Most Popular Podcasts: Banish Your Muffin Top by Boosting Your Metabolism

This month we're re-broadcasting our most popular podcasts.

This week's replay:  Banish Your Muffin Top by Boosting Your Metabolism

In this popular episode, we share our secrets for banishing the muffin top (spare tire, paunch, jelly roll, etc.). 

Newsflash: the key to creating a fit and trim waistline is not doing three thousand sit-ups a day.  Rather, most six-packs reveal themselves when body composition is improved--i.e., you lose body fat.  

What's the key to losing body fat? A healthy metabolism!   Simply put, if your metabolism is puttering along, it's going to be very hard to reduce your calories enough to lose any significant amount of body fat. 

Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoyed it.

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Transcript

0:05

Hello. It's Joe from couture coaching. This month, the month of August, we are releasing our most downloaded and popular podcast. This week, we are replaying our very popular episode called banish your muffin top by boosting your metabolism. I think a lot of women would love to have a six pack or want to know how they can get their tiny waist back from their younger years. And the answer might be a little surprising to you. So check out this very popular episode. Thanks for listening. Welcome to the boost your metabolism after age 30 podcast. I'm Joe and I'm Allison. And we're your co hosts and the founders of couture fitness and lifestyle coaching. We're on a quest to help women design lives. They love and bodies. They adore. We were fed up with the dieting industry and decided to create something different. We're starting a calories up revolution where women are nourished. Their metabolisms are healed and their bodies and brains start working for them in the battle against weight loss. If you feel like your metabolism is wrecked and you want to lose weight once and for all, you are in the right place. Welcome everyone. This is Allison. And today you have both me and Joe here, and we're today going to continue with our how to build it series. So today we're going to be talking about. Abs and how you can banish the muffin top by boosting your metabolism. First, I want to very briefly touch on some things that are going on with us here at couture fitness. Um, we are currently doing a drawing to help generate more reviews for our podcast, cause we want to more people to be able to find us. So if you will give us a five star rating and a review, And then email us at info at couturefitnesscoaching. com. We will put you in a drawing to win 250. Um, and we will do that drawing once we get to 50 reviews. So please, if we have been helpful to you, please give us a five star rating and review. And then next we are starting to enroll for the next quarter of our one on one coaching program. So if you think you would like to work with us, with our custom one on one coaching, where we tell you exactly what you need to do from day one. You know what workouts you need to do to what you should be eating. Um, check out our website. You can get on the waitlist there or you can schedule a consult call with us directly from there. Or you can always email us at info at couture fitness coaching. com as well. If you want to work with us for our next one on one coaching session, that starts April 1st. So before we get into the topic at hand, Joe, what is new with you? Actually, a lot is new with you. I am just starting a kitchen renovation. I guess as this airs, I'll be in the middle of my kitchen renovation. And then I'm going to Paris and London at the end of March for spring break with my kiddos and my husband. Um, so I'm not insane. I sort of timed these things together, hoping that summer, most of the kitchen renovation would be completely out of. It would be done while we were gone. So that, you know, I, the time that my kitchen's out of operation, we would be not in the house. So, but getting there is a bit of a push. So needless to say, um, in terms of the topic at hand, getting or keeping a six pack will not be on my to do list for this month. Um, but at the same time, there's no reason I can't keep up with some healthy nutrition and exercise habits. Um, and I'll just work on the six pack. When I get back from Europe, so it's all good and worth it. Um, and really, this is huge progress for me. Um, I am a Virgo. So that means I'm very all or nothing. Um, and, um, in the past, I probably could have used both, you know, the trip, um, Dismantling my kitchen as an excuse to get super overwhelmed. Not really an excuse. I would have felt overwhelmed and then just thought, Oh, everything's in chaos. So I have to stop working out and I'll just have to eat, take out a bunch. But, um, but I've, you know, matured a lot, I guess I would say so. Um, so I won't be, you know, trying to diet very hard or, or, you know, I don't have any huge physique goals from March, um, that can all be, you know, happen if I wanted to when I get back. So that's what's going on with me. That's exciting. I've never been to Europe and I'm jealous, but I'm not ready to take my family yet because taking a three year old to Europe doesn't sound fun for me. So maybe since you're down the road. Stay tuned that the 3 year old might be better than the teenagers. I'm taking a lot of complaining and why do we have to get up so early when they're used to sleeping into like 10 or 11. So teenagers and