Abs are made in the kitchen. For real.

"Both belly bulge and love handles are about excess body fat, not lack of muscle.  Crunches and ab exercises are therefore not the solution.  The best way to reduce these problem areas is to reduce your overall body fat percentage, and we all know that requires diet and exercise." - Jillian Michaels

However, exercise will only go so far.  I don't know how many years I have spent trying to justify what I eat by comparing the caloric intake to calories burned on a treadmill or as calculated by my Garmin.  It just ain't gonna work that way people. 

I want to say it's ALL diet.  ALL diet.  If you continue to eat crap; you are going to feel like crap and ultimately "look" that way.  Our bodies are machines.  We need to fuel them.  If you don't get on point with your diet and continue to eat processed foods, doing a thousand crunches a day is not going to get you too far because you will still have that lovely layer, that lovely pouch, that tire.. whatever you want to call it.  It's going to be there.  Nothing burns that fat off.  You need to shed it by not fueling it anymore garbage. 

As a rule of thumb, you need to begin to fuel your body in the morning.  Think of it as a fire in a woodstove.  Start heavy and then feed it lightly throughout the day.  You don't want to give it too much or you will smother it.  You only want to give it the good stuff too.  I am not a dietician or a nutritionist.  But I do know that I feel like I need to be a chemist to read our food labels anymore.  Sorry, but when there are so many consonants next to each other, followed up with a few "x"s here and there... I don't need to be eating it.  Neither do you.. and I won't feed it to my children.  OR, at least I try not to and it's in moderation when I do.  STAY AWAY FROM PROCESSED CRAP.  If you cannot pronounce what is in the food then don't eat it.  If there are ingredients that sound like chemistry class, don't eat it.  If there are a large quantity of ingredients in one food item, don't eat it.  It's simple, really. 




Here's my soap box and my own little conspiracy theory.  We live in America.  We are bound by the almighty dollar.  Everything is money driven.  People are in it for the big buck.  I know I mentioned before that we have "sickcare" not "healthcare."  We go to the doctor when we are sick, they prescribe medications to make the symptoms go back to baseline.  That's it.  We go back if there continue to be symptoms.  Why not try something different?  Why not look at what we eat and how that impacts us; physically and emotionally.  I am a FIRM believer, hate me if you wanna, in the fact that we give money to the doctors, they prescribe medications.  Pharmaceutical companies often times fund the research to make us believe that medications will work...   So, who is going to make any money off of telling you that Apple Cider Vinegar will cure so many ailments?  No one. 

 

WE are driven as a society to eat what is placed in the grocery stores, in the center aisles, that is loaded with toxins, preservatives, additives, color enhancers, etc... it's easier, it's cheap, it lasts awhile... but what else does it get to you?  Behavioral issues.  Emotional issues.  Cancer.  Significant physical issues; stomach problems, IBS, obesity, headaches, migraines... etc.  But we are quick to pop a pill and make it go away.  Doesn't happen at my house.  And it shouldn't happen at yours.  Google "Monsanto."  Do your own research.  Compare our rates to that in other countries.  It's not rocket science. 



Losing weight is only a positive side effect from eating clean and healthy, by shopping the parameter of the grocery store and visiting our local farmers market.  Even then, be careful.  What is labeled as organic and all-natural may not be ALL true.  Again, we are driven by money and when the FDA approves something as such, keep in mind that they are run by the government.  :)