Wedding Season, Workouts and Weekend Eats
This weekend officially marked the beginning of wedding season on my calendar.
My man and I traveled to his hometown of Sacramento for one of his high school buddies’ ceremonies, the first of many in the next few months.
With all the lavish menus and open bars ahead, I’ve been thinking about how difficult it can be to stay on track with your health and fitness goals, and not let the hard work you put in during “bikini season” go to waste.
My tactic for special occasions is the same one I use on a daily basis: balance.
I think it’s easy to let weddings, holidays and even simply “the weekend” turn into an excuse for major binges fests, that completely reverse all of the hard work you put in eating healthy and exercising during the week.
Depriving yourself Monday through Friday and then going “balls to the wall” so to speak Saturday and Sunday is extremely taxing on your body and quite frankly, just not very fun.
If you allow yourself to have little splurges all the time, you won’t feel the need to go overboard at special events.
So while I’m not going to skip cake at a wedding, I’m also not going to skip any planned workouts just because I’m “on vacation.” And though I’ll still whip up my egg whites if I have the resources, I’m not going to feel guilty for having an extra glass of wine.
Here’s how I maintained balance this weekend:
I knew I might not have time to workout over the weekend so I squeezed in a morning session on Friday with my trainer before we caught our flight.
I made sure to properly refuel post-workout with a very strange-but-good combination of complex carbs, lean protein and healthy fat, by way of a Cinnamon Raisin-Almond Butter-Egg White Sandwich and a glass of Green Juice.
Friday night we celebrated my fiance’s cousin’s engagement with a lavish Persian feast.
Persian food is typically pretty healthy, consisting of rice, roasted vegetables and lean grilled meat.
Naturally, they had cake that evening to celebrate. In the interest of balance however, I chose to forgo the red velvet, knowing I’d be getting my fair share at Saturday’s reception.
Saturday morning, my man, his mom, his aunt and I kicked off the day with a group bootcamp. I haven’t mentioned it before, but I’m preparing for my NASM Certified Personal Trainer exam, and I needed to practice my skills.
My three clients guinea pigs were very gracious, letting me take them through an impromptu workout and bearing with me as I practiced my assessment skills.
After our workout — or theirs I should say (I was just barking commands) — Donna and I threw together a healthy breakfast for the gang.
A veggie packed scramble…
…and some gluten-free pancakes that we ended up calling crêpes as an explanation for their extremely flat shape.
Regardless of the name, they were tasty!
Saturday evening we reunited with my future cousin-in-law Sean and his beautiful fiance Michele for the wedding.
Dress: Ted Baker (on sale) // Shoes: Zara (similar here) // Bag: Rebecca Minkoff // Sunnies: Chloe (similar here)
I didn’t manage to snap any pics of the food at the wedding — I was too busy stuffing my face. Let’s just say three different flavors of cake passed these lips, washed down with a few glasses of bubbly.
An hour of dancing (aka torching cals) balanced it all out nicely.
Groomzilla‘s “Saturday Night Fever look.”
Sunday night was back to reality and our weekly ritual of pizza and HBO.
Two of my girlfriends were in town for the night so I switched things up with a new flavor, adding a Tomato Basil pie in with our standard Hawaiian.
- 1 Whole Wheat Pizza Crust (I like Whole Food's 365 brand)
- 1 C. Marinara Sauce
- ½ C. Fresh Mozzarella
- ½ C. Cherry Tomatoes, halved
- ¼ C. Basil, chopped
- Top crust with sauce, tomatoes, basil and cheese.
- Bake in oven for 10 minutes at 350.
- Enjoy!
It was the perfect moderately healthy end to a moderately healthy weekend.
*Shout out to Arman of The Big Man’s World for sparking my thoughts about balance while traveling and Healthy Diva Eats for her MIMM link up.
Alison @ The Fit Chronicles says:
Ha, my husband and I did homemade pizza last night too! A great Sunday treat :)
Whitney English says:
Yes it is!!