toddlers have a lot of common traits. I'll tell you. I hear that they are the same amount of work. Different kind of work, but teenagers are a lot of work. So, um, okay, well, to the topic at hand, um, I would say most of our clients don't necessarily want a six pack, but they do want to lean out through their torsos, um, and are not loving the muffin top or spare tire that has appeared around their midsection as they've, you know, hit their thirties, forties, maybe fifties. So today we're going to give you a roadmap for creating a trimmer waistline and talk about this from. Really a strategy and science and physique perspective. And at the end, give you some clear do's and don'ts. Um, so you know how to best invest your time and energy. So Alison, um, you and I have both competed in fitness competitions and I will, you know, I think we both agree muffin tops and spare tires are definitely not what the judges are looking for from a physique perspective. Um, but I'm curious, how many hours a week did you do Pilates and sit ups to get ready for your shows and how much did you fast and how many gallons of lemon water did you drink to get a flat tummy for your shows? Okay, so lots of questions. So first, I've never fasted and I don't want to because I get very hangry. Um, when I go too long without eating. So no fasting, lemon water. I never intentionally drink lemon water for any other reason. Besides I love the taste of it. Um, so it's nothing regular, but I do think it's healthy. Um, but I never use it as some sort of trick to get lean because. I don't think it would help me at all in that way, um, but as far as how much time did I spend directly targeting my abs for these competitions? Shockingly, zero minutes a week to maybe five minutes a week. I know I had at least, you know, A couple of shows when I did no direct ab work whatsoever. Um, and I'll talk about how my abs still certainly were, you know, being used. Um, but I didn't really do any sit ups or planks or, so I've never actually done Pilates in my life. I have nothing against it. I've just, you know, It's just not something I've ever tried. Um, and I have had other shows where I did do some ab work, but it was pretty minimal. Um, so I'll touch on that and how I think abs are just a little bit different than most of the other body parts that we've talked about. Okay. Well, I think most people will find that answer pretty shocking that you weren't doing hours and hours of sit ups. So I think more than any other body part, it's just about getting lean enough, uh, for your abs to show, um, how much your abs actually show or how much definition you can see is really just a matter factor of how much body fat you have over them. So you've got to be lean enough. And I do think that is a little bit different than some of the other body parts where you can really make them pop and look good, you know, even, even with a little more body fat over them. Um, I think abs, you simply have to be lean enough. Some of this is genetic, I will say. Some people can be not as lean and have their abs show. Some can have to get really lean before they will have ab definition. I think part of it is just, um, where, how your abs are structured and where you tend to carry your body fat. For me personally, my abs are the first thing to lean out. I lean out from top down. So my, I will, I will get a six pack, um, before my legs ever get lean, but I know there are other body types who will get very lean legs, um, and have to get, you know, work really hard before their abs will show. So some of it is just genetic. You really can't control where you're going to lose your fat from first. Yeah. Okay. So it's not about doing 300 sit ups a day. It's about getting lean. How does someone get lean? So let's talk about body composition first. That's just the ratio of fat to muscle you have on your body. Um, it's not necessarily anything to do with your weight or your BMI. It's just purely what is your body fat percentage. So obese is commonly referred to as a body fat percentage of over 32%. You can actually be over 32 percent body fat and be at a very normal BMI. Um, that would be what we would call skinny fat. Um, healthy body fat is below that. So usually, you know, 23 to 30 percent would be considered healthy for a female. Um, Once you get into that 18 to 22 percent range, you're going to look very fit. You may love how your abs look at that body fat percentage. I personally, I have gotten body scans off and on, not very often, but maybe once a year over the last several years, and I would say in general when I'm not in a cut. Um, so most of the year I sit right around that 20%. And it's, it's athletic and healthy. It's not super lean, but it's lean enough that I certainly look athletic. Um, and it's easy for me to maintain. I'm eating a lot of food there. I'm not working out that much. And it's kind of my happy place. Um, once you get below that, that 12 to 18 percent body fat, that's where you're getting into that. fitness competitor category. I've been there. The leanest I have ever gotten is 13 percent body fat. And I know that's accurate because I was doing the Bob pot at the time. And I was, Super lean. I mean, I look back at pictures and I was ripped. I had very clear six pack ab definition, but I will say I was also kind of miserable. So I really had to dig deep to get there. And clearly that was for, you know, one day stepping on stage. I was not able, nor did I want to