Fall of last year you figured a donut once in an awhile or some other fat and sugar laden nasty food wouldn’t hurt. Your excuse it is the" muscle-bulking season" or you will "work it off". The next thing you know your waist measurement is almost the same size of your chest. You look in the mirror and you see your v-taper look like a square block. You say to your self “what the heck happen to all my hard work in the gym?" Well all of your hard work is still there if you have been training hard, but it is covered in fat. My better half, my wife once asked me when I was expecting? At that moment, I knew it was time to shed the fat.

Well the first thing to do is to make a final goal. For example, the abdominal muscles showing by May. I used to put pictures of ab shots on my refrigerator to help keep me focused. Now I also keep a watchful eye in the mirror.

When I drop an inch or two off my waist I reward myself. And not with eating a whole pie or chocolate cake. Usually I buy some kind of hiking gear, camera equipment or clothing.

I generally drink two liters of water per day. You can read an article I wrote about water and bodybuilding by clicking on this link . http://www.nature-boy-bodybuilding.com/natureboybodybuilding/id9.html.

Make sure you keep a supply of healthy foods around you to help prevent eating some junk food when you do get hungry. Fresh fruit, nuts, non-fat cottage cheese, you get the idea.

When you start your diet don’t go crazy eating little to nothing. If you follow this practice you will lose all the muscle you worked so hard to build. I cycle my carbohydrates and protein around my workout days. I eat the carbs during my bodybuilding workout days and carb deplete on non-bodybuilding workout days. I will increase the protein on the nonworkout days.

Here is a summary of the topics above:

Use pictures to keep focused on your main goal.

Reward yourself when you meet your in-between goals.

Drink plenty of water.

Always keep plenty of healthy foods around to snack on.

Don’t go crazy dieting.

Make sure that you keep on the right path and you will see your goal of abdominal muscles showing when the warm weather returns. Otherwise your spouse may do like mine and start taking measurements for maternity clothes.