The belly area is often a target when you are looking to reshape your body. It is important to remember one key point though, there is no spot reduction. (No need for hundreds of reps of an exercise that will exhaust your body, good news!)
Taking the approach of total health and wellness in the pursuit of trimming the waistline is a great way to work towards and achieve your goals.
Here’s my top tips to help you trim the waistline without replying on copious amounts of sit ups:
1- ENJOY FAT BURNING FOODS
Let’s get rid of the pastries, cakes, processed sweets, sugary products and saturated fats. Instead, opt for wholesome, vibrant foods that are colourful on your plate, feel light on digestion and as close to nature as possible.
Overeating slows your metabolism, we often do not need as much as we think. So being mindful during your eating can help gauge if it’s real hunger or purely habit.
If you are needing sweet fixes, there are many healthy substitutes these days that are just as good as the real thing. You can enjoy healthy, tasty chia pods, sweet protein bliss balls and more.
Green tea helps lift the metabolism aswell, and is a good substitute if too much caffeine is an issue for you. (It does contain caffeine but less than coffee.)
The best foods that help fat burning include:
Salmon ( the good fats help decreases cortisol which can get in the way of fat loss)
Greek yoghourt (contains linoleic acid which help fat burning), broccoli (high fibre, gut health essential for fat loss)
Nuts (keep you full and have antioxidants)
Eggs (good protein which promotes fat loss)
Avocado (satisfying, containing leptin – the hunger suppressant)
Blueberries (high antioxidants and water)
2- COMBAT HIGH CORTISOL
Learning to balance out cortisol to ensure you are not in a constant state of fight or flight is KEY to fat loss and belly fat in particular. (Fight or flight refers to the stress response, which triggers a cascade of hormones that can affect your fat loss, energy, health and digestion if left unaddressed. Read my article here on exercising safely if you are stressed and burned out.)
High levels of cortisol over time have been shown to increase weight gain, fatigue, high blood pressure and insulin resistance to name a few. This will all get in the way of being able to trim your waistline with the further effects resulting in poor hunger gauging (are you really hungry, are you dehydrated or is it high cortisol throwing you off!?) and cravings increasing.
To work on cortisol, firstly, check with a qualified professional (hormonal specialist, GP, functional medicine practitioner and the like) for your thyroid function, general wellbeing, and healthy hormones.
You then know if it’s truly a problem and can start to manage it based on your individual condition. You can then also implement actionable and helpful lifestyle practices I will mention below.
I have found that in working with burned out individuals and including my own adrenal and thyroid imbalances, these stress and cortisol-reducing activities are very effective :
Walks in nature
Going to the beach
Meditation on its own or coupled with light yoga movements
Magnesium baths
De stressing and simplifying your life in general
3- BALANCE YOUR FITNESS WORKING SMARTER, NOT HARDER
Exercise and movement is essential for a trimmer waistline, but it does not have to be as hard core as you may think.
Go about your fitness with respect to your current state of health and set realistic goals. For example, if you are a total beginner, do beginner-friendly movements like on my You Tube channel (over 300 videos!).
If you have experience in exercise but may be bored or hit a wall, it’s time to change it up. Do styles you have not done in the past.
Include a healthy balance of fitness components: strength (weights, bands, pulleys, bodyweight strength), cardio (circuits, aerobics, swimming, walking, HIIT), core (Pilates, pelvic-floor and deep ab work), flexibility (stretching, yoga), mindfulness (meditation, deep breathing tai chi, qi gong.)
PRO TIP – if you do participate in Pilates type sessions, focus and get the core and side lying work down pat.
Whenever you are doing side lying work (laying on your side, lifting both legs, etc), this is a GREAT way to hone in on those exact side waistline muscles you are wanting to target and trim.
To reiterate the first point – there is no ‘spot reduction,’ per say, but when done correctly these types of exercises train your deeper abdominals and back muscles, giving your body that shape from a deeper level where it will actually show over time.
Hope these tips set you on your way! Let me know how you go.
PS – check out the image on this blog to see my belly fat loss postpartum after Leon. I simply did exactly what I described in this post. It took around 10 months to build back my strength, core and reduce belly fat with little happening at all the first few months. It took longer the first time after Lincoln (about 1.5 years) because my cortisol, postnatal depression and burnout was through the roof aswell as damaged pelvic floor, coccyx and massive ab separation.
BE KIND to yourself and patient with your goals. Your body will thank you ! Slow and steady, rather than hard and fast, postnatal or not!
Power to your core,
Vanessa Bartlett
Leading burnout-friendly fitness | Pilates | life coach
aka Pilates Police
Join me on socials! @vanessabhealth
Need help discovering your perfectly balanced fitness for better fat loss?
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