maintain that look for more than, you know, a week or two, right. Surrounding my show. Um, so that's kind of, um, What you need to think about if you want your, um, if you want your abs to show. So you really want to improve your body composition by losing body fat and adding muscle to your frame. Um, that is the key. Okay. So this is about reducing body fat and adding muscle to your frame. As you just said, let's start with the first thing, reducing body fat. How does one do that? Is it, do you do it by fasting, by doing an hour of orange juice? Very fitness every day. How do you do that? So it really starts with having a healthy metabolism so you can effectively go into a calorie deficit and lose body fat while still preserving your muscle. That piece is very important, preserving your muscle. So if your metabolism is downregulated, it's going to be really hard to lose body fat. No matter how much you're fasting, how low your calories are, how much orange theory or high intensity or whatever sort of working out you're doing, you have to have a healthy metabolism if you want to lose body fat relatively easily. Most women who have down regulated their metabolism have gotten that, of course, from not eating enough over a long period of time or, you know, yo yo dieting over a long period of time. So you're going to have to start eating more. and doing some sort of resistance training to get your metabolism in a healthy spot first. And you're going to have to focus on that for probably six to 12 months. This is not a, a quick fix scenario. Um, you're going to have to be in this for the long haul. If you want to Get those abs that we're talking about here. And then once you've got your body in a good spot, that's when you can really focus on reducing body fat, um, and getting those abs to show. And, you know, through this process while you're improving your metabolism, your body composition, which is that body fat percentage will probably improve along the way as well. Um, so that's, that's kind of the bonus that you'll get in there while you're working on your metabolism. I see what you're saying about the healthy metabolism, but it seems like eating more sounds like the opposite of getting a flat tummy. It does. I'm sure it does. Um, but if you eat more and lift weights, you're likely going to start improving. at body composition. So more muscle and less body fat means a lower body fat percentage. And that's how you get those abs to show. It's certainly not going to happen as fast as you think it should, but over time you will start leaning out. And once your metabolism is in a healthy spot, that's when you can really put some focus onto reducing that body fat, um, in a healthy way by going into a caloric deficit and your body should respond. And then from there, it's kind of, you can take it, you know, However you want, you can really try for that six pack or you can try for, you know, just something a little bit more maintainable, but once you're in a good spot, you have a lot more, you have more choices. Okay, so I guess next question. How do I know if my metabolism metabolism is in a good or a bad spot or, you know, has slowed down? This could be an entire podcast in and of itself. We may have one. I can't remember. If we don't, we'll probably do one in the future. But just in general, if you are regularly eating below 17 1800 calories and you still have weight to lose, I think that's a very clear sign, um, that your metabolism is not in a great spot. Or maybe you have, um, trouble maintaining your weight on, Lower calories. Um, that's 17, 1800. If you're not able to maintain your weight on that, if you keep gaining weight on that amount, that's a good sign that your metabolism has slowed down and probably needs some work. Okay. Okay. A healthy, faster metabolism. Sounds good. I'm on board with that. But first I really just want to focus on getting that flat tummy. How about I work on my metabolism after I get rid of my muffin top? I can't tell you how often I hear some variation of that. Um, there really is no. It just doesn't work that way. Um, you can't really choose between a flat tummy and a healthy metabolism. So you're just not going to be able to get lean if your metabolism is in a bad spot. And I have been there myself. I have been dieting on drastically low calories, doing more than an hour of cardio a day, much of that high intensity cardio. And my body would not get lean. Um, and it's because my metabolism was in such a bad place from eating low calorie for too long, doing too much cardio for too long. I mean, that's not the case anymore. Um, but you, If you try to do that, when your body's not in a good place, you are going to be working so hard only to be so frustrated that your body is not responding the way you want it to. Um, as a general rule here at couture fitness, we say that you need at least 500 calories of runway in order to lose. Any significant amount of body fat. So if we do the math, let's just say somebody's eating 1000 calories a day, which is super low. You do not have enough caloric runway to lose any significant amount of weight from there. We just, you can't cut from that. You've got to be eating enough, um, to cut from, um, and not be miserable or even, you know, dangerous to your health. Yeah. Okay. Well, how about this? Can't I just sip on some lemon water and fast, even, even if I'm, you know, not in that calorie spot you mentioned and get a flatter tummy that