Doing countless crunches, sit ups and torso twists will not get rid of the belly fat. Strengthening your midsection is critical for back support and core strength for your entire body. But the key to losing fat is diet and cardio. Focus on those 2 items and before you know it you’ll be shedding inches from your midsection and other areas.

Here are a few tps to get you started.

1. Fist thing in the morning do 20 minutes of cardio on an empty stomach. This will help to jump start your metabolism and energizing the body.

2. Cut back on fatty foods and carbs. You don’t have to cut them completely but cutting back will help a lot.

3. Eat several small meals through the day. This will keep your metabolism burning at full capacity.

Develop your plan, stick with it, and before long you’ll start seeing results.

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I figure since I am trapped inside today, due to a major snow storm rolling through I’d do some linking to sites and videos that covered the Arnold Fitness Expo. Good thing it was last weekend and not this weekend. Would have been canceled or low turnout.

OK so on to the linking.

The official Arnold Fitness Expo site

Testosterone has some nice video and pictures by Chris Sugart

Bodybuilding.com of course always has good coverage. Check it out.

Female Muscle backstage with some female bodybuilders

Female Muscle has several other Arnold 2008 posts

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Once again, I’m leading the way in stumbling blocks. First the flu and now vacation.

Taking a break from exercise can be great for letting your body rest and recuperate. Taking a break from you diet can also help keep your metabolism from slowing too much. But this only applies if you’ve been locked in and dedicated to both your workouts and diet for 4 or more weeks.

I got enough of a break when I had the flu (although I still met my goals for the 7 pound Jan challenge). Now, however, I’m pushing to meet my Feb. 10-pound challenge goals but I have the rest of this week off on vacation with the wife.

Like all roadblocks, it helps if you have a plan. My plan for this vacation is to try and eat healthy (while still eating out most likely) and to get as much exercise as possible. The hotel has a nice indoor pool and gym, and I expect to do a bunch of walking sightseeing and such.

The end of the Feb challenge is in just 9 days and we’ll find out then how well my plan worked!

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Well today was weigh in for the results of the 7 pound challenge. I blogged a couple weeks ago with our starting weights here. Here are the results.

• JC is started at 272 and is currently at 262
• RC is started at 237 and is currently at 228
• JB is started at 235 and is currently at 230

So JC and RC lost 9 and 10 pounds respectively and I only lost 5. It’s definitely time to step it up and get some extra cardio in this weekend. By the end of February plan on getting down below 220

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The whole goal of this site is to create a community to support one another, motivate one another, and help each other through plateaus and roadblocks.

My first roadblock is hitting me even as I type. I’ve had a 102 degree fever for 3 days now. When I’m not throwing up or coughing up my lungs, I’m shivering so bad that its almost like I’m having a seizure. I pretty much haven’t been able to get out of bed for the last 3 days.

Obviously, none if this is good for my body transformation. I haven’t been eating much (can’t keep anything down) but I am certainly not able to exercise either. If I’m even awake I’m either standing in the shower trying to get warm or I’m lying in bed wishing I’d die.

The only reasonable thing I can think of to do is eat healthy and try to get in enough calories so my body has the energy it needs to fight off this flu. This calls into question my ability to meet the 7 pound challenge but if I don’t get better, I won’t even be in a shape to weigh in on Friday.

So I guess I’ll wind up being the first example of what to do when you hit a roadblock like getting sick: do whatever it takes to get better, then get right back to the diet and exercise.

I’ll keep you all updated on my progress. In the meantime, if anyone has already experienced this and has some advice to share, drop me a comment!

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