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Live the Six-pack
Lifestyle- Our 6 Step Program to Living the 6 Pack Lifestyle
By Eugene Thong
CSCS
............................................................................................
 Have
you ever found yourself envying some celebrity's body transformation
story? Like when Brad Pitt gained 20 pounds of solid muscle to play
Achilles in Troy?
Or how Jessica Biel got into drop-dead
ridiculous shape for her role in Blade: Trinity?
Or when you read about the literal Spartan
training the boys of 300 endured for abs so defined they looked like they
were spray-painted on?
I can just imagine all the things you tell yourself:
"Well, it's because they have all that time to work out and eat right."
(Except for the fact that they have 16 hours of rehearsals and PR to do
every day until the movie comes out.)
"They probably just eat raw macrobiotic bio-friendly weirdo food. I can't
do that."
(Maybe some of them do, but those aren't the
celebs we're referencing here. And honestly, would you really want to look
as gaunt and toneless as Gwyneth Paltrow? Give that girl a barbell and a
steak!)
"They work out for like 10 hours a day. I can't do that."
(Media and celeb trainers love to exaggerate
workout routine claims. The honest truth is that the actors aren't "working
out" for 10 hours a day. Their actual exercise routines can be distilled
into an hour or so of focused training, with the remainder of the time spent
learning fight choreography or some other movie-specific conditioning.)
Forget the media hype. Forget Hollywood agent hyperbole.
You don't need to spend hours a day or
hundreds of thousands of dollars on private chefs to live the six-pack
lifestyle. You do have to adhere to the biological laws of reality,
however.
We've distilled and translated these immutable laws into 6 precepts, listed
here for your convenience.
1. Stop eating crap
Note for the record that I'm emphasizing not eating
bad foods, as opposed to
eating good foods. This is on purpose.
Reason one: Eating bad foods does more
damage than eating good foods can overcome.
In other words, the fact that
you had a salad for lunch today doesn't cancel out the pizza and beer you
had last night (that's a "six-pack" lifestyle that we don't recommend for
optimum leanness).
Reason two: If you avoid eating bad
foods, you will, by default, be eating good foods. Lists of foods to avoid
are always more powerful than lists of "Superfoods" or recommended foods.
Why? Because if a food is on the "Avoid"
list, you avoid it, no questions asked.
But if a food you like isn't on the
recommended foods list, you're left with the question: "Is it not on the
list because it isn't optimal, only good, or because I shouldn't eat it?"
By telling you what you shouldn't eat,
you're left with foods that you can.
2. Move more
This goes hand in hand with #1. By eating right, you'll have the energy to
move more. By moving more, you'll be more inclined to move more. What do we
mean by that?
There's a synergistic effect that occurs when you're eating right and
exercising regularly. The two activities build upon one another by
reminding you to stick to the program. The more you build the habit of
sticking to the program, the easier sticking to the program gets.
3. Lift heavy things intermittently
Weight training is a vital part of your fat loss routine. We've written
reams about strength training and its myriad benefits elsewhere on the site,
but we'll list them here again, for your convenience.
Strength training:
* builds muscle, bone, and joint strength
* raises metabolism
* prevents muscle loss when dieting (so the weight you lose will be fat, not
muscle)
And it feels good to be strong, dammit.
4. Stop drinking mysterious fluids
Any beverage that contains calories is off limits - e.g., beer, soda, Venti
Frappucino, pineapple mango juice, chocolate martini, etc. It's all too
easy to over consume calories when you drink them, particularly because the
calories in those beverages come primarily from sugar.
Sugar raises insulin levels, which results in
increased appetite and switches on your fat-storing mechanism. Instead,
drink water, plain or fizzy. Drink tea and coffee without sugar.
The sole exception to the calorie-containing beverage rule: A pre or
post-workout protein drink. Here we outline the rationale for using a
pre/post-workout protein shake.
5. Get some shut-eye
Lack of sleep raises cortisol, our body's primary stress hormone. While high
levels of cortisol are good to have when you're running away from a charging
rhino,
chronically high levels of cortisol wreaks havoc on your body's
systems.
Primarily, cortisol shifts your body towards
fat storage and to favor one particular fat depot on your body - your gut.
In other words, cortisol promotes belly fat storage.
To add insult to injury, lack of sleep also decreases metabolism (causing
you to burn fewer calories per day), inhibits growth hormone release
(preventing muscle gain, which also limits your potential daily fat burn),
and increases appetite (making you hungrier, more irritable, and more likely
to over consume calories).
So get some sleep, already - most sleep
experts recommend about 8 hours daily (you may need more or less, depending
on your individual sleep response).
6. Get over it, already
You may not even realize it, but that firecracker attitude you've got is
probably killing you, literally. Stress is arguably the biggest contributor
to aging and accelerating disease states.
A landmark 2004 study showed that chronic
levels of stress damaged DNA inside cells and was associated with increased
levels of oxidative damage. The culprit? That wacky cortisol again.
So not only can stress make you a grouch to be
around, it can contribute to your pudgy waistline and shorten your lifespan.
One of the best ways to relieve stress is to participate in a meaningful
activity that engages your mind and body. Exercise - strength training in
particular - fits the bill quite well, and has the added benefit of undoing
the RNA damage that occurs with aging, which contributes to longevity (a
British Medical Journal study found that risk of death correlated to
strength levels, with those who were the strongest having the least risk of
dying).
And strength training happens to be an
invaluable tool in reducing body fat, too - just check out our series on
Weight Training For Fat Loss.
P.S. It may be a good idea to get our
Black Book of Secrets. It contains exactly
what you should be eating, and the exact exercise plan you need to keep your
body fat in check. It's instantly downloadable and comes with a few cool
bonus tools to keep track of everything.
Check it out here
P.P.S. If you're a first time reader of
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About the Author:
Eugene Thong, CSCS, was born a weak, skinny,
bespectacled child. Now, thanks to a steady diet of martial arts,
scientific inquiry, and heavy compound movements, he's no longer weak.
His scientific bent, Zen-like demeanor, and efficient but intense
methods have made him one of New York's most sought-after personal
trainers.
 When
not helping clients cultivate their own inner 6-packs, Eugene can be found
arm barring opponents at Renzo Gracie's Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Academy or
sailing through the air on his snowboard. Read Eugene's semi-weekly musings
on exercise, fitness, and fat loss
at his blog
Eugene is Mike's co-author of The Black Book of Secrets- The Bible of
Effective Weight Loss.
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