You’re probably reading this right now, chub just slightly poking out above your waistline, gently rubbing against your shirt as you move. You are all too aware of this extra flab, as everytime you look in the mirror you (almost subconsciously at this point) raise your hands to smooth them out, as if to say to yourself “if these weren’t here, this outfit would look even better.
Ah, love handles. The bane of the beach, enemy of the pool, and villain of the subconscious. You work out (occasionally), you run (a little), you eat better (marginally) and they seem to never go down. Eventually, you find yourself eating ice cream, giving up on the dream of a slender waistline and comfortable fitting swimming trunks.
How lucky you are to have found Activeman, where I have prepared a list of ways to shave off these flabby terrors, so long as you stick to them. Trying just a few of these and making sure to make them new habits will get rid of those handles before you know it.
Why are they called love handles by the way, when everyone hates them? Any halfway reasonable explanation is disgusting, and I refuse to entertain it any further. Let’s just get to the ways to get rid of them.
Stop Eating So Much Sugar Dummy
This is staggeringly simple, yet nigh impossible to accomplish without keeping it on the edge of your mind at all times. You’d be flabbergasted to find out just how bad for you all the additional sugar is to your body, and even more flimflammed to discover how simple it could be to cut them out of your diet.
Pretty much every beverage you drink that isn’t water as addition sugars added to it, with the exception of…sparkling water. Soda? Terrible, stop drinking that right away. Sports drinks like gatorade and powerade? Not great, okay if you’re using them to hydrate extra quick at the gym, not okay if you’re drinking them while sitting on the couch or at your desk.
Need something sweet? Stick with natural fruits. Need soda? Stick with flavored sparkling water. Any sweet thing that isn’t natural contains fructose, and fructose is most definitely contributing to those handles. After a couple of weeks of abstaining from this sugar, have a taste of one of those drinks again, namely soda. You’ll likely discover it doesn’t taste all that great, and is largely much too sweet.
Refuel with Healthy Fats and Fiber
So listen, your body is designed to burn fat, not sugar. Most of us modern fools have hijacked our bodies into think sugar is what we need for energy, especially when you’re used to eating a lot of it. This is why you feel like you have a craving for soda or ice cream every once in a while, this feeling is literally your body being confused into believing this stuff is good for you. It isn’t.
Healthy fats are any fat that comes from something natural essentially, and your body is built like a furnace to burn it. This means stuff like Avocado, fatty fish, nuts, fatty red meat. Eating this kind of stuff will keep you full for longer periods of time, all but erasing the weird cravings you have for junk food you don’t actually need.
Speaking of helping you keep full for longer, fiber. Nuts. Dense fruits. Granola. Eat as much of it as you can get your hands on during the day. There are a lot of fibrous snacks out there, and they will double your ability to keep full longer.
Don’t Stress and Lift Some Damn Weights
Would you believe me if I told you all that stress is literally making you a little fatter? Your adrenal gland is producing cortisol everytime you continue to stress over that thing you don’t actually have much control over, so you know, stop that. I know it’s easier said than done, but instead of stressing, think about whether or not there’s actually anything that can be done about whatever it is you’re stressing about. The answer is usually surprisingly little.
While you’re at it, join a gym if you haven’t. Particularly to lift weights. I know this isn’t a revelation of any kind, but I mean lift weights using your whole body. Doing the ab-coaster and situps exclusively isn’t going to get rid of that belly fat. It’s just going to give you cut abs under the fat. You need your entire body to get used to the exertion.
Stick to any one of these (preferably all of them) and you’ll find yourself in a much better situation for the beach than you have been. After all, you want to be in the best shape you can this summer, it’s going to be a hot one.
