Is it possible to melt your belly and end up with a flat stomach and fit into 32 inch pants in six weeks? That sounds like a stretch to me, but I am more than eager to put it to the test myself. My guess is that if you are in your teens to your twenties, you probably are not desperate to figure out a way to hide your pregnant belly.
On the other hand, if you are already in your thirties, forties and I am pretty sure your fifties, then you might likely be wondering if you will ever see your abs again. This is not about superficial vanity. This is about health and fitness. Mind and body fitness. There is no one out there who can tell me that you feel just awesome waddling around with your stomach hanging over your belt. No, I cannot believe that. If you do, let us know why.
We dont feel great like that, being out of shape, but we dont really know how to deal with it. For a man, I think the last place he wants to go is to a public support group and talk about losing weight, but for a man, losing that belly is serious business. As I have said in many places, I am not a medical professional, but I have read enough to know that visceral belly fat, the fat that surrounds our internal organs is considered to be active and dangerous to our mental and physical health.
Since my main focus here is on fighting depression with fitness and exercise, that is the ultimate goal for me, to be as fit as possible physically to be healthier in mind as well. Everyone else will have their own reasons that they want to lose belly fat and get more muscle, lets assume health is number one and everything can fall into place after health, better job prospects, easier to climb the corporate ladder, more energy, more interest from your wife or if you are in the dating world, from the people that you want to attract.
I decided that for this project I am going to rely on the experts, and that will be on a little orange book published in 2004 called the Abs Diet which became a New York Times bestseller written by David Zinczenko. According to this orange book, it is possible to lose up to 25 pounds in six weeks which I think is insane. In addition, according to this program, most of the weight that a person will be losing will be from fat and specifically from belly fat. I do not know about you, but that is where my last pounds of fat are residing. I am thrilled that I went from 275 down to 200, but that has been about the weight that I have stayed at for a couple of years with the exceptions of some months where I was so low carb that I was feeling way too hungry for much of the time.
I read through the book over the weekend and most of the foods that he recommends fit in perfectly with the diet and exercise component of Zehhu which I call Hashimashi, except for the fact that he is okay with wheat products. So since I feel that wheat is not particularly good for me , I am going to use whole grain rye in most places that a recipe calls for wheat. I am going to do everything possible to follow this program to the letter, which mainly relies on twelve powerfoods that he lists as
almonds and other nuts,
beans like chick peas, a hashimashi favorite,
spinach and other green vegetables which is great,
low fat dairy which is not something I usually have used, but I think greek yogurt with its higher protein content is worth a try,
oatmeal which is okay with me,
Eggs
Turkey and other lean meats
Peanut Butter, who can argue with that, especially as a kid I grew up on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on rye bread with campbell soup, remember those days?
Olive oil,
Whole grain bread and cereals, my only big reservation, but why not give it a try?
Extra whey protein which I have used mostly in the form of Isagenix Isalean Pro
Raspberries and other berries, dark fruits like strawberries, blueberries, blackberries
In addition to the nutritional base, I am going to modify the workouts I have been doing to conform more to what they recommend which is more circuit based training, especially since I want to get out faster from the gym, I welcome finishing my strength training in 30 minutes instead of an hour. I tried it today actually and was back home and had breakfast by 815am instead of the usual 930 or 10am.
The first circuit that I did today was:
Squats 45lbs 5 reps
Shoulder presses 45lbs 12 reps
Pullups 80lbs asssistance 8 reps
Curls 20lbs 10 reps
Pushups 15 reps
and I repeated that three times going up in squats from 45lbs to 95lbs and in shoulder press up to 95lbs and pullups to 60lbs assistance.
By the end of three circuits, I was pretty tired and my muscles definitely felt more pumped.
I ended off the workout with deadlifts, one set of 135lbs for 5 reps and one set of 155lbs for 5 reps.
Now, what this means to you is that if you are looking for a way to lose your belly, just follow along and hopefully it will happen for all of us.
My goal is to get to the end of June and find myself fitting in 32 inch jeans so the 4th of July will be more about freedom from fat than anything else this year.
One more thing that is very unusual in this plan is the requirement to eat six times a day. What? Yea, six times a day for six pack abs, that sounds counterintuitive for me, but I want to give it a go, I am sure I am not the only one who has skipped meals and eaten less thinking that will mean less flab. So today for example, I really made an effort to get breakfast done by 830am and will keep going with a snack at 11am , lunch at 1pm, a snack at 4pm, dinner at 6pm and one more snack at 8pm. You will not be the only one shocked if this plan works.
I want to give this program a good week or two before I post my numbers which I am tracking but will not post as of yet. If I see that this does not work at all in a week, I am not going to bother you with it, but if I see that things are happening, then you bet that I will. For me fitness is more about looking good, it is really about being able to manage and cope with medication resistant depression, so I will never give up trying to find the best fitness solutions that can help me be fit in mind. If you are looking for a place to get support for depression, family estrangement, how to fight treatment resistant depression, how to lose fat fast and be physically and mentally fitter, then you are in the right spot because I have been struggling with the same for many years and will share everything I know that has worked or not worked for me with you and hopefully we can support each other.
Have a great day!
Rich is a Certified Personal Trainer-AAPT, an