30 minute exercise ideas & general advice

I don't know whether your weight loss target is achievable. Where the fat goes is very individual (for dress-fitting purposes), and it depends on how much of a deficit you're giving yourself. 1200 isn't enough for most people TBH. I started at 1200 calories and increased gradually over time, but I didn't do any exercise at all, started out at 200 lbs nearly, am short (5'2" and 42 years old). I would make sure you're eating enough so you can stick to your plan. If you deprive yourself too much, you might be tempted to quit, and remember, the wedding is just one day..

The stationary bike is what I always start with at the gym and I love it! I do 30 mins, but every 5 mins I whack the resistance up for 1 or 1.5 mins and go at it hard, then go back down to a more comfortable level.

Don't know about the kettlebell, but maybe try googling some workouts?

Your weight loss will be determined by the amount of calories you consume. If you are using MFP, set your weekly weight loss goal to something reasonable like 1.5 lbs. per week eat back about 50% of your exercise calories to support your workouts. You should also add some weight or resistance training to your routine. Be happy with whatever size you will be on your fitting day even if you don’t drop the entire 2 stones/28 lbs.

bodbot.com is a great site that will make customized workout plans based on your goals, equipment, how hard you'd like to workout etc. Give it a shot! Lots of variety! And there's an app which makes it convenient and reminds you of your scheduled workouts!

SingRunTing wrote: »

30 Day Shred is a great sub-30 minute workout.

I second this

Interval and Circuit training are the most time efficient workouts I've tried.

Bike:

1)5 minute warm up (don't tear a muscle, but enough effort to work up a sweat)
2)10 minutes of intervals
-30 seconds high intensity (raise resistance or pedal much faster)
-60 seconds moderate (slow enough to catch your breath, but still making an effort)

Kettle bell and mat:

3) 10 minutes of circuit training
-choose 3-4 exercises, each that will target upper, middle, lower body, complete 10 repetitions of each, and rest for 30 seconds to 60 seconds before going another round.
EXAMPLE:
-Goblet squats/legs
-twists (directly after squats in same stance)/middle
-shoulder press (10 each side)/ upper
-jumping jacks/ cardio to keep heart rate up and burn more calories
-rest

Bike:

4)5 minutes cool down (moderate pace)

Fitnessblender.com have a free five day workout challenge for busy people, which is 5 different videos (one for each day) that are 30 minutes long including a warm up and cool down. If you like these then you can purchase their 4 week or 8 week plan for busy people online, both are really afforable, only 6 dollars and 10 dollars. The plans have the same set up as the challenge, the workouts are 30 minutes or less including a warm up and cool down.

I hope you dont mind me giving some advice on your intake. Im short at only 5'1 (barely!) and live a completely sedentary lifestyle apart from when I have errands to run or intentionally exercise. 1200 calories isnt enough to sustain me! So I really don't think it is enough to sustain a busy bride to be. I suggest rethinking your calorie goal before adding in exercise, and if you don't want to change your calorie goal, I strongly suggest eating back all of your exercise calories and chose to follow a low intensity workout plan.

Hi Alex! I do 30 minutes long workouts every day too and I go to the gym once a week to work with heavier weights there. Well, my 30 mins is about strength training with one-handed barbells. My cal intake is about 1200-1300 kcal too which is very low. I would advise decreasing your cal intake by 100 every week and when you start losing weight, keep at that cal intake level.
50 high knee leg raises, push ups, triceps, biceps, shoulder, push ups and high knee raises again... something like this. I watch tv while doing this routine.

Look up Leslie Sansone on Youtube. There are a lot of walk-at-home videos that are of varying intensities. I find her a really supportive work out person to watch and her videos are fun!