Getting hitched? These workouts and diet strategies will help you lose weight and tone your arms, abs, butt, and thighs by your wedding day – and keep your inner Bridezilla in check.

Wedding Day Prep 101

If you’re altar-bound right now, then most likely you are obsessing over centerpieces and the seating arrangements. You may also be considering how your arms and shoulders will look like to your relatives as you strut down the aisle. (To Pachelbel’s Canon. For two minutes.)

Sounds accurate? Of the nearly 2.3 million American weddings each year, approximately 80 percent of brides and most of the wedding party and family members make changes in their diet and exercise habits, according to Brides.com 2006 American Wedding Study. Since you’re reading this, we’re assuming you are one of them.

Why Start Now?

Getting rid of your love handles is not going to necessarily make you a better bride, or make you a happier one (read: stressed out carb-free wife-to-be before rehearsal dinner). But, it can make your confidence soar! (A little envy from your cousins doesn’t hurt, either.)

Being engaged is an awesome time of relationship transition. You’re starting a new life with someone you’re mad for, and you’re getting the next couple of months getting used to what the rest of your lives will be like together.

Wedding planning can be stressful (if you’re going at it alone) and can quickly zap the romantic daydream of your engagement and keep you on edge until the end of the planning.

But, incorporating a healthy exercise and dietary regimen is an effective way to get your bodies chemicals into a happy place. Daily workouts can keep you focused and feeling great – what better way to get ready for married life?

Getting Started

Focus on getting healthy, not skinny. Instead of reaching some ‘magic number’, take this time to get into a better you. Consider the engagement as a commitment to better health – and one that can set the tone of your marriage.

Find the Best Workout Plan

Choosing an exercise and diet may seem harder that deciding which DJ to pick. But as with any big decision, it just takes the process of elimination to arrive at the best answer. Use these guidelines to determine the best program for you:

• Your desired dress style: length, shape, and fabric
• Your body’s assets and ‘trouble spots’
• Your current physical abilities.

According to Lynn Bode, a personal trainer with over 13 years of experience and the owner of the online fitness program workoutforbrides.com, planning is important when tackling your health, “ Even though a bride may feel she is drowning in all the planning involved in a wedding,” Bode adds, “it will be very advantageous to also [create a detailed] weight-loss strategy.” Get granular: Research recipes and plan meals in advance; schedule workouts in your calendar and keep them as you would any other appointment. As you’re choosing your regimen, keep your expectations in check. “A good rule of thumb is that you can lose between 4 and 8 pounds in a month,” Bode says. “If your wedding is only two months away, don’t fool yourself and cause unnecessary stress by vowing to lose 40 pounds. This will set you up for failure and probably lead to complete abandonment of your weight-loss efforts. Determine the true timeline you are working within and accept the realistic number you can achieve.”

You Need to Keep Eating

Despite the popular logical fallacy that not eating will cause you to lose weight, it simply is not true. An average bride-to-be makes around 177 decisions during her engagement, so you need to make sure you have enough glucose in the brain to keep you focused.

Stay Focused

Exercising might seem like the activity easiest to let go of, but in many ways, it is the most important. Let the professionals deal with the wedding planning, so you can keep your eye on the big day.