You have a big event on the horizon, a bloated stomach and just a few weeks to flatten and tone your abdominals. What do you do?
Results Personal Training have put together 6 great tips for you
1 – Eat Good Fats
The type of fats we are talking about are the ones found in nuts, seeds, coconut, avocados and oily fish. These types of fats encourage your body to burn fat and help you to absorb vitamins and minerals more effectively. Each meal that you eat should have some kind of good fats so drizzle some extra virgin olive oil on your salad, make a coconut smoothie or go for an avocado dip.
2 – Get the Gluten Out
Many of us are gluten intolerant and even more of us are gluten sensitive meaning that when we eat foods containing gluten our bodies react to the gluten as a potential threat. Our abdominals weaken making them slack and our bowels often become inflamed leaving us bloated
Gluten containing foods to avoid
- Most breakfast cereals
- bread
- flour
- most processed meats
- muffins, pastries, cakes and most processed foods
- grain
- beer
- and the list goes on and on..
3 – Do a Detox
I don’t mean you should do some 30 day fast just eating lettuce and drinking green juice. A detox doesn’t have to be extreme. The goal is to eliminate toxins and repopulate our guts with more good bacteria. The more good gut bacteria the more effective our gut works the less stomach bloating, more energy for exercise and the better immune system we have. My favourite ways to detox are
- Eliminate processed foods, foods full of additives, preservatives, colours and enhancers that do nothing but destroy our good gut bacteria
- Eat Organic as much as you can. Food free from fungicides, herbicides and pesticides
- Take a good probiotic. Our favourite is Bio-Kult
- Drink filtered water free from chlorine
- Avoid alcohol – It is a poison and full of sugar 🙁
Essentially you should cut out all processed foods, gluten, alcohol and aim to detox for at least 21 days and see how you feel.
4 – Include Intervals into your Workout
Interval training has been shown to burn 9 times more fat than traditional steady state cardiovascular training. The secret to interval training is something called Excess Post-Oxygen Consumption or EPOC for short. EPOC refers to a boost in metabolism or fat burning
that happens after the workout.
When we train, our bodies burn calories to fuel muscles. With interval training we burn calories both during the workout and after the workout too. The reason for this is the process involved in recovery. Our bodies must repair breakdown muscle tissue, clear lactic acid, restore and restock glycogen levels amongst many other processes and its these processes that require extra energy (extra calories)
Simply the harder we push (interval training) the more recovery (calories burned) is required.
5 – Change your Perspective
Its hard to escape stress in the modern world we live in, its everywhere, from the morning commute sitting in traffic, the huge endless workload we have to get through only to not be paid enough for the work we do through to relationship stress and existential stress. The problem is that we are not designed for so much stress. Our adrenal glands, these are the glands that sit on top of our kidneys and designed to release cortisol (our stress hormone) get tired and fatigue, hence adrenal fatigue. Cortisol receptor sites are in the belly, so when stressed cortisol causes our bodies to dump fatty deposits all over our tummies and waist.
The next time you are stressed about something ask yourself
‘’ Is it really that bad or am I making the problem bigger than it needs to be?’’
One of the big ones I see is that people are stressed about something that hasn’t even happened yet.
If you are one of these people, the ‘’what if this happens’’ or ‘’what if that happens’’ then stop. Take a second and be present with yourself. You are worrying about something that hasn’t even happened and may never happen. Remember the only time that is true is right now as you are reading this. Be present and focus on living in the moment you’re in
I am thankful for….
– The taxes I pay because it means I am employed
– The clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have enough to eat
– My shadows who watch me work because it means I am out in the sunshine
–A lawn that has to be mowed. Windows that need to be washed and gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home
– The spot I find at the far end of the car park because it means I am capable of walking
– The lady behind me in church who sings off key because it means I can hear
– The huge pile of laundry and ironing I have to do because it means my family are near by
– The alarm that goes off early in the morning because it means I am alive
6 – Eat Trim Tummy Foods
To be honest there is no such thing as trim tummy foods BUT there are foods which will aid in promoting fat loss and foods that will leave you tired, irritable and bloated and its too much of those foods that will leave you putting on the kgs
Here are our favourite trim tummy foods
- Green cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli, spinach, kale. Not only are they full of fiber but they also contain a bucket load of vitamins
- Oily fish such as salmon and mackerel. Oily fish contain high levels of essential fatty acids
- Almonds, pistachios, macadamia and walnuts which are high in vitamins B and E and a great for our immune system
- Red capsicums are low in calories and high in vitamin C
- Avocados, high in healthy monounsaturated fats and have been shown to be helpful in lowering blood pressure
- Blueberries the powerhouse of antioxidants and a fruit that is low in sugar
So there you have it. Start incorporating these tips today and watch your waistline shrink away.
This article was brought to you by Bootcamp Hawkes Bay for more information and to see how they can help you get a flat tummy in 28 days please visit www.personal-trainers.co.nz
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