Fitness Friday | Are you ready for the crop top

Yesterday, while sitting at the computer, I was struck with a brilliant idea. "I should get a crop top!"  It's summer, it's hot and crop tops are cute & comfy.  Why not?! So I head over to this site and found the right one for only $8.00.  I picked out a couple of colors and, just before I checked out my purchase, my eyes land on my protruding mid-section and now I'm having second thoughts.

I am, most certainly, not ready to rock a crop top.  Here's the thing. I haven't seen the inside of a gym in forever.  The blame lays on my unholy travel schedule.  As one would expect, I've lost some muscle and gained fat.  Unfortunately for me, when I gain fat, it usually shows up on my hips/thighs and stomach.

Although I've been traveling like mad, I haven't gained as much as I usually do.   Why? Because I been practicing "doing one thing different" with regards to my eating.  After receiving inspiration from the Create a Growth Spurt post, I  incorporated eating fruit as a part of my daily habits.  I still ate chips or had sweets if I craved, but I simply had to make sure I had some fruits somehow, someway.  That's all, nothing else. I didn't make promises about working out everyday or losing a certain amount of weight. The only thing I had to do was enjoy some fruits.

I knew from reading the book the Power of Habit, that eating healthy is a keystone habit.  Keystone habits are those that have the POWER to create a  positive chain reaction.  They have the power to influence the other habits in our lives.  In my case, I knew for sure that if I ate fruit everyday, the following would happen:

Eat fruit >> Feel better about myself >> Feel healthier >> Eat salads >> Buy less sweets >> Feel even better >> Start exercising again

And that's exactly what happened.  Normally by now, I would be much heavier because of all the unhealthy eating while on the road.  But that isn't the case. Lately, I've been making healthier choices and now I'm ready to take it to the next level.  So, in order to be ready for "the crop top," here's what I 'm going to do.

• Continue my daily fruit habit + add a daily salad/vegetable habit. This is especially important when I'm on the road. Whenever I eat a meal (lunch or dinner) I will either enjoy a delicious salad or replace one of my side items with a vegetable.  This will likely lower my carb intake which a huge factor in creating a flat stomach.
• Enjoy jogging or brisk walking.  I hate running. I hate the sweating, breathing hard and I hate pushing myself to do something that makes me feel uncomfortable. But, you know what?  I absolutely love what happens when I come back from a run. I feel great and I'm ALWAYS glad I did it.  And my body looks great.  My midsection has always been an issue for me. The only time I've had a completely flat stomach was when I ran almost everyday.  I know that I may not be motivated to run everyday. So I may instead try a keystone habit of stretching every day.  Daily stretching will, without a doubt, lead me to the daily habit of exercising. 
• Transverse exercises.  There was a time when I created a tiny waist.  I never, in life, had a such a well defined waist.  And it was all achieved without the help of a single sit up.  Instead I focused on the internal abdominals that pull everything inward.  In order to properly rock the crop top, everything has to be nice and tight.  
• Cardio exercise + resistance + transverse exercises + healthy eating = A small, crop top ready, waist.

Ab exercises are not the most effective only way to a flat stomach.  If you want   to see an illustration of this, check out Celiabug's fitness feature. Her stomach went from a place of abundance to becoming toned and lean by eating clean and doing ample amounts of cardio.  Oh, speaking of checking out, I've gotta go grab those crop tops.