Today’s grooms are feeling the same pressure to slim down and tone up before their big day that their brides have been dealing with for decades.
“The groom is really the new bride,” said the restaurateur Penny Glazier, an owner of the event venues Bridgewaters and Twenty-Four Fifth Avenue, in Manhattan. “And men want to look as good on their wedding day as women do.”
More salons and spas are offering grooming for the groom.
“Men are as vain as women, maybe sometimes they are more so, especially when they’re older,” said Dawn Strain, an event planner, who added that she, too, has been noticing a groom diet trend over the last few years. “In their 20s, they don’t care as much. But in their 30s and 40s they need to lose weight and get in shape.”
An added incentive is that many women embark on Olympic-caliber beauty training before their weddings. Their transformation only solidifies a man’s resolve — if not his ego.
“Every man in New York wants to lose weight,” said David Beahm, an event planner in Manhattan. “But when it comes to standing at the altar next to someone who has spent the last year at bridal boot camp, the pressure’s really on.”
Male weight-loss tactics can be as intense as the female versions.
Philippe van den Bossche, 43, of Manhattan, a former executive director of Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity, paid $1,000 a month to Oz Garcia, a nutritionist, to help him lose 25 pounds between January and April, when he married Cory Cohen in Sri Lanka. For him, it was as much of a wedding present to his soon-to-be wife as it was to himself.
“I wanted her to look back in pride,” said Mr. van den Bossche, who cut his normal portions in half, and now boasts a 28-inch waist. “I just wanted to make that commitment to her and our relationship.”
Anthony Castro, 32, who runs a wholesale meat business in Whitestone, Queens, underwent weight-loss surgery in April for his wedding this September.
“I don’t want to be in front of the altar, in front of everybody, looking this way,” said Mr. Castro, who added that he weighed about 300 pounds when he had the surgery, and hopes to get down to 190 pounds. “Everybody’s supposed to be looking at the bride, but I feel everybody is looking at me, too.”
Grooms are not the only males with pre-wedding vanity. The same applies to fathers of the bride and other members of the wedding party. Former President Bill Clinton, for instance, lost 20 pounds before the wedding of his daughter, Chelsea, in July 2010. “She doesn’t think I’m in shape,” Mr. Clinton said in an interview at the time.
That sort of thinking motivated Raymond Cestaro after he learned that his daughter, Mary, would be marrying next July.
“All of a sudden I thought, she’s my only daughter, we’re going to be having this huge party, and I took a look in the mirror and was like uh-oh,” said Mr. Cestaro, 50, who runs a construction company in Floral Park, N.Y. Never mind that Mr. Cestaro’s doctor had been admonishing him to lose weight for years.
“It took my daughter’s getting engaged to all of a sudden motivate me,” said Mr. Cestaro, who said he had Type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol. He went to Nicolette Pace, a registered dietitian and nutritionist in Great Neck, N.Y., who helped him lose 60 pounds, halfway to his goal weight of 210.
“Part of what comes from getting married is the enhancement of each other,” he said. “We just get better together. And part of getting better is getting fit and healthy and looking and feeling your best.”
What are you eating? The happy healthcare host, Mr. Divabetic talks to everyday people about their healthy appetites at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, PA.
Meet Mr. Divabetic on the red TOMATO carpet at Thomas Jefferson University Hopsital, Philadelphia, PA, the American Diabetes Association Expo in Pittsburgh, PA and New York, NY and the Taking Control Of Your Diabetes Conferences in San Diego, CA and Austin, TX in Fall 2012. For more glitter, games and glucose advice visit: http://www.divabetic.org
LISTEN NOW: Free Diabetes Podcast for Brides http://www.blogtalkradio.com/divatalkradio1/2011/06/21/the-divabetic-brides-guide-to-diabetes
Tags: brides, diabetes brides, diets, mens health, wedding day, weddings, weight loss
