8 Minutes in the Morning to a Flat Belly: Lose Up to 6 Inches in Less than 4 Weeks--Guaranteed! - Softcover

Jorge Cruise struggled with his weight as a child and young man. Today he has over 3 million online clients at JorgeCruise.com, is the "weight-loss coach" columnist for Prevention magazine with 11 million readers, and is the New York Times best-selling author of the 8 Minutes in the Morning book series. He has been featured in USA Today, Woman's World, First for Women, Self, Shape, Cosmo, and Fit, and has appeared on Oprah, CNN, Good Morning America, Dateline NBC, and The View.

Chapter 1

8 Minutes to a Flat Belly

Find Out Why You Will Lose Up to 6 Inches

make the commitment

Thank you for selecting me to be your weight-loss coach. I congratulate you for making the commitment to transform not only your belly but also your life!

I developed my 8 Minutes in the Morning to a Flat Belly program with the feedback from millions of people just like you. Through my Web site, www.jorgecruise.com, I've had the honor of helping more than 3 million clients shed stubborn fat, end emotional eating, and take those first confident steps into new lives--lives that are full of possibility. I understand the struggle to lose weight and keep it off. I've been there. I struggled with weight as a child and young man. I come from an overweight family. We struggled to slim down and shape up. It is that struggle that led me to my life's work.

That's why I'm so excited for you. You are about to start a transformation that will revolutionize your life and your belly.

the 8 minute revolution

Now for the big question that you've probably been wondering since you picked up this book. How will you lose up to 6 inches in less than 4 weeks in just 8 minutes a day?

To understand the answer to that question, I must first let you in on a secret. You see, there's a revolution going on the field of weight loss. Cardiovascular exercise (otherwise known as aerobics) and dieting are out. Resistance training is in. Experts now agree that you must create lean muscle tissue in order to shed fat anywhere in your body, and particularly in your abdomen. Lean muscle provides the key that opens the lock on even the most sluggish of metabolisms. Rev up your metabolism and you will burn calories all day long, incinerating the fat in your abdomen that's hiding your beautiful belly muscles.

That's why all of my 8 Minutes in the Morning programs focus on building lean muscle tissue. You must exercise aerobically for a half-hour or more to burn the same number of calories as the 24/7 metabolism boost that you get from just 8 daily minutes of resistance training. If you've avoided exercise because you thought you didn't have time to work out, I'm happy to tell you that 8 Minutes in the Morning to a Flat Belly changes the rules. In just 8 minutes each day, you will create the muscle needed to rev up your metabolism and incinerate the fat in your abdomen. No other weight- loss program provides such a big return on such a small investment. Take the 8-minute challenge. It's well worth the time!

tested by people just like you

Are you still wondering how I can promise you such extraordinary results in just 8 minutes a day?

Here's a little more background on how I created this exciting program. As I said earlier, through my JorgeCruise.com online club, I have the privilege of working with 3 million online clients. And my online clients don't have time to waste. They are very busy people with full schedules. They want to lose weight in the most efficient and simple manner possible. Thus, "Weight Loss for Busy People" has become what the Jorge Cruise brand is all about. I am 100 percent dedicated to helping time-challenged people lose weight and keep it off. That's my specialty.

And those very same clients helped me create and test the 8 Minutes in the Morning to a Flat Belly program. You see, after the success of my New York Times best-selling book 8 Minutes in the Morning and my newest book, 8 Minutes in the Morning for Real Shapes, Real Sizes, more than 1 million new clients logged onto JorgeCruise.com and shared with me how they lost weight with my first two programs. They told me stories about how my first book, 8 Minutes in the Morning, helped them lose 15 to 20 £ds or how they shed a stunning 30 or more £ds with my second book, 8 Minutes in the Morning for Real Shapes, Real Sizes.