way? No, certainly not. Um, it's not going to do anything for your metabolism. It's not going to help with weight loss. You really cannot ignore this piece. You have to do the work of investing in your metabolism. And if you want to drink lemon water, the, along this whole journey, Go for it. Um, but it's not, you know, it's not some magic thing. There, there is no magic thing or I would be doing it and I would be telling all of my clients to do it. So there's no magical properties to sipping on lemon water or fasting for my metabolism. No. Not at all. Okay. Okay. So what is the path to a trimmer waistline or a flat tummy after a person has spent some time investing in their metabolism? Well, let's just assume they've got their calories in a healthy spot. Um, once you're there, how do you do it? 300 sit ups a day? So like I touched on in the beginning, you, you can do some ab work, but you need so much less than you probably think if you want to get good abs. So obviously you need to just reduce your body fat, um, by moderately reducing your calories, lifting weights, getting in general movement from things like walking, um, And that's going to do more work for you than doing 300 sit ups a day. Abs are revealed in the kitchen. Um, so it's going to be all about a very well calibrated diet. Um, and then you need to be lifting all of your body parts. And maybe that sounds weird, like what do, you know, what does building my legs and glutes and back and shoulders have to do with my abs? First of all, all of these What I call the big lifts, things like squatting, shoulder pressing, um, all of these things, pull ups, push ups, they're all going to engage your abs so much more than you think. Um, you know, if you've got weak abs, try to do a push up. You're just not going to be able to. So all of these moves are engaging your core, even if you're not, you know, thinking that, hey, this is an ab move that I'm doing. You are getting a lot of engagement in so many different exercises, um, with your core. So that's, that's why I think you, you just don't need to do as much direct ab work as you think, and building up all of these body parts, it's going to help you get leaner. Um, and it's also going to give you, I think the shape that most people want without maybe knowing how to get it. So most of us want sort of that hourglass look and getting that flat stomach is about more than just It's, you know, eating less and getting skinny. It's about building out body parts like your shoulders and your lats and your glutes to help give you that curvy look. Building out those body parts is going to make your waist look smaller and leaner. Um, so that's what I would say. Just a general lifting program that targets all of the major body parts, movement, and a well calibrated body. caloric deficit achieved through nutrition. Okay. All right. Well, what if I don't actually really care about a flat tummy? I don't have any desire to wear a bikini this summer and I've sort of made peace with the muffin top. Um, should I care about this as a flat stomach just for show? I think that's a good point. And I think, you know what, if you don't care about looking great in a bikini, that is awesome. No problem. Um, however, I would say fat collection throughout your torso is actually a lot more dangerous than fat that may deposit in your hips, legs, glutes, those sorts of areas. Um, a lot of the fat that may be in your stomach is what we call visceral fat. And that's the fat that collects around your organs. That is why the waist measurement is something that insurance companies even care about. Because the size of your waist is directly correlated to your overall health. So you can be at a healthy weight, but if you've got a large waistline, that still can be actually pretty dangerous. Um, you know, that this visceral fat is very different than just the, the subcutaneous fat, which is the fat that's just right under your skin that you can kind of pinch. Um, like right now, if I pinch my tricep, I can pinch some fat. Um, that. you know, maybe I don't love that fat, but it's not dangerous, but the kind that you can't really pinch around your midsection, um, that's the visceral or that dangerous type of fat. So this type of fat is going to raise your risk for lots of. Pretty serious conditions, heart disease, Alzheimer's, type 2 diabetes, stroke, high cholesterol. Um, a lot of these conditions are strongly linked to having too much fat around your midsection. Um, this can also make your blood pressure go up, it can cause inflammation, um, lots and lots of problems. So I think it goes well beyond just wanting to look good in a bikini. Okay. Yeah. And, um, I think what we, I think these two like good body composition and reducing visceral fat go hand in hand. There are very few people who have a lean body composition that is, are worried about their expanding waistline. So it really is about adding muscle to your body, decreasing body fat overall, just as a health proposition. It also makes you look great. Okay. Um, so you've convinced me, it sounds like getting lean, um, especially through my torso is good for my health. How do I tell if I'm actually improving my body composition? You kind of mentioned earlier that you can be a healthy weight, but be obese. Um, you, or conversely, um, funnily enough, I just had my BMI done, right. I did some tests and it spit out my BMI. And according to my BMI, I am obese. Um, now I know I have, I have a very lean