How long have you been carrying around that muffin top, spare tire, or whatever the latest term is these days for belly fat? That long, eh?
It can be very discouraging when you try on those new skinny jeans and have a roll of fat bulging over the waistline. Or what about that little black dress hanging in the closet that clings in all the wrong places?
Not only is the muffin top unattractive, it’s also bad for your health. Research indicates that belly fat also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, certain cancers.
Here’s the good news -- just by putting extra effort into your everyday routine, your muffin top will be gone before you know it.
1. Clean House. Start your spring-cleaning by vacuuming and/or mobbing the floor. Remember to tighten your belly muscles while you push back and forth.
2. Tend Your Garden. Spend an hour bending down, pulling weeds, digging in the dirt and lifting a water bucket all while holding in that tummy.
3. Improve Your Posture. Imagine a string attached to the top of your head to the ceiling. Shoulders back and suck in your belly. Believe it or not, straightening up (just like your mother said) can make you look five pounds thinner.
4. Play Catch. Playing ball with your kids or a pet is a great cardio workout as long as you keep moving. A 30-minute frisbee match (with your gut sucked in) can bring your heart rate up and burn fat.
5. Go Swimming. Swimming is a great form of belly-fat-busting aerobic exercise. Jumping, diving, Twisting your waist and remembering to breathe works the muscle in your belly churn and burn.
6. Enjoy a golf game. Swinging a golf club stretches your oblique muscles and increases strength. Skip the golf cart -- the extra walking will burn unwanted visceral fat.
7. Take a walk. While you're walking, imagine a magnet sucking your belly button back toward your spine. Practice this easy move until it becomes like second nature.
8. Sit up straight. Pretend you have wet paint on the back of your office chair or on the driver’s seat of your car so you won’t lean back. Sit up straight and remember your improving posture moves.
9. Scrub your muffin top. It may sound odd, but scrubbing your belly with a good exfoliator next time you’re in the shower stimulates cells and improves circulation. Scrub vigorously for five minutes. Think, sucking in nutrients and purging toxins.
Sources:
Prevention – Weight Loss – Weight Loss Tips – 50 Ways to Flatten Your Belly in 2012. Web. 28, March, 2012
http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-tips/50-ways-flatten-your-belly-2012
Daily Mail – Femail - How to... lose your muffin top. Web. 28, March, 2012 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1171948/How-lose-muffin-Top-tips-rid-spare-tyre.html
Mayo Clinic - Healthy Lifestyle - Women's health - In-Depth - Belly fat in women: Taking — and keeping — it off. Web. 28, March, 2012
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/belly-fat/WO00128
Reviewed March 27, 2012
by Michele Blacksberg RN
Edited by Jody Smith