By Craig Lindberg

TRUTH BE TOLD

“The Skinny” is a new Fitness column by Craig Lindberg, CPT and Founder/Co-owner of Optimal Performance Center in Shrewsbury (www.opcfitness.com). If you have a question about training, nutrition, bodybuilding, or anything else that falls under the topic of Fitness, please send it to craig@opcfitness.com. Craig will answer one or two questions each month, so check here as soon as a new issue of Pulse hits the streets to see if he’s chosen yours!

As summer fast approaches, I feel the need to help all of you get a handle on those last few, stubborn pounds. The key to making any positive change is knowledge. Without knowing what you should or shouldn’t do, how can you expect to change anything? This month’s column focuses on two of the biggest reasons that those last few pounds continues to cling to your ass, thighs and/or belly: sugar and alcohol.

SUGAR: If you’re al all health conscious, you know what you shouldn’t be eating. It’s a no-brainer that a pint of Ben and Jerry’s before bed or pizza 3 nights a week is not conducive to weight loss. However, many of the “healthy” foods out there can be just as detrimental to toning up and dropping those last 5 pounds.

Why? Because they contain tons of sugar.

Yogurts: frozen and not, sorbets, even “Sugar-Free” iced coffee served by a certain Seattle based chain, can contain large amounts of sugar. Your body is desperately trying to hold on to your fat as it begins to deplete. The amount of insulin released from eating foods high in sugar gives your body an excuse to not use what fat you have left to lose. Granted, yogurt is a better breakfast choice than a frosted coffee roll…but then again, if you’re eating frosted coffee rolls, you don’t need this article, you need an intervention and I should start calling your friends and family members now. Keep the sugars low and the fiber high and you will start to see some results.

Alcohol: Now I know this is not what most of you want to hear, especially those of you wasting your time and taste buds on low-cal/low-carb beer ~ I mean, really people…why bother? It’s not the caloric value of your beer, wine or scotch on the rocks that’s keeping that weight on…it’s the alcohol itself. OK, so a 6 pack/night or a fruity Cosmo are way too caloric, but I’m talking to those one-glass-or-bottle-a-night-with-dinner people. Your body retains water because it feels it has to, not just to make you grumpy. Ingested in any amount, alcohol will dehydrate you. When your body goes through dehydration, it will retain water when it’s reintroduced to your body. One glass of red with your evening meal is enough to keep your body in a perpetual state of water retention.

Bottom Line: If you want to shed some pounds fast, stop drinking. And just so that you don’t think you’re giving up something and not getting something tangible back in return, an added benefit to that water loss is that the H20 is being stored subcutaneously, between your skin and muscle, so when you lose it, you’ll be able to see more muscular definition.