The 10 Golden Rules For A Flat Belly
Losing belly fat is no easy task if you’re metabolically broken. Millions of people every year fail at losing belly fat and blame themselves, their programs, and even other people. If you’re struggling with unwanted jelly around your belly, then I’ve got some amazing news for you today…
We all grew up knowing the “golden rule” very well: “Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.”
In other words, if you wanted other people to treat you well, you should treat others well.
Pretty simple, right?
Well as we know it’s not always easy treating others well that have a tendency to get under your skin. We do it, but it’s not always easy and straightforward.
It requires reflection, taking a step back, and sometimes some guidance.
Today I’m going to offer some guidance that will improve your health, lose weight, and reboot your metabolism.
The golden rule for your body is: “Do onto your body as you have it do onto you.”
In other words, if you want your body to treat you well (feeling and looking good), you should treat it well.
Pretty simple, ehh?
Well I’m about to blow your mind with how to REALLY get a flat belly: It’s not about calories, or exercise, it’s 100% about hormones.
You have to STOP thinking in terms of calories, and START thinking in terms of hormones.
You’re going to finally going to get simple with today’s article.
I’ve put together the 10 Golden Rules for Restarting Your Metabolism and Taking Control Of Your Health….To Get a Flat Belly Once And For All
Golden Rule #1: Avoid These 4 Inflammatory Foods
In order to begin the process of reversing metabolic damage you need to reduce inflammation. And that starts with your diet.
Avoid high-fructose corn syrup, wheat, vegetable oils, and soy.
Inflammation will prevent weight loss, since you need to have healthy cells in order to activate your fat-burning hormones like growth hormone, glucagon, and adrenaline.
Avoiding inflammatory foods will reduce your risk of insulin resistance.
Fat storage around the waistline is a classic sign of insulin resistance. Here’s how insulin works: You eat food, then your blood glucose levels rise which sends a message to your pancreas to start pumping out insulin. Insulin is able to signal your cells to open up and receive the glucose (sugar) that’s floating around in your bloodstream. Insulin regulates how much glucose gets allocated where in your body (fat cells, muscles cells, or your liver). Depending on how insulin sensitive you are, the glycemic index of the foods you eat, your lean muscle mass, and several other factors, determines how likely your body is to store the “energy” around your waistline.
The Bottom Line: Replace the 4 inflammatory foods with anti-inflammatory substitutes (honey, rice flour, coconut oil, etc…).
Golden Rule #2: Reduce digestive disrupters
Anytime you eat or drink something that your body doesn’t recognize, can’t digest properly, causes inflammation, or are allergic too, you negatively impact your ability to assimilate nutrients, minerals, and vitamins.
This leads to a vicious cycle of inflammation, nutrient imbalances, and, ultimately weight gain.
Substances like phytates, oxalates, lectins, tannins, and trypsin inhibitors.
If you’ve spent anytime at all in your life consuming low quality foods with preservatives, artificial ingredients, fast food, and other processed foods, then you definitely need to take some time to reduce gut inflammation.
Cutting calories or going on a cleanse is fine and dandy, but most people end up gaining all of the weight they lose, because it’s not sustainable. The best way to clean your digestive system is to avoid low-quality foods in the long-term.
Don’t worry, it’s not all about restriction (see Golden Rule #7).
The Bottom Line: An inflamed gut will not only cause bloating, gas, IBS, and/or constipation, it won’t help you lose stubborn belly fat to get a flat belly.
Golden Rule #3: Become a smart consumer
It’s important you know the hierarchy of healthy foods in every category. You should learn how to read ingredient labels and understand that just because something is low in sugar or low in fat, doesn’t automatically mean it’s healthy.
Every food has a best, good, and bad rating. For example, you know that organic, grass-fed beef is best, organic is good, and conventional is bad. Or gluten-free bread is best, sprouted bread is good, and whole wheat is bad.
Learn about each category to understand the consequences of eating too many “bad” foods and not enough “best” foods.
The Bottom Line: Health and a flat belly starts with what’s on your plate and at the end of your fork. It’s OK if you don’t ALWAYS eat whole foods, however, educate yourself on ingredients and nutrition facts.
Golden Rule #4: Reduce stress by using these techniques
Stress is a silent metabolism killer and if you’re not careful it can completely stop your ability to lose weight. Your stress hormone, “cortisol” breaks own precious muscle tissue, slowing down your metabolic rate, resulting in more stored body fat.
The research shows that stress can add to your belly fat problem in several different ways. Your stress hormone, cortisol can hurt you many ways: It can breakdown your valuable lean muscle and use it for energy (a process called glyconeogenesis), it can directly cause increased fat storage, and it can decrease certain fat burning hormones that you really need.
