How to Slim Down: Why You Should Focus on Your Abs and Waist

New Year's has passed and, as usual, weight loss tops the list of resolutions that people have made for 2013. That's not surprising. What IS surprising is how little people know about how to slim down in healthy and easy ways. Of course, most people know the usual formula for slimming down: eat less, exercise more, drink more water, and eat healthier. But these days the art of how to slim down has become more of a science. That's why this article is dedicated to the fact that you should focus on your abs and your waist if you want to lose weight this year.

How to Slim Down: Why Focus on Abs and Waist?
If you want to slim down, take a look at your profile in the mirror. Chances are that your mid-section, meaning your abdominal area and your waist, are areas where you would love to lose weight. There might also be other areas in your body where you would like to drop a few pounds, but health-wise, slimming down your waist is much more beneficial than, say, losing that double chin.

When it comes to slimming down, why should you focus on your waistline? Here's what medical experts (WebMD) want you to know:

• waist-size is a good measure of overall health (women should not exceed 35 inches, men 40 inches)
• an excessively large waist increases your risk of type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure
• abdominal fat is worse than other kinds of fat because it wraps around internal organs, increasing your health risks
• your waist is one area you can focus on and specifically lose weight, called spot-toning (as opposed to other areas, like saggy underarms)

That should give you plenty of medical reasons for focusing on your waist when you think about how to slim down this year. There are also some pretty nice benefits when it comes to the "looks" department. Slimming down your waist might get you back into those skinny jeans or allow you to wear that body-hugging wrap that you have hidden in the back of the closet!

How to Slim Down Your Waist: 3 Tips You Can Use
Knowing you need to trim your waist size and actually getting it done are two different things. In this section we offer you 3 simple tips that should make it simple to slim down your waist. These tips are based on a simple principle: a bulky waistline is composed mostly of fat and undigested food.

Tip #1: How to Fight Fat to Lose Belly Weight
As we talked about above, belly fat is more detrimental to your overall health than any other kind of fat in your body. For instance, fat on your hips and thighs rests just under the skin, and doesn't interfere with the function of your vital organs. Belly fat, on the other hand, can wrap around vital organs like your liver, kidneys, and intestines, decreasing their function and increasing all kinds of health risks. So knowing how to fight fat, especially in your belly, is important. Here's what you might not know about fat:

 ** Each pound of fat contains 3,500 calories! **

Yup, that's right. We said three thousand five hundred calories. That is a lot of calories. So to fight fat, you have definitely got to watch what you eat and get more active. That's a general rule when it comes to how to slim down. In addition, when it comes to how to fight fat, you can also:

• eat more fiber and protein
• decrease your intake of carbohydrates and simple sugars
• add cinnamon and hot chili spices to your food
• eat fat-fighting foods like grapefruit (your body uses more calories digesting grapefruit than the fruit has)
• drink coffee and green tea in limited amounts to increase metabolism

If these sound like good methods for how to fight fat, read this post for more details.

Tip #2: How to Slim Down by Getting Rid of Undigested Food
We don't mean to gross you out, but a large portion of what people call a "beer belly" is really not at all related to beer. Instead, it's undigested food that is basically rotting in the intestines, creating a lot of bulk around your waistline. What's the reason for this? The foods we eat don't have enough digestive enzymes that our bodies can fully digest our meals. In addition, our bodies don't produce enough digestive enzymes to process our foods--that's just a factor of aging and the modern environment. That's the bad, icky news.

The good news is that there is a really simple natural solution to take care of the problem. This natural solution is to add probiotics to your daily regimen. Probiotics, such as acidophilus and bifidus, are the friendly bacteria that naturally live in your small and large intestines. These bacteria help your body process and digest the foods you eat, moving them through the digestive system so that they don't become stuck there, adding bulk to your waistline. While these bacteria are natural to our intestines, many factors in life can kill off these friendly bacteria. These factors include drinking chlorinated water, stress, antibiotics, environmental pollutants, taking any of a variety of medications ... and those are only a few of the examples.

