So today I bumped into another personal trainer and asked of how I can lose the last few pounds of fat around my lower abs as I'm currently having a hard time with it(or maybe I'm just getting a little impatient ;-) ). She had 1st agreed that yes the last few pounds of fat is the hardest to lose - but there is hope.
She advised me of 3 things that I can concentrate on :
1. Shock Your Body (very important)
This is where the personal trainer had a huge emphasis on. After telling what I do all the time, she told me that I need to shock my body. Our bodies are quite remarkable as it will adapt to our regular schedules of what we eat as well as our exercises. This is the reason why it's so easy to lose 3 or 4 pounds as soon as your start eating healthier and start a new workout regime.
Even-though I eat very well and eat 5-6 times a day, she advised me to go on a "diet" for 2 weeks time and then go back to my regular healthy eating for 1 week and then change back to the diet for 2 weeks again. What's the diet? More veggies, no salt, proportioned meats, good fats. Told me to take some vitamins in case I'm losing other nutrients while on the 'diet'. So really, in perspective she wants me to change my whole meal regime as I have been eating the same healthy foods for the passed 3 months or so.
So yes, it's to change up my grocery list and make sure that all 5-6 meals during the day is about 500 calories less than what my maintenance intake will be. I'm usually at about 200-300 calories less than my maintenance intake.
2. Lots of cardio
Plain and simple. The more calories burned, the more fat is burned. There is a myth that if you are trying to lose the last excess fat around the abdominal area, doing more situps, crunches, etc will be the most effective method. Errr..Wrong....The only thing that is being worked on are the ab muscles, but the muscle is behind the fat. It is impossible to "spot reduce" fat from one specific part of the body. Fat loss occurs throughout your whole system, meaning that, you will draw it from all areas of the body, and the first place you tend to put it on will be the last place it comes off. Very much like sucking out the water from a pool from a very large shallow end(90% of your body) and maybe only 5 feet of deep end(abs area).
I get pretty good cardio already, but will up the ante and add another 2 hours for the week.
3. No alcohol
Why no alcohol? Alcohol doesn't digest the same as regular food. Without going into all the technical details, alcohol turns into fat quick due to it's complicated digesting process.
So for me, giving up alcohol is gonna be tough, but feel I've been doing pretty good with only 2 drinks per week(on weekend with reward meal). So no big deal there.
So there you have it. Hopefully you can learn from me. =)
Looking at today's commitments and for making up from
yesterdays Mcfail, I shocked my body by changing my workout to the 1st month of my workout program. With that being said, I completed a full upper body workout, calves, abs and 30 min on the treadmill...By the end end of it all - I just wanted to sleep!
Scheduled for tomorrow is 30 min cardio(which I'll increase to 1 hour) and the weekly status....Lookin' forward to it. ;)
Mission 4 Commitments - Status of the Day
See here for last weeks picture and status results
