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Wednesday, January 2, 2019

4 Tips for Great Abs + A Workout That REALLY Works!

Tips for Great abs and an ab workout

If you ask most women what they think is their most desirable area of their body, I am guessing VERY few would say "my abs!!!"Let's face it--the throes of motherhood have put our abs through the ringer!

It's easy use the excuse that because you have birthed children that you can't have great abs no matter how hard you work-- but that simply isn't true. It IS true that our bodies change and your abs might not look exactly like the chick on the cover of SHAPE magazine or how they looked when you were 19, but great abs at any age is completely possible!


The key is not 1,000 crunches a day. The key is having killer exercises COMBINED WITH  getting a few other things in line as well (ahem, nutrition!!). Here are my four tips if you're ready to see your abs again!! :)

Tip #1: Get your nutrition in line
This is CRITICAL to getting abs. You MUST MUST lose belly fat in order for those cute little abs to make their appearance. You can do this by following a lean protein, lower carb diet. Note I did NOT  NOT say no carbs!!  Please don't deprive your body of the nutrients in "good" carbs. You also need healthy fats so please don't run out an buy everything "fat free" thinking that will be the cure-all to losing fat.
As an example, to lose weight and overall body fat, a 170-pound person would want to eat close to the following amounts each day:
*4 cups of vegetables
*3 cups of fruit
*3 ¾ cups of protein (examples: chicken, fish, turkey Greek yogurt, cottage cheese)
*1 ½ cup of carbs (examples: sweet potatoes, corn, peas, wheat bread, milk)
*1/3 cup of healthy fats (examples: cheese, avocado, nuts)
How close to you come to these portions?

Tip #2: Cardio
To lose overall body fat and excess fat around the ab area, you need to be burning CALORIES! This is why sit ups ONLY won't work! You gotta get moving!! Aiming for 15-30 minutes of Cardio 3-4 times a week is a good goal. ((I know you didn't want to hear the cardio part, but great things don't come easy, sister!))

Tip #3: Water!!!
You need to drink water. A lot of it! When you are fully hydrated, your fat burning rate is the highest. Water also helps speed your metabolism which will help burn fat as well. The rule of thumb used to be "6-8 glasses of water." But ok, what's a "GLASS" and doesn't the person's weight matter at all? Does my 70 lb 11 year old need as much water as her 170 lb dad?? Of course not!
A good rule of thumb is half your body weight in ounces. So a 140lb person would need about 70 oz of water per day.

how much water should I drink?
Tip #4: Alcohol
Sorry, not as in: drink MORE alcohol, but drink LESS (once again, I apologize!!) Alcohol is one of the main things that will causes belly bloating and those extra empty calories you just don't need. If you are finding you are sticking with a pretty good diet, working out and still not seeing ab results, excessive alcohol intake could be the culprit. Try limiting your drink intake and see what happens :)

So with those tips in mind, here is a quick 8 minute ab workout  from one of my very favorite trainers, Autumn Calabrese. You can do the moves right along with the video! And don't worry if you can't do every move perfectly! Do the best you can, do it everyday, and just try each time to do better than you did the day before. Remember: Progress NOT Perfection :) You'll get there!
QUICK ABS WORKOUT ~ AUTUMN CALABRESE


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