To remedy this problem, we suggest taking 2-4 capsules of potent acidophilus in the morning, and 2-4 capsules of bifidus at night. Separating these probiotics between morning and night gives each type of bacteria to reach its natural place in the gut (acidophilus lives in the small intestine while bifidus lives in the large intestine). To get the most bang for your buck, it is important to choose a probiotic that is guaranteed live, is stored in the refrigerator for preservation, and can survive the acidity of the stomach. Our favorites are this form of acidophilus and this form of bifidus.

Tip #3: Add Enzymes to Prevent Undigested Food
The tip above helps you get rid of the undigested food (also called intestinal plaque) that is rotting in your gut. This tip helps you prevent the problem altogether by helping your body fully digest your food the first time around. With enough digestive enzymes, your body can easily digest whatever food you eat so that there's nothing left to sit around in your intestines. Choose a  full-spectrum enzyme that digests carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, plus can withstand the stomach's acidic environment. Taking 1-2 enzymes with each meal (and chlorine-free water, of course!) will not only help your body fully digest your food, but will also prevent you from getting the "after lunch sleepies." That sleepy feeling that you get after lunch is a sign that your body is working really hard to digest the meal you just ate ... and that your body isn't doing a very good job since it is lacking the necessary digestive enzymes. So take enzymes with meals.

If you really want to focus on how to slim down your profile, another way to use enzymes is to take enzymes between meals. When there is no food to digest in your stomach, your body will use digestive enzymes as scavengers, sending them around to clean up any trashy cells, unwanted and undigested food, and clearing up the blood. This general cleaning process applies to your body in general, as well as to your abdominal area.

Our favorite full-spectrum enzyme that has been fully-tested to survive the acidic stomach environment and to digest food is here. If you're not sure about the power of the enzymes you take, just try the oatmeal test. Cook up a small bowl of oatmeal. Open and sprinkle a capsule of enzymes on the oatmeal. Within 15 minutes or so, if your enzyme is up to snuff your oatmeal will turn into a soupy-substance that you could drink. That tells you that your enzymes are actually live, active, and working. We've tried the oatmeal test over and over with our favorite enzyme, and it works every time. Plus, it's fun!

How to Slim Down Your Waist: Not Too Hard, Right?
Adding a few supplements to your daily regimen and really focusing on fighting fat doesn't seem too hard, right? These tips on how to slim down are really pretty simple to incorporate into your daily life, and the results are very beneficial. If you are not convinced, go back to the top and read the list of negative impacts that belly fat has on your life. Then weigh it against the simple steps given here to trim your profile and fight belly fat. Sounds like you don't give up too much (except fat) and you get a lot, right?


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Photo Credit: http://pinterest.com/ayushveda/

Fat Fighters: 7 Ways to Fight Fat

Fat fighters ... that's what this blog is all about today, and it's a topic that is hot on everyone's mind. The holidays are over, New Year's Resolutions have been made ... and guess what? The most common resolution is to LOSE WEIGHT!

No big surprise there. Here is a big surprise: only 8% of people will be able to keep that resolution. But don't worry. The tips in this article will help you keep your resolution to slim down and fight fat all year long. It's simple if you break it down into itty-bitty little chunks. In fact, we give you 7 little knowledge nuggets about fighting fat that are, well, easy to digest!


Fight Fat Tip #1: Eat Fat Fighting Foods
Fat fighting foods? Yup, there are actually foods that you can eat that will help you fight fat. It doesn't get much better than that! Most fat fighting foods are high in protein and fiber, low in carbohydrates. For instance, Greek yogurt is one of the best fat fighting foods because it is so high in protein. Protein stays in your stomach longer, so you feel full longer when you eat high-protein foods. Plus, your body burns more energy digesting protein than carbohydrates, making Greek yogurt (especially non-fat and sugar free varieties) a definite fat fighting food. For high-fiber foods, look at whole grains and fruits like grapefruit, which is low in calories and high in fiber. Eat these foods, feel full, and fight fat.