But many of them wanted more. They asked me to help them target specific trouble zones. And one of the most requested areas was the belly.

your "8 minute" edge

In just 8 minutes each morning, you will:

. Firm and tone your belly muscles . Burn the fat that's hiding your beautiful belly . Lose up to 2 £ds of fat a week . Shrink your waistline . Improve your health . Boost your confidence

Well, I knew what I had to do. I designed an 8-minute program that specifically targets the belly, and I tested it on my online clients over and over until I was completely confident that it would help everyone shed belly fat in just 8 minutes a day. This program builds on the success of my two other books. It takes the weight-loss formula that I've tested again and again on millions of clients and applies it specifically to the belly area. I'm happy to tell you that anyone can use this supplementary program to beautify the belly--in just 8 minutes a day!

It doesn't matter whether you've lost weight with one of my other books or whether this is your first experience with a Jorge Cruise program. Either way, you will experience fantastic results. If you haven't read my other books, that's okay. Everything you need to lose weight and firm up your belly is right here within the pages of this book.

abdominal fat's dirty little secret

Before you embark on my exciting 8 Minutes in the Morning to a Flat Belly program, let's first take a look at why you want to create a beautiful belly. Many people want to tone their bellies for visual reasons. Not a day goes by that one of my clients doesn't ask me how she can look better in a swimsuit. Some tell me that they desperately want to zip up a particular pair of jeans. Or they just want to be able to look down and not see a bulge!

Those are all good reasons. But there are a few crucial and even more important reasons to start my 8 Minutes in the Morning to a Flat Belly program.

Here's the real bad news about abdominal fat. Belly fat is worse for your health than fat in your butt or thighs. Yes, belly fat tends to trigger your liver to release its stored fatty acids--raising your cholesterol levels. It also tends to alter levels of key hormones involved in appetite, fat storage, and heart disease. In fact, when you gain weight in your abdomen, and these hormones become altered, you tend to feel hungrier, you eat more, and your body tends to store more fat in your abdomen. It's a vicious cycle--but you can break it!

robert sutherlin jr. shrunk 4 inches from his belly!

"Jorge's program is so easy to do and definitely targets the belly area. When I concentrate on keeping the muscles tight during the exercise, it is easy to get the 'burn' quickly, which, to me, means that I'm doing them correctly!

"To keep my eating in check, I do a lot of self-talk. Where once I would have simply turned to the fridge when I was feeling down, bored, or lonely, I now ask myself if I really want whatever it is I am planning to eat. I catch myself just looking through the fridge and I say to myself, 'Why are you eating? You're not hungry, so either get busy or go to bed.' It often helps me just close the fridge door and walk away."

Robert lost 19 £ds of belly fat.

Before we talk about how you will break your belly fat cycle, let's first take a look at all of the ways it erodes your health.

Diabetes. Research shows that women with a waist circumference of 36 inches or more are five times more likely to develop diabetes than those with smaller waist circumferences. When you gain weight in your abdomen, the fat throws off your insulin cycle. This important hormone, produced by the pancreas, is supposed to shuttle blood sugar into muscle cells so that those cells can burn it for energy. However, in people who have a lot of abdominal fat, insulin stops working properly. The muscle cells fail to respond to insulin and sugar remains high in the blood. This makes the pancreas release more and more insulin, which can eventually wear out your pancreas and develop into diabetes. At the same time, high levels of insulin trigger you to eat by making you feel hungry. They also encourage your liver to convert your blood sugar into fat--for storage! High insulin levels have also been linked with certain cancers.

Heart disease. In Harvard's famed Nurse's Health Study of 4,470 women, those with a waist circumference of 32 inches or more were twice as likely to suffer a heart attack as those with smaller waists. Just as belly fat causes diabetes, it also raises blood cholesterol levels, contributing to heart disease. As your liver converts more and more blood sugar into fat, your cholesterol levels go up as this fat must make its way through your blood stream and into waiting fat cells--usually in your belly! In particular, the unhealthy LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels rise, whereas the healthy HDL cholesterol takes a nosedive. Belly fat raises your risk for high blood cholesterol by 50 percent.

