It seems everywhere you look you see a new ‘diet’ out there promises magical weight loss.
Trust me, there’s no magic bullet where weight loss is concerned but many time we need a good road map for weight loss.
I’ve been on the planet long enough to know. I’m a good friend of Rick’s, I’m Shawna K, fellow Canadian and half centurion.
I’ve seen it all.
I’m known more of challenging workouts, you’ve no doubt seen me on Rick’s blog here and here.
I got tired of seeing well-intentioned people making the same diet mistakes, sabotaging their metabolisms getting no results.
Several people asked how I manage to have visible abs over the age of 50 and I figured it was time to let out my secrets.
I want to share 7 tips to getting visible abs at any age with you.
As well, since you’re on Rick’s blog, I know you may have sustained an injury of some sort so your nutrition is THAT MUCH MORE IMPORTANT.
I know that suffering an injury can be a little depressing. I’ve experienced that feeling myself. Don’t let food be your best friend during your injury.
My solution for dealing with an injury is this:
Control the things that you CAN to help you recover faster and even get leaner in the process.
As for training, you may not be able to exercise in exactly the same way, but you’ll likely be able to do SOMETHING, so don’t give up.
More importantly, you’re in COMPLETE control of your nutrition, so here’s an opportunity to make some positive changes to your diet. Not only will it help your waistline, but you’d be surprised how nutritious eating can help your recovery.
Okay, on with the 7 tips to getting visible abs:
#1 – Lose the cardio
I hope Rick has made it abundantly clear that steady state cardio is actually counter productive to your goal of getting visible abs. According to study after study, ‘traditional cardio’ in the ‘fat burning zone’ is ineffective and simply wastes your training time. It’s even been shown to increase appetite which makes it all the more difficult to stay on a weight loss plan.
*So many repetitive use injuries are associated with steady state cardio like ‘jogging’.
Just stop it.
Rick will fix up your repetitive use lower body injuries, then try something different in terms of training (I have some ideas, stay tuned.)
#2 – Less is More
This statement goes for the equipment you need to train with and the time it takes to train.
Why not spend $15 on a jump rope instead of $1500 on a treadmill?
Or how about spending zero dollars on equipment or gym membership and doing burpees or other body weight exercises instead?
Getting visible abs isn’t about throwing more money or more time at your belly fat problem. It’s not about LONG workouts either; it’s about the INTENSITY in your workouts.
#3 – Where’s the beef?
You need muscle to burn fat and look sexy. Muscle gained from resistance training helps to burn calories and keeps your metabolism stoked to burn off the belly fat. If you have an injury in the shoulder, there’s no reason you can’t focus your training on the core and the lower body.
The idea is, never let an injury shut down your resistance training, in fact, resistance training will get your injured body part back up to speed faster as well as help you burn fat. Rick is the expert on that, he’s helped me with all my aches and pains. He’s NEVER said, ‘Shawna, just go sit on the couch.’ He’s always got me doing SOMETHING to rehab an injury and I’m always working other body parts to stay fit and lean.
#4 – No roller coasters
If you want visible abs, your job is to control insulin spikes since your body will not burn fat in the presence of insulin. The hormone, insulin is released into the blood stream in response to the ingestion of carbohydrates. When you control your carbohydrate intake, your fat loss efforts will pay off. Plus you won’t get crazy energy swings.
#5 – You’re sweet enough: drop the sugar
If you have a ‘sweet tooth’ you just need to stop eating sugar. The saying ‘Eat sweet crave sweet’ applies here. When you say ‘no’ to sugar, your sweet tooth will diminish and so will your cravings. The first few days of dropping sugar are difficult, but after that, if you’re satiated with other nutritious foods, it gets easier.
#6 – Pass (on) the bread
No one needs the calories found in breads and other bread like products, even if you’re NOT gluten intolerant. Abs will be more visible if you replace almost all your starchy carbs with a variety of vegetables instead.
#7 – Treat yourself
This sounds too good to be true, but it is. When you reduce caloric intake, your hormones that help you burn fat can be reduced by 50% in as short as seven days. So to keep those fat burning hormones happy, make sure that you increase your calories with a ‘treat meal’ at least every seventh day. Of course this makes more than just your hormones happy 😉
*Don’t go overboard here, especially if you’re side lined with injury. Typically a ‘treat meal’ can be a slippery slope to excess. This is even more detrimental to your waistline when you’re injured because you can’t necessarily counteract a big meal with a metabolically charged workout. My suggestion here is to PLAN.
Have just enough of the treat food for your treat and then throw or give away the rest of the treat so it doesn’t ‘accidentally slide down your throat 😉
I have lots of other tips and tricks for getting a six-pack at any age. In fact, so many folks have asked me what I do to stay lean, I wrote it all down for you in the ’21 Day Challenge Diet’.
First of all, I need to clear up the name ‘Challenge Diet’. It’s a bit of a misnomer.
The fact is, the nutrition portion of the 21 Day Challenge Diet isn’t challenging at all. Based on what beta testers found when they did a test drive, they said that the nutrition plan was practical, sustainable and they felt full and energized on it. In fact, they lost up to 15 lbs in 21 days.
Now while this isn’t ASTOUNDING weight loss, veteran dieters know that it’s a substantial loss, especially when the weight stays off. The good news is that during the 21 day maintenance phase, beta testers not only maintained their weight loss, they lost even more pounds and inches while feeling satisfied.
No, the challenge is definitely NOT with the nutrition plan for the 21 Day Challenge Diet.
The challenge involves MOVEMENT!
Unless you want to be a skinnier version of your former fat self, you need to MOVE in order to transform your body. So the 21 Day Challenge Diet challenges you to get off the couch daily. Now if you’re injured, your movement will be modified but there’s almost ALWAYS some way to move and burn more calories even if you’re injured.
I have you covered with daily email messages of motivation, inspiration and workouts. No matter what your fitness level is, you’ll be challenged to keep moving with short invigorating workouts.
A bonus to the 21 Day Challenge Diet is the social support you’ll get. Few other ‘diet’ plans have 24/7 support with a network of like-minded people all on the same path. You’ll have access to me (and the entire Challenge Diet community) to help you reach your goals. Studies show that those with social support have the MOST success with weight loss. The support group is like the ‘secret sauce’ of the 21 Day Challenge Diet.
My goal for my clients is for them to NEVER go on a diet again. The 21 Day Challenge Diet plan is created with this in mind. It’s really the ‘non-diet’ diet. You’ll learn sensible eating habits and lifestyle skills that won’t necessarily ‘end’. You’ll feel so good that the changes you make in the 21 days will be ones that you’ll adopt for life.
Imagine how you’ll look and feel as you easily drop those extra pounds while gaining your health and vitality back.
The 21 Day Challenge Diet is not the ‘challenge’ that you think. You won’t be hungry or deprived. You’ll challenge your body to be it’s best. You can check it out here.
ABOUT SHAWNA K
Shawna Kaminski is a retired schoolteacher of 20 years who’s found her passion in the fitness industry. She’s parlayed her ability to teach and her love of training into programs that you can directly benefit from. Shawna is almost 51 years old, is a mother of two teenagers and understands how busy life can be.
Her workouts are short and intense and often can be done anywhere. She’s always up for a challenge and shares her fitness challenges with you on her blog Challenge Workouts. Currently she runs her own fitness boot camps and coaches clients in person and online around the world with her amazing ‘result getting’ programs.
Shawna Kaminski
