It seems that we place a lot of importance on taut, flat stomachs. Everywhere we look, we see commercials promising to help us get a flat belly and sculpted abs.
Have you noticed all those supplement ads that promise quick weight loss always tell you to exercise and diet?
What they don't mention is that there is no such thing as spot-reducing. But don’t despair because excess fat comes (medically known as adipose tissue) off wherever you have an excess of it. So if you have too much fat on your belly and you do all the right things to burn that fat, it will come off.
What if you are doing all the right things and still not losing weight? Nowadays so much of our food is processed and processed food makes you gain weight. The meat is injected with hormones to make the animals bigger. We eat the animals and what they've been injected with! Struggling to lose weight post-menopause, several doctors told me to eat grass-fed beef and meat without hormones. They also said to eat organic "but organic is expensive", I thought. Well, nowadays, Walmart carries organic and when you think of all the medical costs you save by eating healthy, the expense isn't so expensive!
The best thing is, when you eat food the way it was intended to be eaten, you lose weight.
The doctors advice was also to cut out...
sugar
cheese
all processed food, including crackers, protein bars
bread.
At first I thought, I could never do that! (I'm a cheese aholic and LOVE bread!) But after several bouts of gastrointestinal distress and unsuccessful attempts to lose weight , I did and now it's easy to eat that way. If you do it for awhile, eating healthy becomes natural.
Eating small portions to lose weight will make your stomach shrink so after awhile, you won't be able to eat more than you should.
There's another reason you should consider weight loss. VISCERAL FAT.
Visceral fat is the fat goes deeper than below your skin. Visceral fat surrounds your organs. Visceral fat is dangerous to your health.
That being said, if you firm up your abs, once the fat comes off, you will see a great set of abdominal muscles that are no longer hidden by fat and you will be less likely to have visceral fat.
There are so many more important reasons to get fit than getting into a little black dress.
Research connects belly flab with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a serious disease and until I got my diabetes educator certification, I had no idea that 60 percent of diabetic (2) lose a limb! With exercise and proper diet, those odds can be greatly reduced.
Measure your waist to see if you have a dangerous level of abdominal fat. For optimal health, men should have a waist circumference below 40 inches. Women should have a waist circumference below 35 inches.
DON'T BE AN OSTRICH!
What's an ostrich? A person who sticks their head in the sand because they don't want to know.
Finding out is not comfortable, and despite what all the advertisements say, losing weight is not easy. You have to be ready to take the first step. It's the only way to be able to keep motivating yourself along the way. If you slip, and everyone does, you'll be able to take comfort in knowing that you can do it because look how far you've come already. How will you know that unless you have a baseline?
Knowing your baseline is the first step to taking control of your health. Measurements are a great indicator of how you are doing, so take your measurements once a month. One month from now, you can say, "I lost 3 inches on my waist!" Talk about motivation.
Here are some proven techniques to help you get a firm belly and reduce dangerous abdominal fat:
Consistent Movement and Eating Right
There are foods that can help you get a firm belly, too. Unused sugar turns into fat, but foods high in protein, vegetables and fiber are slenderizing. Look for a diet plan comprised mostly of vegetables, some fruit, lean protein sources, and unsaturated fats.
You can burn calories while you participate in activities that you consider fun or fulfilling. For example, gardening burns several hundred calories per hour.
Water aerobics is also a great fat-burner, and fun to boot. You could also take long walks down nature trails.
Cardio exercise will kick your fat-burning metabolism into overdrive. All it requires is persistence; if you can find an activity you like, and stick with it, the pounds will melt away.
It's also important to vary your routine for maximum calorie burning and to ward off boredom.
There are several exercises you can do to tighten your belly. The downfall with a lot of ab exercises is that they are usually demonstrated on the floor and this puts a lot of pressure on your spine.
Get a firm belly without one floor crunch wit Vertical Ab Toner in the Total Strength and Conditioning DVD.
The entire workout can be done seated on a chair or standing. It’s also important to note that if you have osteoporosis and you do workouts that don’t offer a modified level, you run the risk of fracturing your spine, so it’s important that you choose your exercises correctly.
Thanks for taking the time to care for a very important person - YOU!