Ashley @ A Lady Goes West says:
Looks like fun! I definitely love wedding cake and cocktail hour, so I never skip out on those, but I always try to get a workout in the morning before the wedding and drink plenty of water leading up to it. It’s inevitable that you’ll have a little too much of food or drink though, so keeping consistent on the exercise is something that has always helped get me through.
Whitney English says:
Good for you! The water recommendation is extremely important too, thanks for mentioning it. I try to alternate between water and other beverages at weddings too.
Laura @ Sprint 2 the Table says:
You’re #strangebutgood breakfast is exactly what I had friday morning too! Great minds. Persian food is the best… I wish I’d had your same dinner too. :)
Whitney English says:
Nice! When I posted the picture on Instagram, I was surprised to see how many people actually didn’t think it was strange at all, haha.
Grace says:
My mom said she LOVED the workout!
Whitney English says:
So great to hear that! She did awesome :)
Dale Janee says:
Whitney!! This looks like so much fun and you all look great. :) Love the mint dress on you and I’m going to two weddings in the next month so this post was really helpful. I could never pass up on red velvet, but I do try to just balance so if I eat a lot at a wedding, the next day I try to be super careful and exercise for sure, even if it’s a Sunday. Congrats on your start of wedding season too! So excited for you.
xoDale
Whitney English says:
Thanks girl! I like your routine, mustering up the energy to work out on Sundays is not easy!!
Linda @ Fit Fed and Happy says:
Okay, so you’re working on fat loss and increasing endurance? Am I right? Is the endurance part for a specific sport? How do you increase both at the same time?
Whitney English says:
Hey Linda! I came up with the routine based on the Phase training followed in NASM’s OPT Model. The correct Phase is actually called: Strength Endurance and it’s composed of strength and stabilization exercises that are targeted at improving body composition (aka fat loss, lean muscle gain) and building strength (meaning training your muscles to worker harder and longer). Hope that answers your question! xoxo
GiselleR @ Diary of an ExSloth says:
I thought ‘Groomzilla’ was no more? haha
Loving the balance theme it’s something that I need to work on more right now.
p.s. Cute dress & shoes and I can’t wait to hear more about the PT certification :D
Arman @ thebigmansworld says:
I love how you preach balance amidst a very important day coming up (I mean meeting me in person…not your wedding. Priorities).
Just kidding, but this is a perfect example when everyone is bloody shedding it for the big day, you’re just going aobout it as normal- which means no crazy changes/fluctuations or mind games post wedding. Big props to you buddy.
And Persian food?!!! YUM! I’m homesick now ha.
Charlotte @ Commitness to Fitness says:
Ahh I love your outfit! That dress is adorable. I agree, it’s all about balance and acceptance during holidays/wedding season/etc. That pizza looks delicious! Also that’s awesome your’re taking the NASM personal trainer exam!
GiGi Eats Celebrities says:
OMG OMG OMG!!!! That Persian food! I think I need to marry a Persian man… YES YES I DO!! Shawarma and Kabob for life!
Deborah @ Confessions of a Mother Runner says:
Love that dress! Congrats on the upcoming wedding!
Bethann Wagner says:
Can we talk about how stunning you looked at the wedding? Your legs are phenomenal and so are your heels!
Louise@FitRadiance says:
Yum, homemade pizza! Finding balance for me can be tricky. I always have a set plan worked out in my head of what I’ll eat when attending an event, but sometimes I just can’t resist that second slice of cake! :-o Getting back on track next day seems to save me though, haha.
Lauren says:
Perfect post for me! I have a wedding this weekend, and the the next, and then two more in a couple more weeks! I love wedding cake so I’ll never skip that but make sure to eat more veggies and skip the appetizers and such I don’t need or even like that much. It’s a celebration but keeping it one night is good. I’m feeling really bloated from eating lots of snacks travelling so I’m determined to drink plenty of water and have fun. I love that mint green dress, I just bought something similar! I totally need to grab some cinnamon raisin bread to make an egg sandwich like that now!
Adam says:
When I did a month of updates, I just found a website for the printable calendar 2022, and then I signed off the tasks for each day, like training, cutting day, or some kind of trip. This worked well for me