10 B’s to boost your burn for body baring season

April 18, 2016 Ashley 0 Comments

Finally.

After that subterranean dwelling demon rodent lied to us about Spring being on time, it’s finally here. We just had several seventy-something degree days in a row. (At least here on the East coast.) So, I think we can at long last rest assured that the frosty part of 2016 is over. And now that it is, you’re equally relieved and… panicked. Relieved that you can stow the snow shovel, yes. But also terrified of what horrors hide beneath the full body niqab you took up wearing after that blizzard binge week turned into a month. And then two. And then your scale “had an accident” down a couple stories. You don’t even know what you weigh these days. I understand. So without any further verbal vomit from me, let’s review the 10 B’s that’ll help you fat blast before you hafta blast the A/C:

1. Body movin’

It’s easy to say you don’t have the time. But if you invest today, you could be benefiting from the burn way after the fact. In fact, one experiment done on cyclists who’d powered through a super grueling sesh for 45 minutes, found that they kept cutting the calories for over half a day afterward. All from putting in the effort for less than an hour. By going Chuck Norris on your treadmill for just a few times a week, the pros say you can lose a pound every couple weeks. (That’s, of course, assuming you’re not spending the interim going nuts on the hazelnut fraps and loitering in the gourmet goodie aisle of Whole Foods.)

2. Breakfasting

The reason we never listened to mom was probably because she didn’t tell us why we needed breakfast.

Had my mom said, “’cause you’ll get fat if you don’t eat now”, I might have listened. Maybe. But, the point is, breakfast is exactly what it’s word components mean. You’re breaking the fast you’ve been nocturnally enduring. Now it’s time to re-fuel your metabolic car. Gloss over that, and your body’ll burn fat far more slowly. Why? The same reason people who fast all day long end up paying for it later. ’cause your body thinks it’s starving. Which means it thinks it’s gotta conserve energy. Which translates to fat for you. So break that fast, fast – about an hour after waking up.

3. Blood sugar regulating

This kinda ties into the thing above.

Defer food all day and your meat machine’ll hog every last modicum of energy when you finally do feed it. I see this shiz all the time and it pisses me off. Girls at work will tell me how disgusting it is that I’m so slender when I’m ten years older than they are. And then they’ll say it’s ’cause I’m a sweat fiend. Sure, that helps. But you know what else helps? Doing what I do: grazing all day (on plant based foods) to keep my blood-sugar levels flowing “on fleek”, as it were.

4. Breathe

This’s simple but so overlooked that I’ll resimplify it here: 1.) Stress causes rises in cortisol. 2.) Cortisol contributes to weight gain because it inhibits fat burning potential. 3.) Let’s all slash stress. Whether you do a morning workout, some yoga, meditate or hit the heavy bag pretending it’s your smirking supervisor’s mug – find a way to destress at the top and bottom of your day to maintain your metabolism’s capacity to blast fat.

5. Build muscle

Strength training. Do it. Whether you’re lifting heavy metal to heavy metal or gracefully lunging through the park while the birds chirp, building up muscle is an excellent way to burn fat. A tighter tush and taut gams not only look nicer, but all that work’ll also boost your daily burn levels.

6. Binge on water

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve gotten halfway through a “let me self diagnose myself with some obscure autoimmune disease via WebMD” session, only to realize that my general malaise was due to… dehydration. One bottle o’ agua and I’m ready to cannonball into my day-lake full force. In fact, one research effort demonstrated that having about 8 to 12 glasses of water a day correlates with more fat-burnery than four cups of the stuff. While that translates to roughly a couple liters on the low end, I usually down the equiv of about six Aquafina bottles (generally refilled with filtered water, if I’m tryn’a be enviro-conscious) a day. But, then again, I work out. A lot. If you do to, then def up the agua guzzling as well.

(Posing in pearls part optional.)

7. Bite right

They say the greater part of weight loss has to do with diet. It’s like that dude from the strength training video I was watching said before I faceplanted outta my plank: “ABS ARE MADE IN THE KITCHEN.” Cut the sugar. Add the stevia. Jettison the soda. Add more water. Lower the sodium, dump the drive through, and toss the processed stuff. Avoid drinking your calories and hoover up whole plant based foods. Do that, and you’re off to a fab start.

8. Bedtime snack

If you don’t overdo it, a 100 – 200 calorie bedtime snack can boost your metabolism. Why? Because too-low blood sugar can diminish muscle and induce metabolic slackery. So, if you do a caloric gas up before you hit the mattress, it’ll help you get lean while you dream.

9. Bursts of intervals

After a recent injury, I had to settle for the recumbent bike instead’ve the trail. And it was…boring. That is, until I discovered the wonderful world of intervals. By spending a given increment of time going HAM on the RPM’s, it not only rechanneled my brain into beast mode, but served as a fast-forward, fat blasting lumberjack to my calorie tree.

10. Better resting

I write for another site on sleep. And I can’t tell you how many times I’m torn between publishing the same article on here versus there. Why? Because slenderness and rest are like those twins that feel phantom pains when the other one’s been injured six zip codes over. When you don’t get in your suggested seven (or some 90 minute increment close to it), your hormones and miscellaneous body chemicals fall all outta whack. Not only do those fat inducing stress hormones rise, but your willpower and good dietary decision making all go out the window when you insatiably crave waistline murdering meals. So, get to bed now for a better burn tomorrow.

Hope this helps you schmexy butterflies emerge from your cold weather corpulence cocoons.