You can manage your stress by using 3 of the following techniques:
Technique #1: Practice diaphragmatic breathing
Most of us are shallow breathers, meaning we breathe with our mouth instead of our nose. This leads to lowered Oxygen levels, poor posture, neck pain, and a slower metabolic rate. A recipe for making it more difficult to get a flat belly. Try taking 5 deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth, focusing on inhaling from your belly.
Technique #2: Exercise
Exercise is a natural anti-depressant, since it releases specific hormones to put you in a better mood. Just be sure to do the right kinds of low-stress exercise to minimize the negative consequences. My favorite type of exercise for me and my clients is metabolic training (I discuss why in this article). Do 3-4 metabolic exercise sessions every week for optimal results.
Technique #3: Meditate or pray
Meditation has been shown in countless studies to reduce stress, stress hormones, and improve your overall mood. You don’t have to be a Tibetan monk to meditate. Learn to sit in silence and relax for just 10 minutes a day and it will come easy to you.
The Bottom Line: Learn to identify your stressors, then find solutions to manage, control, and eliminate those stressors from your life. Stress can ruin any hopes of a flat belly.
Golden Rule #5: Use Metabolic Reconditioning Training 3 or 4 days a week to burn fat and build muscle
Exercise will do more than help you lose unwanted weight. It will positively affect your energy, endurance, conditioning, and stamina. It boosts your brain’s level of serotonin, your happy hormone.
The true power of exercise, specifically metabolic exercise lies in its hormonal power. When you exercise, you lower your insulin level, increase your glucagon levels, and boost your growth hormone.
Remember, glucagon and growth hormone are fat-burning hormones that help to control insulin and cortisol levels. And the best form of exercise to boost your growth hormone and glucagon levels is metabolic reconditioning training.
The Bottom Line: When you start doing metabolic workouts, you’ll accomplish 2 things: A low-stress consequence, which optimizes your fat-burning hormones and keeps your stress hormones low and an “after-burn” effect, which keeps you burning calories for up to 48 hours after an intense metabolic exercise session. For a complete 9-week metabolic workout program click here.
Golden Rule #6: Have a protein shake back up plan
I’ve always been a 100% whole food and real food promoter, but the reality is it’s almost impossible to eat a completely whole food diet. So, the next best thing is to find the highest quality protein replacement to supplement your real proteins.
Most people don’t eat nearly enough protein, especially vegetarians. I’m not saying being a vegetarian is bad, I’m just saying MOST of them need to find ways to eat more protein.
Protein helps burn fat by building lean muscle, keeping you full, and balancing your hormones.
I recommend everyone find a high-quality protein powder to make smoothies, shakes, and add into other high-carb/low-protein meals.
Protein also helps to manage insulin. Insulin can be your best friend or worst enemy when it comes to fat loss. You’ve got to make it a priority to regulate insulin.
Eat lower glycemic index (GI) foods as a general rule, and combine higher GI foods with protein and fat. The secret is you’ve got to know WHEN to eat your sweet/starchy stuff, not forget about them all together.
Time your meals with your exercise to get the benefits of insulin. Eat your starches and sugars after your metabolic workout to get the full benefit of carbs.
The Bottom Line: Not all supplements are good for you, in fact, MOST of them are horrible for you. One of the only supplements you need to succeed in getting a flat belly is a high-quality protein powder and, of course, delicious protein shakes and smoothies (like I share in The Flat Belly System).
Golden Rule #7: Live The 85/15 Rule
You may have heard of the 80/20 principle, known as the Pareto Principle states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. It’s a pretty great way to run a business and I’ve tweaked it to work in your journey to a flat belly.
85% of the time live like the healthiest version of yourself and the other 15% be flexible! If you eat healthy, exercise, sleep well, stay relatively stress-free, and form healthy habits 85% of the time, the 15% of drinking alcohol, eating out, eating ice cream, or whatever it means to be “unhealthy” for you won’t negatively impact your results.
The Bottom Line: You can STILL get a flat belly and you’ll actually have fun doing it. The best diets are ones that are sustainable, flexible, and enjoyable. You should be able to live by the 85/15 Rule for the rest of your life.
It’s extremely important you find a program and way of living that you can maintain for the rest of your life. Sure, sometimes you need to “detox” and get back on track, but if you follow the 85/15 Rule, getting back on track won’t be nearly as hard as it usually is.
Golden Rule #8: Get rid of as many TOXINS as you can
Whether we realize it or not, we are bombarded by toxins.
Our liver, kidneys, and digestive system are the body’s natural cleansing team, working together to remove toxins from our body. These organs become unable to function at an optimal level because of poor nutrition, stress, toxin overload, lack of exercise, or toxic lifestyle habits.
