Oyo, I was hopin' some of you guys could give a bit of advice, but mostly motivation. I'm going on a trip in almost exactly two months and I wanna look good for pics. I'm not huge, I'm sitting at around 163 lbs, but I got quite the big belly and love handles. I have gone to the gym but lately I've been their wet dream; paying for membership but I haven't gone in probably 5 weeks, mostly because I go with a friend but he has been too busy to go and I haven't had the motivation to go myself. anyway, I'm rambling now, what I wanted to know is do you guys think it's possible to lose the handles in two months time, and any tips/ suggestions to get there.
Two months time is kind of quick, but if you start now, you'll definitely see some progress.
My advice to lose the love handles? Nothing profound, but it takes dedication to the routine.
Diet: We know what's good for us and what's bad for us. There are no surprises or secret tips there. Replace sodas (even diet sodas) with water (H2O is your friend), replace cookies and candy with fruits and veggies, stay away from fried foods and unhealthy deserts, and focus on rice, fish, and grilled/baked chicken for dinner. You don't have to starve yourself, but definitely focus on eating the right things.
It is okay to cheat once in a while, but definitely make the unhealthier things a rare treat rather than the norm.
Now for exercises:
Treadmill, Elliptical, Bikes, or any other kind of cardio = Exercises that keep you in constant motion not only help to burn the fat but are good for the heart too. Even going outside and running/jogging once a day will help with this.
And if you want to specifically target the midsection = Crunches work well for me. I typically do a crunch, hold it for about 5 seconds, and then go back down, and do it about as many times as you can handle. Do that at least a few times a week. I also do weighted pull ups, if you're interested in that. They are more for the upper body, but target the midsection as well.
The real challenge though is changing habits. I used to pig out and snack on the unhealthiest crap all the time, and that was very hard to break. Not because I was a food obsessed weirdo...it was just...habit. When I was bored, I'd go snack on something. If I watched a movie or binged Netflix, I'd snack on something and not move. Its all right there and available, so its hard to snap out of that. A few tips that helped me.
1) If you are a heavy snacker, try and find healthier things to snack on instead of the usual junk = I used to scarf Oreos like there was no tomorrow, and I knew I was going to have to break that. What I did was find things I do like and try to replace Oreos with that healthier snack. I always loved Kellog's Cracklin Oat Bran cereal, and the pieces are fairly big, so one of the first things I did was use that as my go to snack instead of Oreos. If you like carrot sticks, make that your go to snack. If there is a specific fruit you like (I always loved Pineapple for example) make that your go to snack.
This was easy for me because I live by myself, but when you go to the store, get into the habit of only buying healthy foods. You can't snack on what isn't there around the house, so you can kind of remove the temptation right away. Now if you have a family, especially with kids, that is much tougher because you have to shop for multiple people and not all of them are going to want to diet like you obviously.
2) Exercise while binging Netflix or watching something on TV = As I said before, getting into shape is about changing habits, which involves creating new ones and breaking bad ones. If you are sitting there binging Netflix and just sitting there, that is a lot of time dedicated to inactivity. When I realized how much time I'd devote to Netflix, Hulu, or whatever, I also realized I could do smaller exercises to keep me busy while the movie or TV show was on. I could still pay attention to the TV, but keep myself active while doing so.
These exercises are fairly simple too. Crunches, Hindu squats, Jumping jacks, Sit ups, push ups, etc. These are things that you don't need to go to the gym for and you can just do around the house, and if you can watch your favorite show while doing it, even better. I even got myself some dumbbells and a spring bar to do quick and easy workouts.
One thing I also started doing was getting quick workouts during commercial breaks. "Okay the game is at a timeout and is at commercial...lets see how many push ups or pull ups I can do before the game comes back on".
3) And this was huge for me. I HATE HATE HATE going to the gym. More specifically, I hate dealing with the people that also frequent the gym. I hate people that comment on what I'm doing or trying to get me to compete with them when all I want to do is work out and be left alone, and I especially hate alpha male dick weasels that try to start shit or showoff how tough they are. There is a lot of social anxiety there and you aren't comfortable with it, it is hard to get into the habit of going.
My advice is to bring headsets and play music. People will generally leave you alone if you've your headsets on. Also, try not to worry about competing and comparing yourself to other people around you. You aren't training for a competition, you're there to better yourself, so better yourself and don't go beyond what you're comfortable with. And if it makes you feel more comfortable to have a friend or workout pal go with you, do it. The extra bit of motivation can definitely help, and if you're both there to support each other, it makes for a much better environment.
