4 Mistakes Everyone Makes When Fighting Ab Flab

By Lucy Danziger and the staff at SELF
Feb 17, 2011

There are a lot of things you can do to help melt stubborn belly fat that probably won't come as a surprise to you—you know, the typical cut-calories, get-regular-cardiovascular-exercise type of advice. But what you don't do can be just as key to finally achieving that firm, flat tummy. Get to know these sneaky belly bulgers so you can steer clear of them and trim inches off your waistline fast.

Parking in front of the TV
The occasional DVR-athon can be just what the doctor ordered, but people who tuned in for two or more hours daily had weaker ab and back muscles (by up to 10 percent) than those who viewed less than two hours, regardless of their overall activity level, researchers from the University of Oulu note. An hour of tube time is fine, especially if it motivates you to hit the gym. Schedule your workout to coincide with your favorite dramedy or reality show, and then tune in while you log some miles on the treadmill, elliptical or stationary bike.

Stressing out
Feeling frazzled and frantic? Increased levels of the stress hormone cortisol, a result of chronic worry, lead to excess stomach fat, research shows. To de-stress and weigh much less, learn to breathe. When you're on edge (or feel like you're about to be), slowly inhale through your nose, counting to four. Then exhale from your mouth for a count of eight. Repeat until refreshed.

Diving into that darn bread basket!
Those fluffy white rolls? They're your flat-ab foe! When staring down a breadbasket, check its contents before digging in. If you see whole grains, go for it—in fact, feel free to enjoy 3 ounces a day. (One slice of whole-wheat bread or 1/2 cup of cooked brown rice are each 1 ounce.) Dieters who did so lost more stomach fat than those who merely cut calories and ate refined grains, a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reveals.

Munching late-night
I like dessert as much as the next gal, but if you're trying to tighten up your tummy, it's best to pass up that scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream and all other P.M. snacks. Your body may not burn nighttime nibbles as efficiently as it does those you eat during the day, a study of high-fat diets in the journal Obesity finds. Declare "last call" two hours before bed. "If you're really hungry, have a 150-calorie snack," says SELF contributing expert Janis Jibrin, R.D. If not, sip tea, cut the lights and bid farewell to the fridge until morning.
For the ultimate guide to fat-burning foods and moves check out the Jumpstart Diet.

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I'm I a sucker? maybe? maybe not!

I'm sure it can be seen miles away.  Not sure if I've always been this way my whole life, but now I know I am.  Why am I a sucker?  Here is why......I always see the best in people, often I don't even think or even imagine they can be anything other than what they present themselves to be to me.  I don't look for hidden agendas, or strategic movements on their behalf to take advantage.  I trust people.  Often it's only after being shown true character by either someone else pointing it out to me or by receiving actions of someones bad character that I'm exposed to it.   Others see things I don't see.  Is it because I'm not looking and they are?  Not sure about any of it but I know it blows my mind what some people see and believe right, when in my heart it is so very wrong.  I stand in amazement at how people can destroy other people and not even blink an eye but totally justify it.  That is not in me and I'm so thankful.  If it's in you, please don't reveal it to me.  I don't want to see ugly.  I've been told that I need to open my eyes to what others purposefully strive at.  And while this is true in some ways, it others ways, it is not for me to see, judge or change.  I know that you reap what you sow and when morals and value and characters are revealed to me that leave me saying......I can't believe this person would do that, my flesh rises up and knowing that in some cases (not all) I have been blessed to yield power to change it's path and destroy before being destroyed. Knowing this does not give me permission to do so.  Such a difficult battle for me and a test I pray I pass.  Wisdom is discerning when to turn the tables on an unjust person and when to walk away and let the reaping and sowing take place.  Abstaining from a hardened heart, and finding peace and joy from within knowing that the surroundings your standing in will potentially harm all that you've worked for.  I pray for those who choose to do whatever it takes with no regards to others lives.  I pray for the Lords vengeance to rise up and not my own for ultimately it is not my battle for I am His child and He is my Protector.  So maybe I am a sucker to believe the best in people but I have no doubt that God sees the best in me.......even when I'm undeserving.  He sees the best in me, so I will continue to choose to see the best in YOU!!

