This is a guest post by Nick Clipton from Building body muscles. You can find more posts by him on his blog by subscribing to his RSS or by following him on twitter.

You’ve probably imagined your “dream” wedding at least a bazillion times since you were a kid. The dream is becoming a reality as your significant other has asked for your hand in marriage and you proudly said, “Yes!” The planning for the big day has begun; you’ve started working on invitations, you know who you want to be your bridesmaids, and you even know what kind of cake and flowers you want. One glaring task on your to-do list is whipping your body into shape for the big day. You have plenty of the time, the problem you have is that you really aren’t sure how to do it.

Put Goals to Paper

It is important to start off by creating a goal and putting it to paper. By creating a goal, you have a reason to get motivated which will set you up for success. Maybe you’ve had your eye on a certain wedding dress that you’d like to fit into or maybe you want to look as great as you can for your groom to be. Maybe you’ve got a bit of a wild side and bought a wedding dress with a mid-driff so you can show off your tight, sexy abs. If you want to create a new you, it is vital that you put the desire in writing.

Nutrition Is a Lifestyle, Not a Diet

You’ve set your goal and are ready to re-create a “sexy” you for the big day. Nutrition will play an important role in helping you reach that goal. Nutrition should always be looked at as a lifestyle and never a diet. You want to make smart food choices that can make your fitness goals attainable. Eating right doesn’t mean boring. You want to eat tasty foods but the right kinds and the right portions. To keep it simple. you should eat five or six small meals each day. This will keep your metabolism burning efficiently and keep your body properly fueled with nutrients throughout the day. By eating more meals that are smaller in portion, you feel satisfied and will avoid that bloated feeling that comes from over-eating. You’ll also put your body into fat burning mode. The smaller meals should be made up of clean foods and not junk like cookies, donuts and cake. You want to eat lean proteins, good fats and good carbohydrates to attain peak health and get you closer to a great body for your wedding.

Make sure and eat a lean protein and natural carbohydrates with each meal. You should also include a healthy source of fat in a few of the meals. Here are some examples of each:

• Lean proteins include egg whites, tuna, chicken, lean turkey, low fat dairy, lean beef and protein drinks
• Natural carbohydrates include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, and whole wheat pastas
• Healthy fats include vegetable oils (soy, olive, and canola), fats from fresh water fish, and nuts,

To help stay motivated, use one day each week as a “free” eating day. On this day, you can take a few meals and eat your favorite foods whether they be ice cream, hamburgers, pizza, or whatever. On the other days of the week, eat cleanly. You’ll find that as you get into this lifestyle, your body will actually crave clean eating.

Exercise is The Other Key to The Equation

Like nutrition, exercise is key in helping you achieve your goal of a knockout body for your wedding. Training with weights and aerobic exercise should be used to help you build a little bit of muscle and help shape your body. By building muscle, you’ll increase your metabolism which will help burn excess fat. Train with weights at least 3 times a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for instance). If you’ve never lifted weights, do some research on the Internet or hire a personal trainer to introduce you to some workout routines as well as the equipment in the weight room. The Internet is handy because there will be lots of videos that will show you how to do various exercises and as well as lots of free weight lifting programs geared towards women.

Aerobic exercise will help you burn more calories and help you reach your goal faster. Lengthy cardio sessions aren’t required. You only need thirty minutes of aerobic exercise two or three times a week. Also, aerobic exercise doesn’t have to be a chore, it can be fun activities like swimming, jogging or walking with a friend, spinning, a dance class, or even playing sports.

Stay on Track

You’ll start fast and furious in the beginning. Staying with it is the tricky part. To keep from fizzling out, it is important to plan. Keep a log of your progress on both your eating and workouts. Try to make improvements each time you go to the gym. Try a new exercise that looked too difficult or add a little more weight to some of the exercises. Plan meals that you will eat for the week on your clean eating days. Planning your meals will make it easy to stick to the nutrition part. If you stay on track, you’ll have a wedding day to remember and everyone in attendance will be talking about how great you look.