Fight Fat Tip #2: Take Enzymes with Meals
Do you know what happens when you eat fat but your body can't digest it? It goes rancid and literally clogs up your intestines, leading to that unattractive muffin top or beer belly. While our bodies should produce enough digestive enzymes to process and fight fat (you need the specific enzyme called lipase to process fats), most of us are short on the necessary enzymes. As we age, our bodies decrease their production of digestive enzymes, which is why we tend to gain weight as we age. For instance, the average 70 year old produces only half the digestive enzymes as the average 20 year old! To fight fat and counteract this problem, take digestive enzymes with each meal. Be sure to take enzymes that contain a full variety to digest fats, proteins, and carbohydrates. My favorite fat fighting power enzyme is THIS ONE, which comes with extra cayenne for an extra digestive kick! I take 1-2 capsules per meal and have stayed slim throughout my life (plus I don't suffer from any of those embarrassing signs of indigestion, like bad breath, heartburn, or gas).

Fight Fat Tip #3: Add Cinnamon
While cinnamon isn't a specific fat fighting food, this additive does stabilize the body's blood sugar, which can reduce cravings for food, especially sweet, salty, and oily foods. When you talk about fighting fat, these are definitely the types of food that you want to stay away from!

Fight Fat Tip #4: Spice Up Your Food
Are you a fan of hot chilis and other spicy foods? Then you are already on your way to fighting fat. Adding spicy foods like hot peppers gives your body an extra digestive kick (which I why I choose an enzyme supplement that has cayenne). The main ingredient in hot peppers that helps digestion is called capsaicin. Studies show that capsaicin tends to speed up your body's metabolism for a short period of time and improve digestion. As an added bonus, people tend to eat less when the food is spicy. So go for the hot stuff and fight fat while you're at it!

Fight Fat Tip #5: Take the Probiotic Acidophilus
Another simple way to fight fat and aid digestion is to add the probiotic (or beneficial bacteria) Acidophilus into your daily regimen. This beneficial bacteria lives in your small intestine, and aids your body in digestion. Since fats are digested in the small intestine, having enough beneficial bacteria can really help with fat breakdown. Specifically, fats are broken down in the small intestine by bile from the liver and the digestive enzyme lipase. The Acidophilus helps your small intestine keep everything moving smoothly, and helps the body distribute the resulting glycerol and fatty acids. Since the word "probiotic" literally means "for life," this is definitely one of the simpler and better ways to fight fat and improve your overall health. When choosing a strain of Acidophilus, be sure and pick one that can survive the acidity of the stomach and is certified live at the time of purchase.

Fight Fat Tip #6: The Caffeine Fix
Take this tip with a bit of caution. In the battle to fight fat, caffeine does actually have a very beneficial effect. The caffeine found in green tea or black coffee does boost your metabolism for a short period of time, and can help you lose weight. However, most people cancel out the effects of this benefit by ordering coffee with too many fatty additives, like cream and sugar. If you can't stop ordering the mocha lattes, a better choice may be green tea. Studies show that green tea can often help the body burn abdominal fat and can stimulate the metabolism for a brief period of time. To get the most benefit out of green tea, drink several cups per day, hot.

Fight Fat Tip #7: Add Vinegar
Studies show that vinegar, a no-calorie substance, can aid the body in breaking down fats. While some old-time home remedies call for drinking apple cider vinegar straight on a daily basis, this can have adverse effects for people with certain health conditions. Instead, focus on using vinegar in salad dressings and other types of food flavorings. The good news is that vinegar is tasty by itself, so you don't need to dress it up much. Use vinegar as a seasoning to fight fat, add taste to your food, and enjoy a no-calorie goodie!

Hopefully these 7 fat fighting tips will give you some ideas on how you can slim down and stay slim in the New Year. All of these tips are simple and easy to implement, even if you are the busiest person in the world. As an added bonus, most of these tips make your food taste better while helping you fight fat. Whoo-hoo!


If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader. Also, check out the free health resources or order blue-green algae products at wholesale prices on our website.

Photo Credit: http://ow.ly/gE16r