Alright, I’m going to level with you all. I was kind of terrified about writing this blog post for the sheer fact that I am generally against literally all of the marketing and messaging that tells women to get thinner, smaller, taking up less space and generally constantly being against our own bodies.
At the same time, I have recently been kind of obsessed with exercise and good nutrition as a mood-boosting practice that helps me (and my fiancé) get through PMS/Menstrual Autumn unscathed emotionally and mentally. As a Ph.D. level nerd (yes, I did get my doctorate from the University of British Columbia), I have been studying and researching exercise, nutrition and wellness fairly consistently for the last 5+ years as my own personal hobby. Recently, my intuition has been guiding me to write about it more since I find that body wellness and exercise literature for women tends to be in two camps: 1. Eat one almond a day, and drink nothing but prune juice for the rest of your life, while running two marathons weekly or 2. Don’t do anything, f*ck exercise, drink your slurpees, and just love your body as it is. It doesn’t really leave much room for learning how to love our body, treat it in a good way, while also having a flexible and abundance-based approach to nutrition and exercise. Also I find most of exercise and nutrition literature tends to paint ‘fat’ as the archenemy/nemisis/villain/cruelladevil of all things wellness, when in fact our bodies actually need a certain amount of fat to survive, thrive, and have healthy hormones. So with all of this in mind, I’ll share my 5 ways to lose stubborn belly fat fast without dieting below:
1. Eat 1-2 teaspoons of ground seeds at night just before going to bed. I recommend putting them in a half glass of water, swirling it around, and downing it in one go. Sometimes, it’s not actually excess fat that is the issue, it’s actually a blockage of the pipes if you know what I mean. I like to use a seed cycling approach that also helps to promote good hormone health. For days 1 - 14 of your menstrual cycle (or about half of your cycle), use ground flax seeds. For days 15 - when you get your period (or after you ovulate), use ground sesame seeds. To learn more about seed cycling and the benefits, check out my book Self-Care Down There.
2. Go to therapy and talk out your trauma. It has been well proven in the psychology community that our ‘body keeps the score’ of all the little t and Big T traumatic events that have happened in our lives. For women in particular we tend to store trauma in our bellies, fat cells, and pelvic region for safe keeping, until we feel safe to release it (which maybe never if we don’t address it in some way). I’m serious about this one. I’ve been going to therapy regularly for about 6+ years, and only recently did I find a therapist I trust enough to actually talk about the hard stuff that has happened rather than just surface level challenges. I’ve noticed my sleep get better, my sleeping dreams becoming much less stressful, and I actually notice a difference in my abdomen as well. It’s like my body has finally released some of the things I’ve been storing from my teens, childhood, and early adulthood into my digestive system and it’s being swept out (hence us eating seeds as well to act as fiber to help remove the trauma out of the body).
3. Go to a rage room and smash out anger, resentment, bitterness, and guilt. As much as I would like to think that many of us live guilt-free, anger-free lives where everything is sunshine and rainbows, that fact is that we don’t (did I mention that things tend to get cray cray during PMS/Menstrual Autumn for me mood wise?). The physical and vibrational release that happens when we visit somewhere like a rage room and get to smash and bang out anything that we’ve been storing in our bodies has a similar effect as therapy, only it targets our lower body specifically (rather than just speaking things up and out through our throats). Secretly hate your siblings and parents? Find your in-laws to be literally the most annoying ever? Wish you partner would stop snoring for the love of god? Getting your rage out will actually help you in all of those areas, and help your body and belly release anything it’s been holding onto in that general realm of emotions, especially near or in your liver.
4. Use the power of the herbal tea to rule them all: cumin, coriander, and fennel or as it’s popularly known in India: CCF. I like to grind them all up together in a spice grinder or coffee grinder, put in a pot of water, boil for 20 minutes, and then keep in a sealed jar in my fridge. Each day I pour some in a cup, pop it in the microwave, and instantly feel like I’m at a spa being served a potent health elixir. Combining these herbs is a powerful force to support your digestion, which is sometimes the root cause of feeling bloated and sluggish. By stoking your digestive fire, you’ll help your body absorb nutrients more easily, burn through anything that you eat, and generally feel like you are a wellness superhero for drinking something other than soda, alcohol, or a double venti extra caramel frappucino with whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles on top.
5. Aim to eat 0.8g of protein per pound of body weight. For easy math, if you weigh 100 pounds, you would want to aim for 80 grams of protein. If you are over 175 pounds (which is gorgeous!!!!), then aim for no more than 175 (more than that will be a feat to achieve, and 150-175 will still be plenty). If you are thinking, “Taq, I have no idea how to tell how much protein is in anything”, you can use a free app like My Fitness Pal or do what I do which is spend a good amount of time reading the labels of food boxes in the grocery store (I once found a box of mozza sticks with 21 grams of protein per serving! A fun occasional treat for sure!). More and more companies are getting behind the protein trend to the point where I can now buy protein pancake and waffle mix!!!! YAY!!! It’s much better to get it through natural sources like meat, eggs, fish, yoghurt, cottage cheese, etc so aim to get 80-90% of your protein this way, while supplementing with the occasional processed snack or a daily protein shake. Most of us don’t get enough protein to build muscle and lose excess fat (note again that fat is actually great, useful, and necessary for your body in moderate amounts especially if you are someone who gets a period).
So there you have it y’all. 5 ways to lose stubborn belly fat fast without dieting. In fact, I highly recommend avoiding the I’m-going-to-cut-my-calories-way-down-and-only-eat-celery-and-pineapple for the rest of my life. If you are thinking of doing a ‘cut’ as it’s referred to in the fitness world, please be sure to hire a coach who knows what they are doing so you don’t mess up your metabolism or menstrual cycle, please and thank you <3
You got this. I believe in you. You are so worthy.
Sending lots of love,
Taq