body composition, but, um, how do I know there's so much confusing information out there, what should I be paying attention to? Yeah, yeah. So yeah, I would say you can ditch scale, um, you know, certainly being a hundred pounds over what, what would consider be considered an ideal body. Weight probably isn't healthy unless you're some crazy male. bodybuilder on steroids, but that's not our, you know, that's not who we're talking to here. Um, so I would say look at your waist measurement. That's a really, really easy thing you can do maybe once a week. Um, just, and don't worry about being perfect with that. Just do it in the same place every week. If you just want to take it right around your belly button, that's perfectly fine. Um, so monitor that if that is going down, you are most likely losing body fat. The other thing you can do, um, is get some sort of a body scan. There's different, different ways you can do this. A lot of gyms or supplement stores actually have free body scans where you step on the scale and you hold these handles and it will give you an idea of what your body fat percentage is. I would say maybe it's not a hundred percent accurate, but you can at least see trends. You can see if it's going up or down. Um, and then if you really want to get something accurate, you can do something like the bod pod that I talked about doing myself several years ago, or a DEXA scan or something like that. That's how you can tell if you are progressing and losing actual body fat, which is what we actually want to be losing. Okay, that sounds good. Um, yeah, and I know that a lot of like, um, some of these things you can get like Groupon coupons for and get a good deal on those. So yeah, yeah, I've never done a DEXA. I've only done the BOD pod and it was actually really cool. It just, it just takes a little more time. You've got to drive somewhere and you know, it's a little more invasive to your time, but if you want something really accurate, it is kind of cool to see that data. Okay. So Joe, I'm going to ask you a question. Now you have coached a lot of ladies and you've competed yourself. And I know you've got, you've gotten yourself some really great abs. Um, what is your best advice as a life coach for banishing the muffin top? And you can give us some very tough love here if you need to. Okay. I have two words, reasonable expectations. Number one, listen to us. When we say that this all starts with a healthy metabolism, it is going to be very, very difficult to lose weight and lose body fat. If your metabolism has slowed down significantly and is limping along. Um, the good news is that I think you mentioned this earlier. You will likely lean out while you are investing in their metabolism. I've seen clients who have spent. Upwards of a year working on getting their metabolisms back to a healthy spot. And even if they haven't lost a lot of weight by the scale, um, by their pictures, you can see a noticeable decrease in the amount of fat sitting in their torsos. So, you know, don't, don't think all is lost if you've got to spend some time. Getting your metabolism back to a healthy spot. You, you can make improvements in both areas, but if you don't take the time to do this, you will just prolong the process, spin your wheels and probably be very, very frustrated in the process. So just heed that warning. Number two is cut the booze. The wine belly is a thing. And I don't know if you have noticed this, but I, you know, drinking a lot of alcohol definitely Contributes to the muffin top. So to the point that I can tell from pics from pictures now, like starting pictures, if a client is drinking on a regular basis, there's just a bunch of bloat and like a bigger belly. That's that's a wine belly. And that's the best way I can describe it. I don't know if you can see that in the pictures, but if you want to cut out and lean or lean out through your torso, consider cutting out or. cutting back on the booze. Um, that's in addition to all the things that you mentioned, the calorie deficit and lifting weights, you know, it doesn't make any sense to be whining about why, you know, you just, your stomach is still so chubby. If you're drinking six, seven glasses of wine a week, that those two things are not congruent with each other. Um, third, um, You know, I think a six pack is not something to obsess about until you've got some healthy nutrition and exercise habits in place. Um, when you are, you know, just not paying attention to your nutrition, can't make it to the gym, sitting around whining that, you know, your abs aren't showing is what I call fantasy world. Um, there's just no sense in expending a bunch of energy. Whining about this if, you know, every evening you're scavenging around for food, like eating stale pizza for dinner, because it's the only food you have in your house. Um, and you're not moving your body on a regular basis and drinking a bunch during the week. Um, to expect to have, you know, a slim trim waistline when you're engaging in those habits is, you know, Total and complete fantasy. So, um, certainly don't go complaining to your coach that you need more ab exercises to get rid of your muffin top. If you're doing those things, um, I think really, and, and honestly, I mean, you and I can both speak to this. That's not typically what we see. Um, what we get more is women who it's very, uh, I really empathize with them. It's a very. Frustrating place to be there. 