Love Your Love Handles – Tone them up!

Let’s face it – unless our full-time jobs involve dancing or instructing at a gym, we all have love handles. Our partners think they’re cute, until they blow up to Aunt Marge a la Harry Potter proportions, and then all hell breaks loose. Stop hell from breaking loose, lose your love handles
with these simple tips and exercises:

1. The Flutter Kick
Find a Yoga mat, lie on your tummy. Lift your feet and knees off the floor. Now “flutter kick” as if you’re swimming. Do this 15 seconds, then stop for 30 seconds. Repeat twice.

2. Cut down on the Sodium and Drink Water Sodium leads to water retention, which makes love handles more prominent. Drinking 8-10 glasses of water a day helps by suppressing the appetite and metabolize stored fat into energy. It also cuts down the water retained by sodium.

3. Do the Trunk Twist
Bend your knees slightly and stand with your feet as apart as your shoulders. Place your hands in front with palms facing upwards. Twist your body to the left as much as you can, then twist it to the right. Repeat until you’ve done enough reps.

4. Do Cardio-Vascular Exercises
No matter how many ab exercises you do, they won’t work unless you’re doing a strong cardio exercise – running, cross-trainer, cycling. Pick one you like and stick with it! If you can afford it, get a treadmill or cross-trainer at home. That way you can get your daily cardio requirement whenever you’re free.

5. Increase Your Protein Intake
Have one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Our body uses the most calories to burn protein, thus reducing more calories than retaining. It will help you control your weight like very few other food items!

6. Reduce your Alcohol Intake
This one is the most obvious one – alcohol is a lot of empty calories, and they go straight to your stomach. So drink in moderation, and have “light” versions. If you must drink, Vodka is the least calorific.

So good luck with those love handles! Once you’ve started practicing these tips, you’ll realize that they aren’t that tough to get rid of.