Breast cancer. The more body fat you have--particularly in your abdomen-- the higher your estrogen levels. Body fat produces its own estrogen, in addition to the estrogen produced by your ovaries. Usually, this doesn't cause problems. But when you have a large amount of body fat, you risk raising estrogen levels too high, increasing your risk for breast cancer. Also, as I've already mentioned, belly fat tends to raise insulin levels-- which also have been linked with breast cancer. Women with high levels of belly fat are 45 percent more likely to have breast cancer. Belly fat also raises your risk for endometrial cancer.

"Women with a waist circumference of 36 inches or more are five times more likely to develop diabetes."

High blood pressure. Excess belly fat raises your risk for high blood pressure by 60 percent. In fact, each £d of extra fat can raise your systolic (top) blood pressure number by 4.5 points. It does so because your heart must work harder to pump blood to a larger body. It's the same as if you added many rooms onto an existing house but kept the same furnace. The furnace would have to work overtime to heat the larger house. In this case, your heart beats faster and more forcefully. This forces blood with more pressure through your arteries, causing nicks and dents to the linings of your arteries, raising your risk for heart disease.

Back pain. Fat in your belly acts like a heavy weight that pulls your lower spine forward, overly arching your lower back and causing pain. When you lose the fat and strengthen your abdomen, your belly muscles can better support your spine, improving your posture and reducing back pain.

Fatigue. Just as your heart can't grow larger to respond to the demands of a larger body, the same goes for your lungs. They now must work harder to supply more oxygen. Also, as your belly grows larger, it crowds out your internal organs, particularly the diaphragm muscle that's so important in breathing. People with a lot of belly fat tend to cough and wheeze more. Belly fat also raises your risk for sleep apnea, a severe form of snoring in which your windpipe repeatedly collapses throughout the night, causing your body to starve for oxygen.

Varicose veins. Excess body weight makes it harder for the blood in your legs to travel against the force of gravity back up to your heart. Belly fat also weighs down the veins in your upper thighs. Both problems cause the veins to weaken. Eventually they begin to leak and even allow blood to pool and travel backward, causing varicose veins.

Joint pain. The heavier your body, the more it weighs down your joints and the more impact you inflict on your joints with every step.

In addition, belly fat has also been linked to chronic pain, gallbladder disease, arthritis, low immunity, liver disease, skin problems, and poor sleep. It's time to put an end to this vicious health-eroding cycle once and for all!

the benefits of a firm belly

Losing weight in your midsection will help you prevent all of those diseases and conditions. You'll live longer and feel better!

My special Cruise Moves (you'll learn more about them in chapter 3) will do even more. They will help strengthen the muscles in your abdomen, providing a number of exciting benefits.

Most important, stronger abdominal muscles help to automatically improve your posture. Strong abdominal muscles help support your spine, helping to keep it erect and long. They also help to hold your pelvis in the correct position, preventing the swayback so often seen after pregnancy and with increasing age. Once you eliminate that swayback, the rest of the spine tends to fall into line, allowing you to bring back your shoulders and head and stand taller and more upright.

In fact, even if you don't lose any weight, your appearance will improve dramatically. Stronger abdominal muscles will help you stand taller, creating a leaner appearance. You will feel as if you have grown an inch taller and slimmed an inch in the process-- just by improving your posture!

Beautiful Belly Basics

Here are some of the most common questions and comments I've received from my online clients about their bellies.

I've been doing 100 crunches every day for the past month and my belly is still as big as ever. What gives?

You may not be doing the most effective exercises for your belly. You need to target and isolate four important belly areas in order to create a firm belly. That means you must do four different exercises. You can experience faster, better results by doing fewer repetitions of four different exercises than you can by spending more time with just one exercise. That's why each of my belly routines includes four different Cruise Moves.

I'm convinced that my metabolism is shot. Will anything help me lose weight?

Your metabolism may indeed be slower than normal, particularly if you've dieted over and over again. (You'll find out why dieting is bad in chapter 4.) But you can give your metabolism a swift kick by building lean muscle. Each £d of lean muscle burns 50 calories a day--just to maintain itself. You'll learn more about this in chapter 3.

I started a running program but my belly is still big. What's going on?