Health Food – Shaking Off Pre-Wedding Stress

Health Food – Shaking Off Pre-Wedding Stress

Keep calm or to keep your sanity, when you have butterflies and stress of your impending wedding can be one of the biggest challenges that any bride can face. Kavita Shyam tells you how to ward off stress in simple diet and natural relaxation forms…

Are you carrying a tensed look everywhere lately? Pre-wedding jitters and excitement are very normal for any would-be-bride, however to keep calm over your inner Bridezilla may not be the easiest thing to do. If you cards have been distributed, the date is set, the wedding trousseau is ready ad slowly you are approaching your dream wedding that you dreamt of ever since you were a teenager, remember with the dreams there are wedding jitters that are enough to shake you out of your dreams. Most brides have the unexpected of anxieties or experiences, from the wedding makeup person not coming on time, social pressure, cake not ready on time, destination or open-air wedding getting washed off by heavy rains, new family to adjust to, or paying huge sums of money for unexpected expenses during the wedding. The solution is to take the issues in your stride with a calm mind, and keep cold feet at bay with the help of right food and exercises!

Calming Must-Do’s

The countdown to you D day can be enjoyed with a few essential pointers. A bride who meditates atleast for twenty minutes a day can keep stress at bay. If a person meditates she is able to improvise the problem and come up with reasonable solutions besides being able to deal with people, situations and take apt decisions. So disconnect from the world outside and reconnect within with your inner self! You can even join a yoga class, and meet other brides-to-be and discuss your anxieties, this helps in gaining confidence and re-assuring that you are not the only bride who is taking all the stress! Here are a few quick yoga poses or asanas to help beat stress at home.

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Paschimottanasana or seating forward bend will help release tension from your back and make you feel energised.

Suptavirasana or reclined hero posewill give your entire body a great stretch. It is calming and relaxing for your whole system.

Shavasana or corpse poseis great for relaxing your whole body, something that you are craving as a bride-to-be.

Try to practice all these postures 3-4 times a week to get the desired results.

Sleep well to keep you from worrying! You may not get to rest for the wedding week full of activities and functions. So turn deaf for a while and shut yourself from all sorts of advice or chores. Switch off from the world and sleep, rest or relax for as many hours you can.

Listen to calming music, have your favourite playlist handy. Listen to specific songs that make you feel special, lift your spirits giving and provide confidence to emerge as a more cheerful and stronger person.

Calming foods to consume to beat pre-wedding jitters

We get Dr Amrapali Patil, a weight management expert yoga guru founder of Trim N Tone to give us some useful advices and secrets to staying calm.

"There’s a big difference between foods that calm the mind and the ones that help in blunting emotions. Foods eaten to blunt emotions can be the ones which are usually eaten mindlessly, what is typically called as emotional eating. This may cause one to gain weight. And who wants to put on weight at the time one wants to look the best.

However, stress can wreck havoc especially prior to one’s wedding – and most of it is associated with anxiety and worry – ranging from myriads of issues from wanting to lose weight and fit into that wedding achkan or lehenga or gown or tuxedo to having budget constraints to the ever burgeoning list of guests. Even one of these causes can make cause huge stress. Stress tends to release cortisol and cortisol tends to increase food cravings. Stress and anxiety also reduce the ‘happiness hormones’ also known as endorphins. Imagine what this could lead to – an unhappy state of mind with a tendency to indulge the mindless food cravings leading to weight gain which again adds more stress! It seems like a vicious cycle then – stress leading to cortisol release and endorphin reduction, which leads to food cravings and a depressed state of mind and this causing one to indulge in emotional eating leading to weight gain, which again increases the stress levels. And stress is also known to increase belly fat.

However, worry not. Here is a list of some calming foods which can help relieve the stress from the frayed nerves! These foods calm mind by providing the right nourishment to the body and by providing the much required vitality all through the day and night."

Dr Amrapali Patil, further gives us the variety of food and drinks that we should consume-

1. Chamomile tea / supplements – This one’s the all time fav from amongst some food stuffs to have before one hits the sack. Research has proved that chamomile not only relieves stress and anxiety but also tends to help one sleep better. I suggest warm or iced chamomile tea – one regular cup every night.

2. Chocolate – Eating dark chocolate in moderation has been proven to provide health benefits. Dark chocolate contains flavonoids and also certain category of polyphenols – both of these help free radical damage in the body. Also dark chocolate, tends to slightly reduce blood pressure adding to the sense of calm. It’s okay to have a couple small squares of dark chocolate as a snack once in a week.

3. Green tea – Other than being full of antioxidants, green tea has a substance called as theanine. Theanine helps to lose weight and at the same time provides mental strength. This helps relax mind. I recommend atleast three cups of warm green tea in a day.

4. Garlic – Garlic contains allicin which is cardio protective, anticancer and immune boosting in nature. Good health tends to soothe mind and relieve anxiety. Use garlic liberally in all your meals every day.

6. Oranges – Full of vitamin C, oranges and their citrusy fragrance always uplifts the mind and makes one feel upbeat. Eat atleast one every day.

7. Water – And you undermined the value of good ol’ water?! Hydrate yourself enough. Water has an uncanny ability to calm the mind. Drink atleast a couple liters everyday

Should avoid fatty (excessively fatty food tends to get converted to flab in 3 hours), sugary( sugar causes a temporary high and then a slump in the mood) and fried foods ( same like fatty foods). Also avoid foods with too much salt and monosodium glutamate ( these tend to increase blood pressure and cause water retention – both these lead to anxiety, stress, mental pressure).

Stay Calm, Stay Blessed!

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