 afternoons a week, and go swimming twice a week.)
4. Reward yourself: Set specific rewards for your accomplishments, such as spa treatments or favorite treats, when you achieve a short term goal. This way you will have incentives to look forward to. (for example: After every 2 lbs lost I will celebrate with a girl’s night out at the movies!)

Don’t Starve– Diet Smart

“Every bride wants to look her very best on her wedding day, but when they pursue drastic weight loss at any price they traditionally end up walking down the aisle with lackluster energy and a haggard look,” says Oz Garcia, PhD. “The best diet is eating frequent healthy small meals and snacks throughout the day consisting of fruits and vegetables of every color, fish and lean protein.”

If you omit carbs completely, you will lose weight initially because carbohydrates make you retain water. However, a carbs-free diet often backfires because it increases your desire for carbohydrate-rich food and it’s quite hard to stay on track. Instead, Oz Garcia advises that you replace breads, pasta and potatoes with one small serving a day of basmati rice, millet, squash or sweet potatoes, which are digested more slowly and are therefore more filling. Brett Hoebel suggests the following substitutes: agave (for white sugar), whole grain (for white flour), brown rice (for white rice), almond milk (for white cow milk), Celtic sea salt (for white salt).” Alcohol is also filled with empty calories and should be avoided.

One glass of raw vegetalbe juice a day has also been show to help dieters loose weight, according to celebrity trainer Marco Borges “Besides the weight loss, juicing will also significantly increase your Vitamin C intake along with many other important vitamins, minerals and micronutrients.  Juicing also reduces your appetite and you’re much more likely to meet the recommended three to five servings of vegetables daily. Increased energy, stabilized insulin levels, improved immune response and too many more benefits to ignore.”

A 3-Part Workout

Here’s a 3-step routine, designed byPJ Stahl, an elite personal trainer in Los Angeles:

1. At each workout, start with strength training exercises. This will kick-start your workout by burning a large amount of calories and will get your body tight and toned for your wedding day.

2. Move as many joints as possible: During your strength training workout, do multi-joint exercises, which work more muscles and burn more calories than the traditional isolated exercises.

3. Finish with cardio. Even if it is only 10 minutes (20-40 minutes is ideal), cardio exercise will burn additional calories and decrease your percentage of body fat.

Partner with your Partner

“When you have someone to help motivate you or someone else relying on you to make good on the evening jog or workout class, you are much more likely to stick to your goals,” says Peter Park, trainer to cycling champion Lance Armstrong. If you can grab your fiancé as your workout buddy, that’s great! Otherwise, ask your maid of honor or a good friend, and setup a few workouts a week. It not only forces you to stay focused, but  exercising with a buddy is a lot more fun that doing it alone!

image from effortless movement

Often brides will order a dress a size or two smaller than what they currently wear because they’re determined to be thinner by the big day. Some go much further than that.  Ironically, says the owner of one bridal boutique, it’s often the women with the least to lose who lose the most. “A lot of thin girls get obsessed with being even thinner, and end up coming in for their fittings looking like a rack of bones.”

Unhealthy weight loss that plagues about 20% of brides to be, according to researchers, including skipping meals, going on liquid diets, fasting, using laxatives or unprescribed diet pills and supplements, smoking, and vomiting after meals.

In recent years these “rising expectations of bridal beauty” have led to other unhealthy means of achieving the illusion of physical perfection. This includes tanning salons, which can dramatically increase the risk of developing skin cancer. “The tanning industry says it’s a safe way to get a tan, but if you ask people who use them, a lot of people get burned.”

Many brides are requesting a shot of Botox, a little filler to eliminate a wrinkle, or a shot of cortisone to deal with an outbreak of acne. They may also ask for laser treatments to eliminate little broken blood vessels, sun spots and other bothersome blemishes. When done correctly, these treatments are safe. But there are a lot of people with very little training (including general practitioners and non-doctors) who offer these services. “Some have even used research-grade botulinum toxin in lieu of Botox, because it’s cheaper—but misuse has landed a few people in the hospital for months, hooked up to ventilators, after developing full-blown cases of botulism.”

Bride-to-be Noelle Nicolai is trying to maintain perspective and balance. She has a to-do list that includes teeth whitening, tanning, and hair shine treatments. But she is also doing research on how to make a marriage successful. She’s setting aside time for religion and community service projects, and she’s making sure to have meaningful dialogue with her fiancé, not just conversations that revolve around the wedding.

Does she still feel the pressure to look her best when she walks down the aisle? Yes: “At the end of my wedding day, it won’t matter if my hair was perfect, my teeth were blindingly white or my body was as hard as the rock on my finger,” she says. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t try!”

All this fuss seems a little crazy to Nicolai’s fiancé, who constantly reminds her that he’s happy with her just the way she is! This wedding culture obsession becomes increasingly shallow, and marriages are crumbling faster than ever. Beauty is more than skin deep, and a one-day affair revolving around the you is not the ultimate goal.  If the superficial wedding details are preventing you from preparing for the more essential aspects of a good marriage, you are doing yourself and your fiance a disservice. Sensitivity, kindness, sincerity, humor… this is the stuff that real beauty is made of.  If you make yourself worthy of love, as opposed to a mere object of fantasy, you will be loved, imperfections and all.