12 Best Foods for Your Abs...

Okay, so you know how I'm always talking about The Abs Diet book (Get the book on Amazon.com) !  I'ts my nutrition bible, but seriously, who wants to carry around a book all the time! Well here is a little printable handout with all 12 Abs Diet Power foods (taken from www.WomensHealthMag.com), including a short description of their "superpowers" and how to best put them to use for your body, which goes a little something like this...

1. Incorporate 2 - 3 of these foods into each of your major meals, and at least 1 into each snack. (Remember you should be eating 3 meals and 2-3 snacks a day to keep your metabolism working hard!)
2. Diversify your food at every meal to include a combination of LEAN protein, carbohydrates (from whole grains and fruit/veggies NOT SUGAR), and HEALTHY fat.
3. And probably the most important guideline...MAKE SURE YOU EAT PROTEIN WITH EVERY MEAL!  If you are working out and especially if you are lifting weights, protein is CRITICAL for muscle building and repair.  Most experts recommend a gram for every pound.  That means at 147 lbs I should be eating about 147 grams of protein a day!  (This doesn't mean go out and eat a whole pack of bacon! It's all about finding lean and healthy sources of protein like white meat turkey and chicken, peanut butter, eggs, non-fat milk, low fat cheeses, greek yogurt... just to name a few!)

Now Chow Down!

The Ab Exercise of the Day! 

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Skinny Fat Revealed - Understanding Your Body Composition

Being "Fit" is about more than just what size you wear...Sure, vanity is what lures most of us to the gym at first (Gotta get into that bikini before spring break, right!) but the effects are so much more far reaching than that!  After all being "Skinny Fat" is just as bad (probably more dangerous) than being "Fat Fat"... Why, you ask? Well, when you don't look fat, its easier to ignore your over all health.  Sure, I don't look fat.  I wear a size 4/6 (sometimes even a 2 these days) but who would have guessed that my body was storing 41 POUNDS OF FAT!  That's right!  I finally got my body fat percentage measured yesterday and it turns out that I am at a whopping 29.5%...so what does that mean?  Well, it means 29% of my body composition is fat!!!! I also learned that my muscle composition was low (although I have been working on it!) at 36+/-, my water percentage was also low a 51%, and my bone density was dangerously low at 3.3%.  All of this is BAD, BAD, BAD.  


For now, I am only going to address the body fact percentage, and I'll save explanations of the other components for another post, but I will explain why its important to know what your body composition is.  As you are losing weight, it is important that you are losing FAT and not MUSCLE!  If you are not eating enough of the right kind of food, and if you do not have a balanced workout plan that includes cardio AND STRENGTH TRAINING (thats right ladies, don't let the grunting men at the gym scare you away from the weight area), you could be burning muscle, and this is very dangerous.  The negative effects of a high fat content go without saying, and increasing your muscle is by far the best way to decrease your fat!!!


Okay, so my body fat percentage is not horrible.  The chart below gives some "recommendations" for ideal body fat percentages in women vs. men (these will vary slightly depending on the source, but not by much).  You can see that my body fat percentage would put me at the high end of "Acceptable" which I read as borderline unhealthy!  This news was a bit discouraging, but on the other hand who knows what it would have been if I had checked it 5 weeks ago when I first started! YIKES!!!  I'm afraid to even think about it.  So instead of being discouraged, I am using this new information to set new goals!  I've got to get down into that Fitness Range of 21 - 24%!!!  WOOHOO! I'm on my way!

Classification	Women (% fat)	Men (% fat)
Essential Fat	10-12%	2-4%
Athletes	14-20%	6-13%
Fitness	21-24%	14-17%
Acceptable	25-31%	18-25%
Obese	32%+	25%+

The Ab Exercise of the Day! 

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Starbucks' best belly friendly treats!!!

Taken from Eat This, Not That FREE eNewsletter! (I really recommend this newsletter if you struggle with what to eat when you go out! I have the hardest time with this!)


So according to our friends at Men's Health Magazine, the best drink at Starbucks is a Grande Cinnamon Dolce Frappucino Light Blended Coffee with only 140 calories, 5grams fat, and 24 grams sugar... NOT BAD AT ALL!  Now, if you're more of a bakery case kind of snacker (are there any chocolate lovers out there?) then you're in for a treat.  Try Double Chocolate Brownie Cookie!!! for only 80 calories and 5 grams of fat (skip the drink if you go for the cookie! have some skim milk instead).


Check out these other "belly friendly" desserts too!
http://eatthis.womenshealthmag.com/content/healthiest-desserts-america?article=11&page=1

   

The Ab Exercise of the Day! 

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