There aren’t many things you can do to improve your health, and your sex appeal, more than getting rid of the spare tire around your midsection. Here are 15 steps that will help to melt the excess belly fat off your waistline so that you can show off your sexy abs again.
There aren’t many things you can do to improve your health, and your sex appeal, more than getting rid of the spare tire around your midsection. Excess belly fat, especially the kind that accumulates in and around the abdominal organs such as the liver and intestines, churns out stress hormones and inflammatory chemicals. So shedding those extra inches around your waist line is not just a vanity issue: your future health and vitality are at stake. Here are 15 steps that will help to melt the excess belly fat off your waistline so that you can show off your sexy abs again.
1. Drink at least three cups of green tea per day, or take a green tea supplement. The antioxidants in tea seem to selectively mobilize fat from inside the abdominal cavity.
2. Exercise daily. Every day you need to accumulate at least 30, and up to 90 minutes of moderate or hard exercise.
3. Do interval training. Go hard for 30 to 45 seconds and then ease off for a minute or two while you recover at a slower pace. Try to do at least eight intervals total per training session. Do cross-training.
4. Mix it up with different types of aerobic exercise, stretching, and strength training. Keep it fresh and interesting.
5. Build more muscle throughstrength training; ideally you will need to do three or four weight lifting sessions per week.
6. Eat protein with each of your meals—morning, noon, and night. Also, try to eat a high quality protein like whey protein or egg whites within two hours before or after exercise.
7. Pick two colors with each meal. This means consuming at least two servings of brightly colored veggies or fruits three times per day.
8. Never eat until you are overfull. Eat only until you aren’t hungry anymore
9. If you are going to cheat and eat a decadent dessert, French fries, chips, cake etc: follow the three-bite rule. Pick a treat but you get only three bites. By the way, you only get to use the three-bite rule one time per day, max.
10. Markedly cut back on starches and sugars. And eliminate essentially all white foods like white flour, white rice, potatoes, bagels and doughnuts.
11. Drink only water (six to eight glasses per day), coffee, tea, and skim milk. No soda pop (even diet pop), no artificial sweeteners, no fruit juices. No caffeine after noon.
12. Sleep 7.5 to 8.5 hours per night. This is a critical component of a belly-burning program. Sleep deprivation cranks up your stress hormones that make your crave junk food and then immediately deposits all those calories as fat around your waist.
13. Try to eat more healthy fats likefish oil and monounsaturated fats. Take three fish oil capsules per day, and try to eat a handful of nuts per day. Use extra virgin olive oil for your salad dressing and cooking oil uses.
14. Take 2,000 IU of Vitamin D3 per day. Decreased belly fat is just one of a host of profound benefits you will notice when you bring your deficient Vitamin D levels back into the normal range.
15. Keep your alcohol intake modest, and drink mostly red wine. Why do you think it’s called a “beer-belly?” One drink per day will reduce abdominal fat, but anything more than two drinks daily accumulates in and around your belly.
Heart Institute Research Reveals Risks for Athletes
You might think that highly trained athletes would be the least likely to be at risk for sudden cardiac death, but research conducted at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute shows that may not be the case. And to some degree, race can influence the likelihood of cardiac abnormalities.
Physicians Strive to Prevent Sudden Death in Athletes
As the father of four active, healthy children, I can only imagine how devastating it would be for one of them to die suddenly from a heart ailment. And yet, a little more than a year ago, my good friend and mentor Bob Conn, went through just such a tragedy when his 22-year-old grandson, Jordan Mann, died suddenly.
10 Tips for Staying Lean Through the Holiday Season
The holiday season may be hazardous to your health.Studies show that Americans typically gain about seven pounds over the holiday season each year, and some of it stays on permanently despite the New Year's resolutions to get it off. Even more worrisome are reports showing increased risks of heart attack, dangerous cardiac rhythms, and even death during the holidays. Emotional stress, depression, over-eating, not enough exercise, and too much salt and alcohol are all likely to be playing a role. Make sure you and your family stay healthy and happy this year by following these 10 rules for safely navigating the holiday hazards.