There are several ways toxins make you fat and unhealthy:
- Slow down your metabolism
- Lowering your fat-burning potential
- Decreasing signals from your stomach to your brain (leptin)
- Overloading your liver
Your body stores the majority of toxins in fat cells, since it’s safer for toxins to be in your fat cells than in your bloodstream, where your liver can detoxify and deactivate them.
The more body fat you have, the more toxins you store. Which is the why the first step to lose fat and/or weight is to detoxify the body.
The Bottom Line: To effortlessly get a flat belly, your detoxification pathways must be OPTIMIZED to reduce inflammation, remove toxins, and to balance your hormones. You can do this by following ALL of the flat belly golden rules and by following a simple 3-week plan that thousands of women are using everyday to see amazing results HERE.
Golden Rule #9: Learn how to make metabolically balanced meals
Some say a happy life is all about balance. You have to balance work, family, health, life, and everything in between. Well, this goes for having a happy fat-burning metabolism too! You have to balance carbs, fats, and proteins. Much easier than life-balancing is what I call macro-balancing.
Balancing your macronutrients helps stabilize insulin, increase growth hormone, and helps control your hunger hormones (leptin and ghrelin). Optimizing these 4 hormones makes losing fat from your midsection a piece of gluten-free cake.
Macronutrient ratios can get pretty complicated. And complicated formulas can lead to “paralysis by analysis,” which leads to no action, which always leads to no weight loss results.
I like to simply everything in life, business, and eating, which is why my formula for the “ideal meal” is 33% of your 3 macronutrients.
33% fat, 33% carbs, 33% protein
You’ll be regulating your hormones, balancing your blood sugar/insulin levels, and boosting your metabolism so it’s working for you all day long.
The Bottom Line: Balancing your meals is a very important concept in healthy eating that is often ignored, since it’s hard enough eating healthy. But if you can eat healthy AND balance your ratios at least 85% of the time, you’re going to propel your weight loss results.
Golden Rule #10: Make sure you’re eating enough food
Most women are trying to eat less food to lose weight and get a flat belly, unfortunately, look around you. Bellies are growing and calories are shrinking! Something is NOT working.
The biggest problem I see is that women are undereating for their physiology.
Here’s what I mean. If you’re doing everything you can to lose weight by eating low-calorie, low-fat, low-carb, and not considering the quality of your food, that’s a fast track to becoming metabolically inefficient and gaining more weight.
It is a common misconception that calories in vs. calories out is the best way to lose weight.
The problem is this: Instead of focusing on the quantity of your food, you should be focusing on the quality of your food.
This has the unfortunate side effect of repelling fat loss and having a counterintuitive effect on your quest to get healthy and lose weight.
This is not the SOLUTION!
If you are woman who has EVER tried to lose weight by dieting, restricting calories, taking supplements, or by starving themselves AND you haven’t gotten to the weight that you want, you’re about to learn a critical strategy that allows you to eat more, workout less, and make a bigger impact on your body.
This isn’t going to be about one specific diet or mindset (although I believe health mindsets are very important). This is actually something very practical.
The Bottom Line: Eat “high-quality” foods and create metabolic, healthy fat loss meals that deliver a nutritional punch to your body that heals your metabolism, balances blood sugar, and regulates your hormones.
Learn how the 3-week Metabolism Diet will show you how to eat the perfect amount of food in 21 days.
BONUS Golden Rule: Join The Flat Belly System
If you don’t know what you’re doing, find some guidance. Seriously, every body needs it. No matter how “new” or advanced you are. If there is an area that you want to get to that you haven’t been before, then intelligent guidance can save you years of struggle and failure.
I wouldn’t be much of a flat belly coach, if I didn’t provide you with the solution to your flat belly troubles, right? So, I would like to personally invite you to join my Flat Belly System program, which will be the LAST program you’ll ever need.
Here’s what it’s all about: Follow These THREE Diet Tips, Avoid This ONE Exercise And Reverse These THREE Hormone Imbalances To Lose 7 Pounds of Belly Fat By This Time Next Week
Phase 1: The 21-Day Flat Belly FLUSH
Phase 2: The 21-Day Macro-Balancing Belly Fat FIX
Phase 3: The 21-Day Flat Belly for Life Plan for the FUTURE
Each phase of the Flat Belly System builds on one another until you are a fat-burning, meal making, machine.
Phase 1 helps you detoxify your fat loss organs stimulate fat-burning hormones and suppress fat-storing hormones. Phase 2 teaches you how to balance your macro-nutrients and eat carbs. Phase 3 helps you eat sustainably and enjoyably so you don’t have to count calories or obsess over food anymore.
The 10 golden rules for a flat belly don’t have to be hard. You can easily get the flat belly of your dreams. I can show you how!
Your coach and friend,
Nick
P.S. Jeanne used the Flat Belly System to lose 56 pounds! Watch THIS video to learn how