To do list

To Do List

UGGHHHH  All my "SUCCESSFUL" friends swear by it!!  People I look up to and reach out to for advice say it is what will set you apart in working towards your goals!!  So why is something so simple so difficult for me???  I mean, I get it.  I really do, so why don't I do it?  Why are we so willing NOT to do what we KNOW to do and KNOW works?  For me......fear of failure probably.  I recall going through a season of my life of battling depression.  NOT a good season for me at all.  I still struggle with it occasionally but as long as I stay on track with my exercise I seem to be good.  Gotta love those happy endorphins in abundant supply.  I recall during this season it seemed as though I couldn't get anything done!  So for me in my own little world I began doing a "DONE" list to encourage myself.  Not a list of what I needed to "DO" but a list of what I actually got "DONE".  Just my own little "hooray for me, look what I accomplished today" list.  Our minds seem to be under attack so often that we tend to beat ourselves up to the point where Negative digs in and camps out.  This was my fight back to show myself and my mind that I did accomplish something today and for that I should be proud.  It really helped me get through that rough season.  I'm so grateful for changing seasons.  Now I must learn to accomplish a TO DO list and not allow the fear of failing to accomplish it keep me from moving towards my goals.  I'm learning.  It's been a slow process but a process nevertheless.  I would love to hear your strategies for your to do list and how you overcome possibly not completing it.

Turbo Jam Lower Body Workout

Love Turbo Jam workouts!! Yesterday I did the Lower Body workout which is only like 26 minutes. Talk about quick and to the point oh my!! You are started off immediately with weights. And of couse me being me grabbed some 8 pounders! Not that big of deal right? I can handle it. Then you get to use the ever so fun thigh bands. These are no joke!! I decided to use my bands from Brazil Butt Lift instead. They are smaller and I wanted to be as effective as I could be. I love this workout, I haven't done it in a while and my lower body is screaming that back at me today!! It litereally kicked my lower body awake to say the least!! This one is definately going back into my workout rotation in preparation for our upcoming stair climb event!! Tubo Jam Lower Body is part of the Fat Burning Elite package!!

I just have to talk about this

Okay, so we are at McDonalds last night with some friends.......side note: we didn't go there for the food but the free wi-fi.  ~end side note.  Anyway, as we are leaving and heading to our cars, a vehicle pulled up into the drive thru and the voice box asked the vehicle, "Welcome to McDonalds, would you like to try our 50 piece chicken McNuggets?"  OH MY!!  REALLY?  That's just plain crazy!  Who needs a 50 piece nugget meal?  Do people not realize how bad this stuff is for you?
See Below Info from Wikipedia:

The 2004 documentary Super Size Me states "McDonald's Chicken McNuggets were originally made from old chickens no longer able to lay eggs. These chickens are stripped down to the bone, and then "ground up" into a chicken mash then combined with a variety of stabilizers and preservatives, pressed into familiar shapes, breaded and deep fried, freeze dried, and then shipped to a McDonald's near you." Super Size Me also alleged that they included chemicals such as tertiary butylhydroquinone (a phenolic antioxidant used as a chemical preservative), polydimethylsiloxane (an anti-foaming agent), and other ingredients not used by a typical home cook.^[5] This was recently proven by CNN.^[6]

As of October 9 2010, listed as ingredients in the cooking process of McNuggets are dimethylpolysiloxane which in a 2002 lawsuit against McDonald's, a judge commented that Chicken McNuggets are a "McFrankenstein" creation of various elements not used by the home cook.^[7]and TERTIARY BUTYLHYDROQUINONE or TBHQ.^[4] TBHQ, a chemical the FDA requires to not exceed 0.02 percent of its oil and fat content can cause death from the ingestion of as little as 5 grams. Ingestion of a single gram (a thirtieth of an ounce) has caused nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse. Industrial workers exposed to the vapors-without obvious systematic effects-suffered clouding of the eye lens. Application to the skin may cause allergic reactions^[8]

American McNuggets (190 calories, 12 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat for 4 pieces) contain the chemical preservative tBHQ, tertiary butylhydroquinone, a petroleum-based product. They also contain dimethylpolysiloxane, “an anti-foaming agent” also used in Silly Putty.

