Let me guess. Your gut reaction to the word DIET makes you sick, just thinking about it. It sounds like something women do, right? Maybe it is an aspect unique to being a man, maybe not. We don’t like diets. So let’s just agree openly, that there’s no uglier aspect of losing weight than THE DIET.
Is Food Your Payoff?
After you work all day, exercise, pay bills, take care of friends and family, you are probably looking for some type of payoff. Food is probably the payoff and is your bad habit. Where I live in the Chicago area, we have great food – Chicago-style pizza, Chicago-style hot dogs, beef and sausage sandwiches and fries. These are some of the great cultural advantages of living here. Unfortunately, they’re all calorie monsters too.
Need To Get Your Belly Fat Handled
The gut, belly fat or love handles are the tell-tale signs of a guy that is eating “his share” and more. To lose weight, any one of the above foods are very high in calories, and should be avoided. But to avoid heart attack, diabetes or high blood pressure, it is absolutely necessary to eliminate the fat on your waist. It is worth the effort to just simply gain back your energy and youthful vitality that comes from losing the gut.
Just Say No To Diet
What I am telling you in this article, is rather than drastic dieting, start making only small changes. Your friends do not need to know what you are doing. And that is why this strategy works. Small habits stick. These are small changes that you can make once per week that will start taking you in the proper direction to reducing your bulk. Here are some examples of what I have done. I am living proof that these small improvements can change your life. But are you ready to be what you desire for yourself?
What To Do
- Drink 2 glasses of water before each meal – you need the water (about 80 oz per day) and the water before the meal will cut down on appetite during any meal. While at work or out of the house, bring a large bottle of water with you and drink it before you eat lunch.
- Some type of vegetable or fruit at each meal – and potatoes don’t count. I have learned how to eat raw carrots as a lunchtime snack. I also eat some type of fruit that I like – oranges, grapes, or an apple. Would this have been food I would have preferred? Well no, but it is really amazing how you can become accustomed to eating something that you know is improving your life with every bite.
- Protein at every meal – protein is digested more slowly and requires more body energy to digest (up to 30% of the calories ingested are used to digest proteins). So eat some type of eggs, lean meat, chicken or fish. Boiled eggs are a good way of getting proteins when away from home.
Make Changes Slowly
Begin only one of these habits every two weeks. Do not start them all at the once. Start drinking the water one week and allow that habit to settle in before you even think of working on one of the other two changes. Be easy on yourself. It has taken a long time to acquire your current habits and it takes some time to establish new habits. Eventually, your habits would look something like the following:
How To Do It
If you just do these three things and make them a habit everyday, you will lose belly fat. Guaranteed. So how do you put this into practice? Here is a plan to follow:
Morning
After you wake up, drink one glass of water before you do anything (before shower, shave, exercise). It may seem like a lot of work the first time you do this, but once you get into the habit of it, drinking one glass of water is really easy. Just before you eat breakfast, drink another glass of water. Have your fruit – bananas, blueberries, strawberries, orange, apple. Put them on your cereal if you like.
Lunch
Drink one glass of water or 1/2 liter from a bottle before you break for lunch (before you leave your desk, office, factory, shop). When you actually sit down to eat, drink one more glass of water. Eat a vegetable – salad, raw carrots or celery along with your main choice of protein. For protein, have a boiled egg or some other type of lean (un-fried) meat, chicken or fish. Eat an orange or some grapes as a dessert.
Dinner
Drink one glass of water or 1/2 liter from your water bottle when you get home, or right when you get in the car. Just before you eat, drink another glass of water. Eat a vegetable that you like – beans, spinach, salad. Use spices if you like to make them taste better. Spices do not have calories. Meat, fish or chicken is a very satisfying dinner main course and it is good for you, for the reasons I mentioned above.
The most important thing is that this food tastes good. Get over the fact that you can only be satisfied with fries, pizza, beer and chips. Eating this unhealthy stuff tastes good but is only a habit, and it is just a habit that you can change. And most of all, do not call the above changes a DIET.
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March 13th, 2010 on 4:53 PM
You know, it’s amazing how very true this is. I will exercise all day, but I don’t like to change my food. I know I have to and I do, but I’d be much happier if the process of losing weight just involved exercising more. Good tips.
March 13th, 2010 on 6:10 PM
You’re not alone Jeremy. I always thought that it was about exercise for many many years, but just find out that food is the deal. Thanks for stopping by.
March 27th, 2010 on 12:42 AM
The truth is that there are so many exercises that a perfect for getting rid of unsightly abdominal fat. The most important thing is to be consistent and faithful with them, and also to eat very properly so as to prevent the storage of excess fat, increase your body’s metabolic rate, and by so doing, achieve great results over a period of time.
March 27th, 2010 on 9:16 PM
I think the sure fire way of raising your metabolism rate is to increase lean body mass by doing an overall workout which would include ab work.