Banish the Belly Fat
Swimsuit season is right around the corner! Well...almost. A girl can dream, right?
I’ve been preparing for those sun-filled, fun-filled days by doing foreign things like shaving my legs and painting my toenails. I’ve also stepped up my nutrition a bit. You see, I have a pretty special vacation planned in 6 weeks with my hubby and I want to look and feel my best.
Do any of you have a goal in sight? Or maybe you are just ready for a little jump start? If so, keep reading. If not, umm...just keep reading?
One of the most common complaints I hear from both men and women is, “No matter what I do, this belly fat doesn’t seem to budge.” After asking a few questions, I usually discover that there are some nutritional gaps that need to be filled or there is too much math being done.
Too much math?
Yep. True health has nothing to do with math. The number of pounds on a scale is not an indicator of health...or worth. The number of calories you count has nothing to do with the nourishment your body is receiving. The number of minutes you exercise does not equate to strength and longevity. It is a matter of quality- not quantity. We don’t do math, ok? Ok.
Instead we should measure health by how much energy we have, the strength of our body, our mood, and the beauty of our skin, hair, teeth, and nails. We are meant to live an abundant life- full of love, movement, rest and nourishment. Not a life of deprivation, frustration, and starvation.
Now, back to that stubborn belly fat.
Here are my favorite nutritional tips to help you turn into the lean, mean, fat-burning machine you are meant to be:
Snack Smartly. First of all, try to eat enough at your meals that you don’t need to snack. Then ask yourself if you are really hungry…as opposed to bored or mad or sad or having a craving. THEN- if you are truly hungry- have a snack already! Just choose it wisely. Eating a high carbohydrate snack will satisfy you for a short time and then your blood sugar will plummet. That is no good.
My favorite snacks are macadamia nuts & coconut flakes, hardboiled eggs, veggies & guacamole, ½ an avocado drizzled with olive oil and salt & pepper, beef jerky, and olives.
Sip Smartly Too. If your goal is to be lean, cleaning up your drinks is a must. What you drink can completely sabotage your wellness goals with obscene amounts of hidden sugar, trans fats, and fake crap.
What’s in? Water (especially with lemon), unsweetened sparkling waters, black coffee, unsweetened nut milks, and teas (especially green).
What’s out? Juices (even organic fruit juice), sports drinks, coffee creamers, sodas, beer, drink mixes and skim milk.
Gray Area: Milk. If you drink milk, try to keep it organic with the fat intact. Skim milk spikes blood sugar- you don’t want that when you are trying to banish the bulge.
If you choose to booze: The best choice is a high quality spirit with club soda and a splash of citrus. Think Grey Goose soda with lemon.
The second best choice is red wine. If you feel that you tolerate red wine, then go ahead. Some of us experience bloating, headaches, and difficulty sleeping.
If you don’t already drink, you don’t need to start. In fact, I am choosing to abstain while I focus on leaning up. I find that I sleep better and my belly isn’t as bloated (what a gross word bloated is) when I don’t drink.
Here’s the deal, guys- I LOVE wine. I love it a lot. However, I discovered that it doesn’t like me so much. I went through a self-experiment where I stopped drinking for a month. At first I thought I would die. Literally die. And then I wondered about my sanity. Drinking made me a nicer wife and mommy. And then, suddenly, things changed. I felt so good, that I did not care to have a cocktail. It simply wasn’t that big of a deal. It still isn’t that big of a deal. I am perfectly happy sipping on my chamomile tea. Turns out I can still be a pretty nice wife and mommy.
Sugar Strike. When you eat sugar- whether in the form of candy, pasta, or a bagel- it causes a rise in blood glucose. That glucose is dangerous in the bloodstream and needs to be moved to a safer place by insulin. If the liver and muscles are already full of glycogen (stored glucose), then your body has no choice but to store that glucose as fat- primarily belly fat. Belly fat!
Learn to read labels. There is hidden sugar in everything. Syrups, evaporated juices, honey, agave, etc...it is pervasive.
If your goal is to be lean, you may want to consider cutting the added sugar and the high carbohydrate foods such as breads, pastas, and baked goods. I have made a personal decision to avoid grains, and I’ve never felt better. However, we are all very different. Experiment with what works for you.
Eat Fat to Lose Fat. This is my favorite tip. When you choose to eat more fat in place of sugar, your body becomes really good at burning fat. You become so efficient at torching fat that you not only tear through the fat in the food you eat, but you also incinerate the bat wings, muffin tops, and beer bellies. Yeah!
Healthy fat does NOT make you fat. Sugar does. The end.
PS- If you are interested in ramping up your nutrition and getting into swimsuit shape, be on the lookout for a pretty great program to be launched at FORM. There will be much more information to come! Here’s a hint: Real food. No math. Lifelong health.
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