Feb 18, 2010 Posted by denice johnson on Feb 18, 2010 in body, life | 0 comments

the bikini ready plan

My family and I have booked a trip south for late in March and, as is appropriate in such circumstances, I am now switching from the standard February practice of living in sweatpants that are two sizes too big and eating chips and dip for breakfast, lunch and dinner to The Bikini Ready Plan.

Let me begin by saying that if pressed I could wear a bikini right this very second and not be a complete disaster. I admit this right here at the start of things. I am not claiming that The Bikini Ready Plan can take a long standing layabout and turn her into a swimsuit model in two weeks. I am suggesting that the average person can dramatically improve their midsection and overall appearance by following a few simple – let’s call them steps rather than rules. Here is what we (my husband is following the plan as well) intend to do:

1, Drink water. A lot of water. And after that, more water. This is designed to flush out all of the bloating left behind by The Winter Diet of foods not necessarily good for your health and abdominal appearance but excellent at keeping you from crying a lot and swearing at the snow. There is no shame in The Winter Diet. For those of us who live in places where it’s cold 6 or more months of the year The Winter Diet is often the difference between getting by and drooling on yourself in the corner of a rubber room.

2, Eat less, Eat lettuce. Further to the issue of bloating and the retention of toxins, we’re going to be eating pretty clean for the next 3 weeks. Breakfast will be the usual steel cut oats but lunch and dinner are going to be mostly salads. We’ll deviate with an occasional soup or tortilla pizza but for the most part, salad. Which might sound like a complete horror but we keep the salad pretty tasty. I am not planning to eliminate cheese, nuts or (homemade) creamy dressings. If I’m going to be eating salad all the damned time, I’m going to enjoy them.

Suggestion: Rather than adding croutons to your salads try All Bran buds or Grape Nuts. The texture is satisfying and the fiber content helps you feel like you’ve eaten more than you have.

3, No bread. I know, you think I’m crazy. Three weeks with no bread? Well, yes. Not only that, but no crackers or anything else made with flour. Not even – and I know this will sound crazy coming from me – whole wheat flour. If you want to lose a quick couple of pounds and reduce bloating ditching bread is the way to go. I followed this plan before going to Mexico last year and had such incredible results that I’ve never added bread back into my regular diet. I eat it only rarely and don’t miss it.

4, No alcohol. This is a no-brainer.

5, CRUNCHES! PILATES! Do you know why so many people complain about their midsections and seem to have trouble keeping a flat tummy? Because we hate doing abdominal exercises of any kind. They suck, let’s be honest. Unfortunately, though, if you want a flat stomach you either have to do some ab exercises. That or be a child again. Those people have the best abs! We will be doing abs twice a day, using the pilates video I recommended in the morning as well as this video every afternoon.

6, Exercise. The assumption here is that you already follow some sort of an exercise routine – which my husband and I both do. We will continue to do so and probably ramp up our efforts.

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. As I said, I followed this plan last year around the same time and had great results. The weight I lost then hasn’t returned which is awesome. We’ll follow the plan pretty diligently but we’re not above an occasional cheat. One or two glasses of wine between now and departure isn’t going to derail anyone. A piece of dark chocolate a day is fine. The key here, for us, is to limit portion sizes and quality of the foods we eat. It’s not rocket science but it is effective. I’ll keep you posted on how we’re doing as the days and weeks roll by.