Let’s face it – most people, especially women, would like a flatter stomach. There are numerous formulas for achieving a flat and toned stomach, but it all boils down to eating smart, exercising and getting proper digestion.
Mind Your Diet
You won’t reap the rewards of your workout if you don’t get the proper vitamins and nutrients. Fueling your body correctly is the very foundation of a successful weight loss plan, with exercise being secondary. Feeling lethargic and dizzy is very likely due to poor diet choices.
Under-eating can also result in a slower metabolism, which can have negative effects on your weight loss goal. A well-balanced meal from fresh products provides proper nutrients and helps promote weight loss. Whole foods are always the best choice when it comes to buying groceries.
Say No to Refined Carbohydrates
Carbohydrates are always recommended when you are working out. They fuel your body with the energy it needs to keep pushing your muscles. However, refined carbohydrates like rice and white bread spike up your blood sugar thereby creating an inefficient production of insulin.
This spike stops your body from burning fat. Instead, your body is pushed into “starvation mode”, where instead of using your stored fat for energy, it stores up more fat. To avoid this, replace refined sugars by complex carbohydrates like starchy vegetables, oats, sweet potatoes, beans, lentils, etc.
Be Smart with Exercise
Doing crunches day by day alone will not give you the results you desire. Even if you do it for an entire year, it’s not going to change your body in the right direction. A flat stomach requires different core exercises – a combination of cardio and strength training.
You need to burn the fat surrounding your abs first before you can start toning them, and cardio is one of the best ways to achieve this. One form of exercise that includes cardio and strength is HIIT.
HIIT
High Intensity Interval Training, also known as HIIT, has been proven to be the most effective fat burning methods. The best part about HIIT is its simplicity. You simply perform exercises at a high intensity and by intervals—exactly what the name HIIT stands for.
Take running as an example: instead of jogging, you would do short burst of sprinting, followed by a short rest. You could do ten 100-meter sprints, each followed by a 45-second rest period. This HIIT approach is often used in combination with weight lifting.
This methodology has been proven to be incredibly effective in burning fat and speeding up your metabolism. HIIT is a great workout if you desire to target sections of your body like your stomach, thighs and even your arms. It includes core, cardio and resistance training all in one – so you’re burning more fat effectively and efficiently in a shorter time frame.
Achieve Proper Digestion
One thing to remember is that excess weight on your midsection isn’t always fat, water weight and gas can contribute as well. Water retention and bloating is not entirely manifestation of poor diet among women. In fact, bloating occurs regularly for those who don’t pay much attention to their diet. Excluding improper food intake, there are many different causes to it.
Normally, bloating happens for two weeks every single month due to the ups and downs of hormones that their bodies undergo during their monthly cycle. Being bloated is a natural occurrence, but it doesn’t mean it’s not preventable. Here are some tips to prevent and eventually get rid of bloating:
Take Probiotics and Eat Fermented Food
Yogurt, fermented soy beans and “kimchi” are some of the most popular fermented foods available in the supermarket. Foods like this promote healthy bacteria to thrive in your gut. They also contain digestive enzymes that promote proper digestion and nutrient absorption.
As mentioned, an imbalance of bad and good bacteria is one of the causes explaining why so many women are regularly bloated. This imbalance immediately happens when antibiotics are being taken. An imbalance of the bad and good bacteria in your gut can also lead to a poor immune system and other digestive problems. Taking a healthy dose of quality probiotics daily will restore the health of your gut and will prevent bloating.
Katrina Rice is a mom and a freelance writer. She strongly believes in the concept of holistic wellness through healthy and natural living, travelling and immersing one’s self in new activities. A self-proclaimed health enthusiast, she hopes to inspire more people to live a more natural lifestyle.
