The Elusive Six-Pack

I’m not talking about an expensive import beer – I’m talking about head turning, perfect beach body making, washboard abs – and why you’re probably not getting them even though you’re putting in the hours at the gym.

You work your whole body with intensity and have a particular focus in your workouts of developing not only your midsection, but your entire core.  You do thirty-plus minutes of cardio at least three times a week, but there is still a layer of flab that keeps you from seeing any definition in your abdominal muscles – where is the problem?

The most likely cause of your dilemma lies in your diet.  Before you get all defensive and start listing all of the things that you’ve been denying yourself in an effort to achieve your goal – I’m talking of some of the things that you may have been overlooking that could be having a major effect on your goal.

In order to achieve the best possible results you need to be aware of everything that you’re putting into your body.  Forget the Atkins Diet, forget South Beach, forget about just about anything that you see mass advertised on television.  What you need to focus on in your diet is balance – don’t completely cut out fat, don’t completely cut out carbs – in fact the only thing that you should be trying to completely cut out of your diet are empty sources of calories.

If you’ve already eliminated soda, you’ve already made the move to light beer and you’ve emptied your cupboards of all of the candy bars and snack cakes, it may be time to look for other sources that are hurting your chances of showing off that six pack.  What’s causing you the problems could come as quite a surprise…

Your morning beverage

If your stopping on your way to work for a pick me up, and that pick me up isn’t black coffee or coffee with non-fat milk, you could be in trouble.  Some of the top sellers from your favorite coffee spot are absolutely destructive to your dieting efforts.  Some hot or cold latte and cappuccino selections from Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks and your local coffee house could be teeming with as much fat and as many calories as an entire meal.  If you’re trying to get a ripped physique, you can’t afford to be consuming a drink that has twenty grams of fat and 600 calories.

Cocktails

If you hit the bar at all and you are a fan of mixed drinks, this could be a major contributing cause to your lack of abdominal definition.  Hard liquor is loaded with calories and common mixers are loaded with calories and sugar.  If you throw back three or four mixed drinks at the tavern you could conceivably be doubling your caloric requirements for the day.

Juice bar Favorites

This is often a big surprise to people – if you make a run for the juice bar after your workout, you may very well be negating all of the results that you just worked so hard for.  People associate juice with good health, and for the most part that’s true – but there are a number of not so healthy extras that may be going into your favorite smoothie that may have the total calories up into the several hundred.  Sure these drinks are better for you than coffee or booze, but that doesn’t mean that they necessarily belong in your diet.

When trying to achieve the perfect physique, it’s not just the work that you put in at the gym and the food you put in your body that you have to keep you eye on – the drinks that you are consuming also have an enormous effect on your results.  If you want to achieve a totally ripped physique, complete with six-pack abs you need to be mindful of everything that goes into your body – you need balance and you need to make good choices in terms of both food and drink to reach your goal.