Excerpt: 'The Abs Diet'
August 18, 2004 -- This excerpt from The Abs Diet, by David Zinczenko and Ted Spiker, offers guidelines on supercharging your diet with the "power 12 foods", and the weekly workout.
You have abs.
Yes, you.
When you think of abs, you may think of Brad Pitt or Janet Jackson. Your cynical side may also think of airbrushing, starvation diets, and an exercise regimen so time-consuming it would violate labor laws. Your conclusion: You have a better chance of scaling Mount Everest in a Speedo than you do of developing great abs.
But as the editor-in-chief of Men's Health magazine, I know you can have the midsection of your dreams. Listen: I analyze health and fitness information the way brokers analyze the market. And I've talked to and heard from thousands of folks who have shared their weight-loss success stories with Men's Health. So I've seen the plus side of the equation. But I've lived the negative, as well. I know what it's like to feel fat.
As a latchkey kid growing up in the early '80s, I made every mistake in the book. I ate fast food instead of smart food. I played video games when I should've been playing outside. By the time I reached age 14, I was carrying 212 pounds of torpid teenage tallow on my 5'10" frame. But I got lucky. When I graduated from high school, I enlisted in the Naval Reserve, where the tenets of fitness were pounded into me, day after day after day. Soon after I graduated from college, I joined Men's Health and learned the importance of proper nutrition and--just as important--the health threats inherent in carrying around too much fat in your gut. If you have a bulging belly, it means your internal organs, including your heart, are literally packed in fat. It's like renting a room to an arsonist.
Whether you want to change your body to improve your health, your looks, your athletic performance, or your overall appeal, this plan--which I call the Abs Diet--offers you a simple promise: It can transform your body so you can accomplish all of those goals. It won't just enhance your life; it will save it.