30, 40 pounds overweight and very concerned about their growing midsection, but they're eating like 12 or 1300 calories a day. And it's like, well, no, I need to get rid of, you know, my waistline is huge. I'm paying more in insurance because I'm deemed unhealthy. You've got to get this weight off of me. And, um, I mean, the reality is, is that that's probably, yeah, we can start making inroads, but, but they're, they've really kind of put their body in fat storage mode and it's going to take some time to get it out of that and get that waistline down. I think the bottom line is that amazing abs are just a sign of really good self care habits. So that's fine. That's my advice. What do you think about that? I would agree. I would agree with all of that. Um, okay. Have you seen the wine belly before? Do you know what I'm talking about? Probably not as, um, I don't see the details maybe like that as much as you do. I'll have to put them in now. I'm going to start looking. Yeah. Okay, so we're going to wrap this up by putting on our physique coach hats now, and we're going to provide our best do's and don'ts for banishing the muffin top and building a body that you love, and you can at any age. So, Joe, why don't you go first? Okay. So I would say like we've touched on, get, do get rid of the muffin top by putting your metabolism first. Um, you will like the results so much better. You're going to get results number one, and then you will like the way that you look so much better. Number, what I would say don't do is some sort of crash diet, three weeks to a bikini body detox. That's not going to do anything is that that is a complete waste of your time and money and is going to set you back further from getting rid of that muffin top. Thanks. Bye. Bye. What'd you say? I didn't. It's going to be miserable. Yeah. Okay. So my do is focus first on improving your overall body composition, that body fat percentage number and do not obsess about the scale. You can be losing weight and actually increasing body fat. You can also be gaining weight and decreasing body fat, um, and, and the inches around your waist. So, um, really focused on that, that body fat percentage. Over the scale when you're getting started, my next, um, do is do make strength training for large body parts of priority and maybe include an app exercise at the end of each of those workouts. So, you know, once you've done maybe a workout that has like, you know, squats, deadlifts, shoulder, presses, chest, presses, um, maybe some rows. Yeah, sure. Include, you know, a set of planks or reverse crunches or some sort of ab exercise at the end of that workout, but don't do hours and hours of ab workouts, you know, 300 sit ups every night for Pilates classes a week, expecting, you know, a full day. Great abs. Now I'm not hating on Pilates. I think Pilates is great for mobility and core strength. Um, but having great core strength doesn't necessarily translate into visible abs. It's a great thing to have, but it, that it's not the same thing. And if your nutrition isn't on point and you don't have much lean muscle mass doing a bunch of Pilates or 300 sit ups a night, it's not going to lean you out. Yeah. And remember that abs are just another muscle. There's no reason to work them any more than any other muscle. Um, think about, let's just use shoulders. For example, if you're doing more at spending more time on your abs than you are your shoulders, then you're probably doing things a bit wrong and you might need to just, you know, back a little bit off the abs and focus more on some of the other body parts. Okay. So my do is make sure nutrition is on point. Um, and don't fall for things like Fat burners and other gimmicks. Remember that abs are made in the kitchen. Um, there's no shortcut that's going to get you these great apps. Okay. My next do is, is along the same lines. Do make sure you're eating enough and giving your body the nutrition it needs to do something with all the working out you're doing. I would say do not fast. I think fasting is stressful on your body. It's going to probably increase cortisol production. That's actually going to work against decreasing your Your muffin top because cortisol tends to cause fat to collect around your body over time. Now, I've heard a lot of people who fasted, fasted, tell me, oh, my flat belly is gone. And I've looked at their measurements when they were fasting and when they're eating and the belly measurements have often gone down. I think what, um, if you've done a lot of fasting, it does feel strange to have more water and undigested food sitting in your stomach. That's not the same thing as a muffin top. So fasting doesn't, you may feel like it's giving you a flatter stomach, but the measurements would tell otherwise, um, and probably is just going to exacerbate getting, you know, the results that you want. Yeah, don't mistake for actually, you know, actually just feeling full and satiated for, you know, feeling like, um, for, for actually gaining body fat. I think when you fast, you might get really used to that empty stomach feeling. And when you stop doing it, that might just be a different feeling for you, but, um, just something you have to get used to again. Okay, so my next do is to really reduce alcohol consumption if you are drinking a lot. Um, we like to say in general less than four drinks a week. I personally drink almost never because it makes me sleep terribly. Even if I have one drink and if I have