Page 26 August 2016 Escape the Ordinary Scottsdale Waterfront | 480.751.2200 OliveIvyR M OliveAndIvyRestaurant.com By Andrea Barkley Abdominal fat can plague even those who are lean and fit, but there is no one-size- fits-all approach to reducing the pooch. Below are scenarios with two fitness and nutrition clients who were specifically trying to reduce belly fat. While both clients saw me twice a week and ate quality foods, my nutrition and workout prescriptions for each of them couldn’t have been more different. Let’s take Client A, we’ll call her Angela. Angela is a workout warrior who trains often and hard, from powerlifting to running. Yet she struggles to find time to eat. When she does eat, her choices are quite healthy, but the portions weren’t providing enough calories to sustain the metabolism of such an active body. On top of that, Angela is hyper-busy. She works her tail off from early to late. And while she is otherwise happy in her life, she’s pretty stressed out. She sleeps deeply and is moody. Her body tells her it’s tired but she laces up her sneakers and ignores the voice. Within a year, she accumulated an extra 10 pounds of belly fat and couldn’t seem to shake it despite working out a ton and eating less. The diet and exercise prescription for Angela? Eat more and exercise less. We’ll call Client B Bonnie. She had been through an onslaught of recent stress. While not sedentary, she didn’t lead an active lifestyle, but wanted to significantly alter her body composition. She ate healthfully and in proper proportions. Unfortunately, Bonnie slept terribly, woke up feeling unrested, and often felt emotional. She’d been at a weight loss plateau for a couple of months and couldn’t understand why after cutting out processed carbs and sugars she wasn’t losing more weight. The diet and exercise prescription for Bonnie? Eat the same amount of beautiful foods but exercise more. Both women needed improvement in the following areas: 1. Finding balance – Exercise is proven to help relieve anxiety, improve focus, heighten clarity, balance hormones, deepen sleep and improve moods. In Angela’s case, however, she was under- eating and overexercising. Her stress cup was running over and that excess cortisol was stored as belly fat. Her body was begging for rest, yet she wasn’t listening. In Bonnie’s case, she had the opportunity to leverage the powers of exercise as a stress release and natural mood stabilizer. The extra exercise would also help her sleep better at night, which is critical to absolutely every function in the body. 2. Eating for their metabolic needs – Angela recently finished a popular high- protein, high-fat diet that left her feeling bloated, constipated and sluggish. Although the food was organic and pasture-raised, it didn’t work for her. Her body preferred lighter foods and the inclusion of natural carbohydrates. She unquestionably needed more food, more often, to sustain her athletic lifestyle. Bonnie, on the other hand, felt nourished and satisfied with her meals. She was able to harness that nourishment into workouts that brought energy to her body, but helped her sleep soundly at night so that she could rest and recover. 3. Acceptance – There is no such thing as a perfect body. Even personal trainers have things they’d like to change about their bodies and most fitness models only look cover-ready for a few days. And that’s with a tan and a little Photoshop. So maybe a little belly fat is no big deal. If you are trying to reduce belly fat, find the right balance of healthful food and exercise that brings you energy and makes you feel good. And, try to love the skin you’re in. — Andrea Barkley is a fitness expert and founder of Moan Out Loud Protein Shakes. Two unique prescriptions for one very common problem FOOD WISE