In today’s lecture, I’m going to let you in on a little secret…. The truth about abs.

Doing endless abdominal exercises will not get you that skinny waist that you want. On the other hand you do need to do abdominal exercises so your back stays pain free and you can perform multi-joint functional exercises so you can burn huge amounts of fat.

To summarize, without a strong core you will not be able to do the exercises that you need to do to get that slim waist.

Now sit-ups aren’t the best for your slim waist as they target the rectus abdominus which builds the front of your stomach under that layer of fat and actually make your stomach appear bigger (don’t worry this won’t happen overnight, as muscle doesn’t grow that fast).

Your first priority in abdominal work should be the transverse abdominus utlizing such exercises as planks, stability ball rollouts, side planks, and cross body mountain climbers. Get a program filled with exercises like these and you’ll have most of your core basis covered. So what’s next?

You guessed it, breakfast…

Research shows that if you skip breakfast you are more likely to consume 30% more calories throughout the day.

Breakfast is so important for fat loss…it wakes you up, it gives you energy early on for energizing boot camp classes, helps speed the metabolism up, and you will be more likely to burn it off as the body gets used to eating breakfast, and is not questioning whether it should hold it on as fat.

Some good nutrition tips:
Make sure your bread is listed as whole grains, if it says whole wheat, it better be 100% whole wheat as if it is not 100% it is not whole wheat bread. Another good bread tip is look for 3-5g of fibre.

Peanut butter is best consumed as some sort of natural peanut butter which will usually have oil on the top and contain top roast peanuts and salt. Skippy and Jiffy and Slippy or whatever other peanut butter is calling itself these days, although delicious has hydrogenated oils with .5g of trans-fat less per serving which unfortunately gives them the right to advertise that it contains no trans fat.

Your eggs should be cage free, when eggs are allowed to get sunlight, the yolk is more healthy.

Oatmeal – fill er up with wheat germ and flax seed, which will make it a more complete meal. If you find your oatmeal too boring then spice it up with frozen fruit and get your antioxidants and vitamins or how about some protein powder (there’s a link to a pretty good tasting one on the left of this page). Then there’s nuts…walnuts and almonds rock.

Maybe your a protein shake lover, well after you get your prograde protein, add some banana, frozen fruit (great deals at costco). Add skim milk and ice and your set.

Yogurt is also a number 1 choice among people for breakfast, heres some guidelines: The #1 mistake with yogurt is not getting plain yogurt. Don’t buy vanilla, and don’t worry about the 16g of sugar that are natural sugars in the dairy. Fat free yogurt has less calories, so now you can mix it with protein powder, frozen fruit, bannana,and nuts.

Here’s the lowdown on eggs: the whites of egg are high in protein, and the nutritional value is in the yolk. Combine your eggs with a carb source such as whole grain bread and there is a complete meal.

And for you cereal lovers: What you are looking for is high fibre over 5g : 150cal less per serving, protein 4-5g or more, sugar less than 5-6g.

You can lose weight in 6 months simply by cutting your calories down to 1200-1800 per day. The healthier you eat, the more likely you will see your abs. Don’t be eating below 1200 calories. While the initial results may impress you, you will not be able to do this past 6 months as hormones in your body will cause you to gain weight. Getting the 8 pack to show will never happen if you do not have a phenomenol diet. You can only go so far with busting your butt in the gym. Eat right, act like you want it, and stay away from your temptations for that Starbucks cranberry scone.

Josh Saunders
Boot Camp U
Head Fitness Trainer