Losing Weight

Side bends. With weights. You hold a bumbell in each hand and stand straight up with your feet together. Slowly bend at the side and lower the weight down tghe side of your leg toward you knee. Slowly come back up to a straight position. Repeat on the other side. Do 10-15 repetitions on EACH side every other day. It works your oblique muscles (on the side of your torso) and will tighten and strengthen them. You'll see you waise slimming in no time. Any weight trainging program is a great fat loss program, because as your body builds muscle, it in turn burns more fat in a resting state, by raising your metabolism, because muscle burns more fat than fat! So you don't need to trun into a body builder, but just tone and add muscle, and the muscle will work for you when you are not working out! And it requires very little time, 15-25 minutes a day. Just remember to alternate and not work the same muscles every day. They need time in between to heal.

Oh, and with weight training you won't necessarily notice a difference in what the scale says (depending on how much you want to lose) because muscle weighs more than fat, but you'll trim down and drop clothing sizes.

Hi NR,
Try Billy Blanks Taebo Cardio 1. He specifically addresses this area. Your crunches and sit ups will help build muscle but he talks about the "twisting" that actually does the trimming your looking for. It's working great for me. I've had 2 c'sections just like one of the women in his video. If she now has a flat tummy I know that I will also.

~M

I used Relacore It worked quite well.
I also did reverse crunches lay on your back and bring your knees to your chest or if possble do this on a weight bench at an incline another thing is to strenghten your lower back muscle that pulls your gut in from the inside and back so a good easy exercise for that is the bridge lay on your back with your feet flat on the floor and thrust your hips to the ceiling about 30 times then go on your hands and knees and curve your back to the ceiling about 30 times I go 10 then switch back and forth another excerise if your shoulders can handle it is boxing and punching from side to side with feet staying put. Oh also try this one if you have stairs put your hands on the second to bottom then extend out on your toes so you are almost laying down then bring your right knee up and under your body to the oppisite side then do the left and go back and forth about twenty times. Have fun and keep at whatever exercise you do remember it took awhile to get the way you are it will take time to change it All good things take work. I hope I explained the exercises right they worked for me
Have a great day.

The only way to lose fat is to do cardio......run, elliptical machine, aerobic classes......but cardio is the key, no matter how many crunches, sit-ups etc......it won't get rid of the fat.

Have you tried yoga or pilates? Both of these really tone and strengthen the core muscles. I love yoga for the meditative qualities--but it can really be an intense workout. It is also a powerful body sculpting tool. The only drawback ( or strength ) is the amount of time it requires. I view it as my time to reset my clock. It is very quiet and introspective and brings a feeling of calm and centeredness. Great for a mom of a toddler!

Good luck.

Hi - a couple of things I will point out - the spare tire is due to elevated insulin levels. Insulin is the "fat storing hormone" and it goes directly to the spare tire area. You need to eat things that are lower glycemic - 55 and lower on the glycemic scale are your best bet. You will find that white rice, white bread, white potatoes, and white sugar are all about 100 on the glycemic index - stay away from those for awhile.

Another thing I will mention is that crunches are not the best thing for postpartum women. 98% of women get a diastisis when they are pregnant. That is a spllit in the rectus abdominus muscle. It does not come together on its own. You can lose literally inches off of your waist by simply bringing your diastisis together through post partum appropriate instrinsic abdominals. A great book that goes into this is "Lose your Mommy Tummy" or there is a class in the Homewood Flossmoor Park District that I teach that goes into depth if you prefer a classroom setting.

I hope that helps!
B.

it's just cutting down on the carbs and doing more cardio...trust me...