Have you ever heard the saying, “Abs are made in the kitchen”? There’s a reason this phrase is often used in the fitness world and I’m here to tell you why!
Hours of cardio and double days are a thing of the past! I remember the days I would regularly workout 1-2 hours a day. It’s literally exhausting just thinking about it! If my eating got off track, I’d just run an extra mile or two to “negate” those calories. I knew this wasn’t the proven way, but it was a way I had come accustomed to and honestly was just addicted to. I wanted that feeling of constant control over my diet and exercise and I simply used exercise as a way to make myself feel better if I indulged in a treat. It feels silly even talking about it, but I want you to understand I was not always in the mindset I am in today! I knew the science, I knew what I SHOULD do, but I was addicted to my ways and it took years to break free!
I do love exercise, but I don’t want to live and breath it, nor do I want to use it as a means of punishment for eating something not so healthy. And lets be honest. . . we can NEVER out-exercise a bad diet! The trouble with over-exercising is that it leads to even more hunger, and it becomes a vicious cycle!
Here’s the deal. . . NUTRITION is the gross motor control and EXERCISE is the fine tuning. Big changes in fat loss come from our diet, end of story! No amount of exercise will undo bad food choices and we’ll end up always looking the same! Using exercise as a way to feel better about alcohol or food binges on the weekends will never get us ahead! If the goal is weight loss, we MUST eat right all the time, not just Monday-Friday! We must find a way of eating that makes Saturday eating look just like Tuesday eating. No restrict-binge cycles, no deprivation, no crazy fad diets, pills or shakes. Simply eating nutritious foods, and learning to incorporate the things we enjoy without bingeing.
When we look at exercise, this is how we fine tune the body. Simply cutting calories will only lead to a smaller shape of the body we already have. Plus, without exercise, we’ll lose muscle, which in turn will slow our metabolic rate. This will make sustainable weight loss nearly impossible! We need muscle for many reason, but when it comes to fat loss, muscle is the driving force behind our metabolic rate! So building muscle is essential in any program, plus exercising increases our caloric burn helping to create the caloric deficit needed to lose weight. Building muscle will also help change the shape of the body. I often get clients who tell me they want to look “toned,” which in my world basically means they want MUSCLE DEFINITION. This comes from a combination of building muscle, then burning the fat so the muscle shows through. This same concept holds true for the “six pack” abs. Once the muscle is there, we have to shed the fat through diet in order for those muscles to show through. . . hence the phrase “abs are made in the kitchen.”
We cannot spot reduce when it comes to weight loss, but we can target muscles with exercise! This is awesome when it comes to reshaping and defining the body! We can focus efforts in certain “problem” areas, and for women this is often the butt, hips and thighs due to our production of estrogen.
So next time you over-indulge and think you’ll just go out-exercise the food you ate, STOP! Instead of torturing yourself with hours of cardio and food deprivation after getting off-track, just get back on track and focus on the following:
- Drink lots of water! At least 1/2 your body weight in ounces.
- Eat lots of fibrous veggies. This is a natural detox for our bodies. You don’t need pills, shakes or detox plans, simply give your body plenty of fiber!
- Eat plenty of lean protein.
- Instead of hours of cardio, do a short, high-intensity weight training session.
- Don’t beat yourself up! Get back on track and move on!
- Start to pay attention to what triggers a binge, and learn ways to avoid binges and instead enjoy #mindfulmoderation.
If you struggle with over-exercise and want to stop the vicious cycle, download my FREE Metabolic Makeover Guide HERE! This guide will provide you simple steps to understanding and implementing the L.E.S.S. is MORE approach. You’ll finally be able to get your body and metabolism on track for sustainable weight loss!
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