All About Abs!

In order for those abs to show, remember these helpful principles:

•Eat six times a day in order to avoid energy imbalances. Aim for smaller, healthy meals every 2-3 hours of about 200-300 calories each that incorporate protein, carbs and healthy fats.

•Drink more smoothies! Smoothies made of low fat milk, yogurt, ice and a variety of fruits, can act as great meal replacements throughout your day. Their thick texture will help keep you full, and they’re great as a healthy breakfast or to blend up before or after your workout.

•Start a food/ exercise diary. By writing down everything you eat, the time of day you eat , and how much energy you had after you eat, serves as a very useful reference as you try to gain muscle mass and lose fat. After using a food diary regularly, it shouldn’t take you long to realize how your body reacts to certain foods and what makes you feel your best during and after your workouts.

•Watch what you drink. We all know getting your daily water consumption is extremely important in your healthy weight efforts. Staying hydrated will help you push yourself through your workouts and allow you to feel better every day. Water also helps us banish feelings of hunger, (which is really just thirst a lot of the time), and helps us feel full. Alcohol, (for those of us that are old enough to drink the stuff), is another story.
Alcohol slows the rate at which our bodies burn fat, and actually encourages our bodies to store more. If you absolutely cannot be without your nightly glass of Chardonnay, limit your intake to 2-3 glasses a week, and definitely avoid the weekend binge drinking!

•Allow for some cheat meals. Of course, nobody’s perfect. If you limit yourself too much to eating only healthy foods every single day, you will get bored and frustrated, and eventually end up eating the entire food tray at your best friend’s wedding. When a craving arises, allow yourself some M&M’s, or a slice of pizza you’ve been eyeing all week. Just watch your portion sizes and remember: everything in moderation!

Carolyn’s Top Tips for the Most Effective Ab Workout

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Focus on Your Whole Body You can’t pick a part of your body, do a bunch of exercises just for that single part and watch the fat just disappear. You must target your largest muscles to shed fat evenly throughout your body, and in turn, allow your abs to show. Focusing on working your back and chest, as well as your lower body through exercises such as push-ups, squats, and lunges, will help you achieve this!

Doing 100 Crunches a Day Will Not Lead to a Six Pack! You must work your entire core through varied exercises to have a strong midsection. All the sit-ups in the world will not give you a six pack without a proper diet! A healthy diet is the MOST IMPORTANT factor when you are losing weight and searching for those toned abs.

You Do Not Have to Train Your Abs for Hours At a Time Extremely long workouts provide no additional benefit to defining your abs. It will only cause weakness from overtraining. Less than 20 minutes per abdominal training session is ideal!

Do Cardio Before Your Ab Workout When you are warmed up as a result of cardiovascular exercise, you are able to get a better contraction with your abs while working them. Warming up helps you feel the deep muscular burn much more when your abs are trained. Warming up also helps prevent abdominal pulls or muscle strains.

Contract Your Abs in Between Sets This may help build definition in your abs. Bodybuilders have been known to stretch and flex in between sets to increase muscular tone and definition!

Minimize Rest Time in Between Sets Aim for 1 minute or less of rest time in between ab sets. Your main goal should be to keep rest to 30 – 40 seconds in between sets. This will keep the metabolism high, allowing you to burn fat at a quicker, more efficient rate.

Lower Your Sodium Intake Cutting down on sodium can make a huge difference in the way your abs look. Salt, water and fat lead to major fat surrounding the love handles!

Eat 5-6 Small Meals Each Day Instead of eating 3 large meals, try to eat 5-6 smaller meals, spacing them out so you aren’t going more than 2-3 hours without food. This will keep your blood sugar stable and your metabolism racing throughout the day!
Avoid Belly Bloating Foods Some foods are worse than others in how your body reacts with them and what causes that bloated feeling. Here are key belly- bloating foods to avoid: Excess Salt, Fried Foods, Carbonated Drinks, Refined White Flour and Artificial Sweeteners.

Focus on a Healthy Diet Your diet is the main aspect in toning and defining your abs. Supplementation should also be considered for best results. I love the quote, “Abs are formed in the kitchen, not the gym!”

Carolyn@HealthyGirl.net