two, I am going to be very tired the next day and I Simply don't have time in my life with, you know, a full time job, this business, three kids, my own working out to be tired even for one single day. So I've pretty much just said, um, I will stick to sparkling water with lime and I'm perfectly okay with that. Um, so, you know, cut back on your alcohol, but my don't that goes along with that is don't feel like you have to cut out carbs. Carbs are good for you for so many reasons. We should do a whole podcast on carbs. That's my next one. Yeah. Okay. My next one is do focus on building a symmetrical physique, meaning like what you talked about earlier, like creating that hourglass shape, um, creating the illusion of a smaller waist by building out your glutes and your shoulders. Don't obsess about having a six pack. A lot of that is genetic. It's kind of how your abs are structured. Um, I do get a six pack, but honestly it can look very blocky. Um, so like. That's honestly in, um, like competitions where they're not even going for a six pack because it can make you kind of look thicker through the waist. If you have a lot of ab definition, um, or thick abs through the waist. So six pack is fun. It's nice. I wouldn't even make it a goal. I, again, I would, I would personally just focus on a very healthy body composition. And if you are genetically gifted or genetically have the ability to have a six pack, it'll show up if you get lean enough. Yeah. Okay. My last one, it's very specific. Don't do those weighted oblique side bends where you were. I've used to see people at the gym doing this. When I would go to the gym where you're standing there, holding a weight to one side and then kind of leading over, working on those side ab muscles or your obliques, that is going to give you a thicker waist and go kind of against that hour glass look. So, um, don't do those. That's not the look that I think any, Um, and I'm going to talk about, um, what the rest of us are probably going for. So. Yeah. I used to do those all the time before I had any idea what I was doing. Because it would make me sore. So I thought I was getting really. Yeah. I would have, I would up the weight and yeah. It wasn't helping my physique at all. So. That's okay. I'm sure I did too. And. You know, it's fine. Now, you know, so if you were doing those, just stop. Okay. So let's talk a little bit about. Where we're at in our own, um, I guess fitness journeys and our own physique goal, short term, um, physique goals. Do you want to go first? You want me to go first? Um, you can go first. Okay. So I am at the very tail end of, I won't call it like a reverse. I've just been eating at a healthy maintenance of about 2, 100 calories since. I don't know, June maybe of last year. Um, so, you know, about nine months. Um, it's great. I can fit so many fun things in there, but I will admit I feel a little bit fluffy right now. My weight is, I'm, I'm, you know, my weight is fine. Um, I just feel a little bit fluffy. And so I'm going to start a small cut. here very soon. Um, nothing drastic and I'll talk more about the details of that maybe on the next podcast. Um, but I've been having to tell myself for the last couple of months, Hey, just because you were feeling fluffy, you were not feeling lean. This is still not the time to start dieting. If we all started dieting, every time we felt fluffy, we would be dieting off and on all the time. Um, so I've just had to, you know, fight the urge to say, Oh, I would like to lose just a couple pounds right now. Um, and I've just kept my calories high and I know that the time will come to do my cut. And once I'm in it, I will wish I wasn't in it. Um, so that's kind of where I'm at right now. I'm going to do probably an eight to 12 week cut just for summertime. Um, my goal isn't to lose that much, maybe five to eight pounds and just tighten up a little bit. Um, and I know we kind of, we often end the show with some of the, our favorite foods that we're fitting into our macros at the time. I've got so many favorites that I'm fitting in still. Um, but we thought it would be fun to maybe talk about things that for us, we don't want to have in the house when we're doing our cut. So it's hard for me to keep foods out of the house. I have Three kids and we do eat regular dessert in our house. Um, so it's not as easy for me to just say, Oh, I'm just not going to have this in the house, but I have found for me, anything with fake sugar makes me just want to keep eating more. Um, and I've. I've heard different theories on this that it's, it's a different type of sweet. And so when you get a little bit of taste of that fake sweet, it almost makes you just want to eat more and more and more because your body is actually craving real, like, real sugar, something that's sweetened, um, in a more natural way, as opposed to, you know, different, um, fake sugars. So for me, keeping things like, I know there's some protein peanut butters that a lot of, our clients and followers really like. For me, those things are just dangerous. I don't want to have just a tablespoon of those. I want to have like half of the container. So, um, keeping those type of things out is probably key for me. But I do have to just learn to deal with having all kinds of chocolate and candy in my house. And yes, I might want to have some of that when I'm doing my cut. But, um, I'm just going to have to, to fight those urges. Cause there's no keeping that out