This is the second question of my “Ask Aimee” blog series and today’s question is as follows:

Q: What exercises should I be doing to reduce that “spare tire” around my waist?

A: Before we can ask that question, we should first be asking ourselves how that “spare tire” got there in the first place?

Most often, those extra pounds around our waist (aka, love handles, muffin top, belly fat, spare tire) got there because of what we eat and drink. We all know what foods I’m referring to, right? Food such as donuts, sodas, beer, sweets, fries, burgers, junk food, and the list goes on. And it’s not only what we eat, but how much of it we are eating.

In other words, we’re consuming more calories than we are burning.

Remember, in the battle to lose that belly fat, exercising is half the battle. The other half is eating healthy. If you’re out there exercising hard, but not eating right, you could be wasting your time at the gym. It’s like taking two steps forward and five steps back.

If your goal is to lose weight or reduce that spare tire, aside from doing high-intensity interval training, cycling, resistance training, core workouts and even Zumba, I would definitely be watching what I eat and drink.

I’m not going to go into what are the best diets out there, nowadays. In fact, that’s a very complicated subject, and it would take me pages of words to cover just that topic alone. What I will do is give you some basic nutritional tips that will help you a lot in reducing that spare tire.

Ok, here we go. The first thing you need to do is to cut down on the items listed below:

Sodas – Aside from having an exorbitant amount of chemicals and a huge amount of sugar, sodas have no nutritional value whatsoever (aka, empty calories). Never mind cutting down on consumption, sodas are something I would advise you to take out of your diet for good and replace it with water.

Water is good for you! You cannot go wrong with water! It’s called the source of life for a reason. Water does not contain sugar and has zero calories. And NO, Diet sodas does not mean less sugar! Diet soda are also bad for you.

Below is a great image that illustrates how much sugar is in a can of soda. Holy cow! That’s a lot of sugar!

Bread and pasta – Bread and pasta are very high in carbohydrates. What does that mean? It means, that foods with high carbohydrate content are rich in sugars and starch.

Always remember this, eating pasta and bread will not make you gain weight. Eating a lot of pasta and bread will make you gain weight. So take it easy on the bread and pasta.

Sweets– Who doesn’t love sweets (chocolate, ice cream, cookies, cupcakes, etc.). I know I do. But, sweets have a lot of sugar. Here’s a good tip to follow, make eating sweets something special. For example, make sweets something you would only eat for a special occasion or to reward yourself.

Here’s another great tip. Don’t have sweets around the house. Sweets are something we often eat when we are bored or depressed.

Remember this video next time you’re tempted to eat sweets!

Alcohol – I know everyone is going to hate me for this one. But, so that you know, I’m not here to preach. Instead, I’m here to educate you about what’s inside a drink of alcohol. I on occasion have a glass of wine here and there. But if you want to reduce that belly fat, then this is something that you must cut back on. Beer, exotic drinks and wine have a lot of calories that eventually end up showing up in your midsection.

Let’s look at a can of beer for example. A 12-ounce can of beer on average contains 150 calories. Now, that’s not bad if your intention is to drink just one can of beer, but as most of us know, some people will drink up to 3 or more cans of beer in one day. So, if you multiple 150 calories times 3, that’s 450 calories. Now that’s just in one day. Now just imagine, if we did this three times a week. As you can see, the calorie intake goes up higher. WebMD wrote an interesting article on this subject.

Again, the trick is to make drinking alcohol something special. For example, to celebrate a special moment, occasion or even to meet up with your friends once a week to socialize. Just don’t make it an every day occurrence (again, I’m not here to tell people what to do. Only follow this advice if losing that belly fat is important to you). And please, do not drink beer to quench your thirst. Beer does not quench one’s thirst. Drink water for that purpose.

 
WHAT ACTIONS DO I NOW TAKE TO LOSE MY SPARE TIRE?

So the moral of this story is to watch what you eat and drink. Try to eat healthy, and as they say, everything in moderation.

If you can cut back on the above items and do any of the following exercises; high-intensity interval training, spinning, core workouts, resistance training or Zumba Fitness, you will start noticing changes to that stubborn belly fat.

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there” – Theodore Roosevelt.

Losing that belly fat is in your reach. Just like everything in life, it will take a little bit of effort on your behalf to make it happen. But, it CAN BE DONE! Get to the root of the problem, which sometimes is not what exercises to do, but what not to eat and drink.

“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says I’m possible” Audrey Hepburn.

Now get out there and lose that spare tire.

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