REALLY?  Silly putty?  Hey, I don't know what all those big words up there are but I'm sure they can't be good for you!

Just sayin........

Social Media OH MY!!

Wow, to say that on some days I feel overwhelmed is pretty much an understatement!!  Thank goodness for my husband and all my friends out there who have made the decision to climb and conquer social media with me.  They are beacons of understanding in an otherwise massively confusing world.  Recently I attended a seminar on Social Media and it's impact on our lives.  It surely opened my eyes to a whole new world of opportunity. Now if only I can navigate the waters, of facebook, twitter, youtube, hootesuite, tweetadder, tweetdeck, ibosocial, blogspot, hubze, and weebly!!  We have fan page engines, and social media gurus to direct our paths in this vast ocean of networking all in the attempts to catch up to the now so we are not left behind in the future!!  Is your brain crying yet?  MINE IS!!  Why do I do this you might ask, well, here is your answer.  I've worked for the "man" at the "j.o.b." and received my wages.  For most people, this is what they are satisfied with or are taught it is the thing to do.  For millions of people, it's awesome.  I've also owed and operated my own company and worked for "myself" at my "dream" or at least "passion" and received my "worth" in return.  I can honestly tell you that, I enjoyed the second much better.  For me, I would rather work hard for myself towards my passion and be compensated, than build someone else dream and just be paid their estimation of my value.  Social Media has opened up worlds of opportunity for all of us to pursue our dreams and passions and make money!!  HELLO.....no brainer for me!  So yes, I'm a networker because I have a passion for people.  I will invest in MYSELF and learn what I can about how our society is currently and will continue to operate business via social media and hopefully along the way be blessed enough to take my tiny or huge (you never know) piece of the pie along the way.  Oh, and just so you know......there is plenty of room at the top for you to join me!!  Have a great twitter status update kinda day my friends!!

Deadline

By Randy Alcorn - Multnomah Publishers (2006) - Paperback - 448 pages - ISBN 1590525922

Heart-Pounding Murder Mystery Involved in a tragic accident under suspicious circumstances, award-winning journalist Jake Woods teams with detective Ollie Chandler to uncover the truth. This alluring repackage of the R andy Alcorn bestseller finds Jake drawing upon all his resources in an ever-intensifying, dangerous murder investigation. Unaware of the imminent threat to his own life, Jake struggles for answers to the mystery at hand and is plunged into a deeper search for the meaning of his own existence. "His Body Hung Suspended Between Two Friends--His Soul Between Two Worlds " "Doc's shoulder jammed into Jake as he swerved the Suburban sharply to the right, cut between a telephone pole and a billboard, then careened into a ten-foot high embankment. Sometime between the sound of Doc's last cry and the sickening crunch of bent metal from the car's first roll, Jake lost consciousness. The last sensation he felt was that of being crushed between the two men he had known since childhood... " When tragedy strikes those closest to him, award-winning journalist Jake Woods must draw upon all his resources to uncover the truth about their suspicious accident. Soon he finds himself swept up in a murder investigation that is both complex and dangerous. Unaware of the threat to his own life, Jake is drawn in deeper and deeper as he desperately searches for the answers to the immediate mystery at hand and--ultimately--the deeper meaning of his own existence. "Deadline "is a dramatic and vivid novel of substance, filled with hope and perspective for every reader who longs to feel purpose in life. READER'S GUIDE INCLUDED Story Behind the Book "Deadline" is Randy Alcorn 's first novel, which stayed on the bestseller's list for thirty-six months. A thorough researcher, Randy spent time with Portland homicide detectives and columnists at the "Oregonian, " as well as observing editorial meetings at the "Indianapolis Star" so he could accurately create the novel's murder-mystery storyline, setting, and characters. Randy also creatively portrays characters who have died and gone to heaven, where they view events happening on earth. « less… more »

 

http://www.amazon.com/Deadline-Randy-Alcorn/dp/1590525922

 

 

I just finished this book and loved it!!  I would highly recommend it!!  Enjoy the read and stay blessed!!