of the house for me. So what about you? Where are you at? And what foods do you try to keep out of your house when you're cutting? Yeah. So because of this trip, I am, I'm doing like what I'm calling like a pre cut. Cause, um, we are both kind of cutting for the same event in June. Um, some pictures that we're going to have taken. So, um, that's, You know, that's a good motivation for me to, um, do a cut, but like you, I, I'm kind of fluffy. Um, I haven't, you know, been in a calorie deficit. Well, I tried to do like a little mini cut in August. It did not work for a variety of reasons, but you know, my calories have been high. Um, so to prepare, and I, this may just be like, you know, not wanting to do the work just yet, but I'm doing what I'm calling a pre cut where I am actually being very good about tracking All of my macros. So I know what my maintenance calories are, um, and really paying attention to just all the bites, looks and tastes or grabbing this or that. Um, and, and for me, you know, where I, after all these years, you know, where I really cause problems for myself is I can't have things like licorice, gummy bears, cinnamon bears in my house. I cannot eat just one. I just will eat and eat and eat on those. It's like, it's like. Especially licorice. I don't know something about the texture or the chew. So I don't have those in my house. I mean, I've known that and then things like crumble cookie, um, which my daughter loves. Good. I just can't eat that if they are around, I will eat them. So I just haven't learned to make peace with that, um, for myself. And, um, You know, if we're going to do crumble cookie, we just don't get like a six or, you know, they're very expensive to bring them. You don't bring that many home. Um, I don't do like a lot of baking of like pans of brownies and stuff, because I will want to go and eat one every time I'm in the kitchen. So I just know that about myself, but things like I can do like the, the fun nut butters and, you know, I'm measuring them out. Usually, I would just not be very diligent about that. So I'm doing a little, you know, just kind of getting myself ready for the cut. Um, as I have lost a little bit of weight doing that, but, um, but yeah, um, and intentionally not bringing stuff home, especially after the holidays that are like sugar cookies. candy, that kind of stuff that I know will just call to me in the kitchen. So, um, um, but I, I think, you know, we all have our, I call it, we all have our own kryptonite. You can spend a bunch of time trying to desensitize yourself to it. And for me, it's honestly, It's not worth it. Just, I just don't have it around and then I can't eat it. So that's the easy way to do it. And here's one thing I tell myself. Anytime I do a cut, I tell myself I'm only doing this for two or three months in two or three months. I can, I will have, my macros will be high again and I can fit it all in. And that makes it feel much, much more doable. It's not like I'm telling myself, Oh, you're going to try to never eat. Cadbury eggs again. I say that because it's one of my favorite things right now. And I just bought two more big packages of them today because I love them, but I'll, I will try not to eat many of them during my cut, just because they don't fill me up. Um, and even if I can fit them into my macros, they're going to leave me hungrier than if I put something just more natural and filling in there instead. Um, but I'll tell myself, Hey, in three months you will have room for this Cadbury egg again. So you're not giving it up forever. And that mentally helps me because I don't feel like I'm giving it up for, for that long. And I tell myself I can do anything for eight to 12 weeks. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's a good strategy. Um, that does not work for me with cinnamon bears and crumble cookie. So I know that about myself. Yeah. Knowing yourself is actually a big part of a successful cut. Cause I've had successful and unsuccessful ones where I haven't been able to stick with it. And now I kind of know, cause I've done this many times. I kind of know What, you know, how, how the best way to do it for me is just like, you know, the best way to do it meant, you know, mentally for you to help you stick with it. So, um, that's helpful too. Yeah. So, okay. All right. Well, hopefully you have a great idea now of what To do and not to do if you want to get, um, rid of the muffin top for good, uh, we can certainly help you, especially if you have a sense that maybe your metabolism has slowed down a bit or has downregulated a bit, uh, book a consult call with us. If you want to talk about that more or definitely sign up for our April one on one program, we will tell you exactly what to do. Um, and what we think is going on and what you are going to need to do to, uh, improve that body composition. So, um, links are in the show notes and other than that, have a great day and week and we'll talk to you next time. Bye. Hi everyone. That's what we've got for you today about how you can invest in your metabolism and start losing weight by eating more and exercising less. Trust us. You aren't too old and it's never too late. If you want to learn more about this topic, head over to our Facebook group, Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30. You can also follow us on Instagram or Facebook at Couture Fitness Coaching. And if you want to work with us, join us for our next 12 week session.