Fill in the blank. Great abs are made in the ____________. You know the answer, right? Not in the gym. Not in the Pilates studio. Not with your favorite abs workout (I think my favorite ab workout is the stability ball segment on Cathe's Pyramid Upper Body, if you are even the least bit curious -- skip to 4.30 into the video clip below).But back to my question, the most common answer is "in the kitchen!" Yes, those inches around your waist are due far more to what you eat than by what workout you do. But let's not stop there! The answer is also "in the car," "in the restaurant," "in the grocery store," and wherever else you eat or purchase the food you eat. Your thoughts determine what you eat and you need to turn those thoughts around to get your body into shape.
Workouts are important and you won't have strong abdominal muscles without plenty of core work, but you also will never see those muscles if there is a layer (large or small) of fat covering them.
So as vital as exercise is, what you eat (or you DON'T eat) is even more essential. If I didn't have a stainless steel fridge, I'd make a magnet with that saying to remind me that "Great Abs are made right here!" Perhaps I'll just have to use a little tape and make my own sign. I surely need the reminder from time to time!
(I wrote about this in greater detail four years ago -- my time flies! Click here to read that article).
P.S. (The photo above is of my friend, Jocelyn, who lost over 80 pounds with Beachbody workouts and changing her eating. Here's her success story. We were fellow cast-members in the Slim Series Express workouts and she's now my upline Beachbody Coach. She's still going strong! )