Living Better: Eating Your Way to a Six Pack

Yep, you heard me right - eating your way to a six pack.

Arnold Schwarzenegger once said, "A six pack is made in the kitchen, not the gym". Of course, you're not going to get abs as per below if you don't engage in some form of exercise, but the single most important determining factor in obtaining a set of washboard abs is your diet.

That's right brothers, your 6000 crunches a day routine isn't going to get you a six pack if you're not eating your way to a six pack.

Now what is the basis behind such a preposterous claim? It's simple.

Believe it or not, you already have the six pack of your dreams. You do, it's true.

It's just (literally) in hiding, shielded from its glory by layers of fat. Thus, in order to reveal your six babies to the world, that layer of fat has to go.

Abs are about the hardest section of your body to specifically tone. For your arms, you've got your barbell curls. To round out your shoulders you have your military press. But to obtain a set of abs that glisten in the sun, based on the assumption that you're not a metabolic freak, you're going to have to start eating like you want it.

Here's a sample diet you might want to adopt in order to begin your journey towards the mighty six:

Morning

Oats + honey

2 eggs, soft boiled

Mid-morning snack

Fruit

A cob of corn, steamed

Lunch

Tuna steak, seared

Brown rice

Green vegetables, steamed

Evening snack

Fruit

Dinner

Chicken breast, steamed

Sweet potatoes, boiled

Green vegetables, blanched

As above, the ideal fitness/6 pack eating plan consists in a diet low in fat, refined carbohydrates, salt and sugar and rich in protein, fruit and vegetables and wholegrains.

To cut to the chase, if you want extraordinary results, you're going to need to take extraordinary measures. There is no shortcut.

To the best of your ability, you're also going to need to cut down on sugary foods (the nemesis of a six pack) - sweets, soft drinks, biscuits, cake, ice-cream, etc - as refined sugar raises your insulin levels rapidly, and this in turn leads to the storage of fat in your body*.

Here's a non-exhaustive list of foods you want to adopt and avoid:

Adopt

• lean meat (fish, chicken breast)
• wholegrains (brown rice, oats)
• fresh raw fruit and vegetables
• nuts, legumes
• olive oil (unsaturated fats)
• steamed, boiled, blanced, grilled, foods

Avoid

• red meat (mutton, lamb)
• processed foods (canned preserved foods, anything with a lot of artificial additives)
• sweets (cakes, biscuits, sweets, soft drinks)
• dairy (milk, cheese, butter)
• excessive amounts of salt, sugar and oil
• saturated fats
• excessive alcohol (especially beer - one can contains the equivalent in calories of a bowl of white rice)
• deep-fried, oily foods

If the above dietary recommendations seem too drastic for you at the moment, don't fret. The key is not to overhaul your diet immediately, but make gradual, positive changes.

A few months back, a friend of mine changed his diet overnight according to the above diet plan in order to lose weight and gain lean muscle mass. He ended up losing 7kgs in a week. He also ended up in hospital with an IV drip hanging from his arm. Suffice to say, too many of us nowadays adopt such horrific diets that our bodies cannot cope or adapt to such a change except through the method of gradual introduction. So start by making small changes - oats with honey instead of instant noodles for breakfast. Chicken breast instead of chicken leg when you're at Nando's. Fruit instead of potato chips for a mid-morning snack. The opportunities are endless. You just have to make the choice.

If little Timmy can do it, so can you.

There are no shortcuts. Remember, this is a lifestyle change, not a temporary crash-diet-weight-loss solution. If you're going to be in this, you're going to be in it for life. In more ways than one.

Okay, so maybe there is a shortcut.

*Reference 1

Reference 2