I saw a commercial the other day for a product that made the Loud Bold claim that it could get you into your “skinny jeans” in about 5 seconds. I wasn’t actually looking at the TV screen when it first came on but of course that caught my attention and my eyes fixed on the screen, then I just about died laughing.
It was for a waistband extender (which is pretty much a glorified rubber band) that you loop around the button and hole of your jeans to give yourself some “breathing room”.
Now this is perfectly ok if you are in the early stages of a pregnancy, but if you’re not pregnant, is that really how you want to get into your skinny jeans? What if your shirt rides up and exposes your little secret? How embarrassing! Not to mention, it just plain ol’ doesn’t make you feel super hot to have your pants half un-zipped all day.
So if you want to get into your skinny jeans for real, sans the rubber band, then follow these 5 quick tips to get started:
1. Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time –Flying by the seat of your pants RARELY works when it comes to fat loss. You need to have control over what goes into your body so that you can make sure it’s supportive of your goals. This doesn’t have to be a long drawn out thing. Most lean healthy people eat the same thing 90% of the time with only minor changes in protein source or vegetables. You could make a template day and then simply swap out chicken for fish one night or seafood for lean pork. To make things really simple, I like to keep my 3 snacks a day pretty much the same every day. Snack one is usually almonds and fruit, snack two is low-fat Greek yogurt with a teaspoon of agave and a few berries, snack three is usually right before bed and is a protein shake mixed with water or almond milk. A few times a week I’ll have something else as a snack, particularly on the weekends when I may have more time and energy to think about it but during the week I just grab my staples and go.
2. Cut down on starchy carbs at night (unless you’ve done a strength training workout like boot camp). The main job of carbs is to give us energy, that’s why starting the day with an unprocessed starchy carb is a great idea. But at night, we usually slow down a bit so that energy supply isn’t necessarily needed and is more easily converted to fat while we sleep. So instead, try doubling up on the vegetables with dinner instead of the normal rice, potato or pasta. You’ll find that you wake up less bloated and that your tummy will start to look flatter in a very short amount of time.
3. Up the intensity of your cardio workouts but cut the duration down –Long steady state cardio is such a waste of time when it comes to losing fat fast, especially around your belly. Instead, you are gonna want to concentrate on high intensity moves that tire you out in a relatively short amount of time. Some of my favorite cardio interval workouts include jumping rope, outdoor sprints, Burpees and shadow boxing. I go all out in intensity (I am for a level 8 or 9 on a scale of 10) for 1-2 minutes, depending on the move, and then rest for an equal amount of time. My idea of rest is an active rest so you’ll usually see me doing planks, Spiderman lunges or leg raises during my “rest” time. The whole thing takes about 20 minutes and it’s all you need to get a flat tummy faster.
4. Drink LOTS of water –you’d be surprised, no, downright shocked at how much water you are retaining right now if you are not in the habit of drinking at least 64oz of water a day. Drinking plenty of water is going to do several things including: Allow your body to release water it’s holding tight too because it thinks there’s not enough water coming in regularly. It’s the original all natural “cleanse” you’ll find that you uh…clear out some back logged waste once your systems are well lubricated :). Keeps you from feeling hungry when you are really only thirsty. Allows your liver to process fat more efficiently cause it has one of the major tools it needs –water. Trust me combining tip # 2 and #4 will give you an immediate jump start to a flatter belly.
5. Give yourself a realistic time frame – of course 5 seconds is waaaay to good to be true but in working with clients I have found that in just 2-3 weeks they can solidly drop one jean size or more and lose inches off their tummy. The first week, drinking more water and cutting out starch at night will cut down on a lot of excess bloating and then during weeks 2 and 3 all that clean eating and high intensity cardio, in addition to strength training, will pay off. Keep up your program for another 3 weeks and that’s two jeans sizes smaller. If you focus on your goal and put in the effort, you could be up to 5 jean sizes smaller by the start of summer and if you don’t need to lose 5 jeans sizes, you’d be at your goal even sooner. One of the best things you can do is take it in small steps. So map out a plan for the next three weeks and tell me how it goes.
Great tips!!
goooooooood and true