This has been in my inbox since 2006, so I though I’d post it up here for safekeeping. Maybe I should even start doing several of these exercises.
1. Crunches
Crunches are an effective exercise for achieving a toned abdominal region. Increasing the amount of muscle in this region will also help reduce the appearance of love handles. There are a number of exercises that target love handles specifically, also called oblique abs.
One such example is elbow to knee crunches: Cross your left leg over your right leg. Twisting your torso, bring your right elbow to your left knee. Try as many reps as you can and repeat on the other side. With the popularity of the stability ball, the exercises that target the abs and oblique region are endless.
2. Strengthen Your Lower Back
Toning your abdominal muscles is a key step in shrinking love handles. But whenever you work out your abs, you must also build up the muscles in your lower back to balance the strength in your torso and trim down back-at.
Try this exercise: Lie on your stomach and lift your feet and knees off the floor. Flutter kick your legs as if you were swimming for 15 seconds. Rest and repeat.
3. Side Bends with Dumbbells
Standing up, hold one dumbbell at your side. Slowly bend your torso sideways, lowering the weight towards the floor. Slowly straighten up to a standing position. Do 15-20 reps on each side. This is a great exercise that directly targets the muscles under your love handles.
4. Drink the Daily Recommended Water
You should drink at least eight, 8-ounce glasses of water a day. This will help your body metabolize stored fat into energy and curb your appetite.
5. Reduce Sodium Intake
Sodium can be found in table salt, seasoning, condiments and other processed foods. Excess sodium leads to water retention, which contributes to making problem areas like the gut and love handles seem even more prominent.
6. Cut Calories
The golden rule of weight loss – To lose it, you have to reduce the number of calories your body stores. No matter how much you work out, you won’t see results if the amount of calories you consume is greater that the amount you burn. So, in order to get rid of love handles, you must consume fewer overall calories as well as less fat and sugar. Also reduce your alcohol intake, as it contains a lot of empty calories.
7. Get Into Cardiovascular Exercise
Your number one weapon against those unsightly love handles is cardio exercise. Burn those calories so that they aren’t stored as fat. Try hitting the treadmill, swimming, any active team sport, or walking.
🙂
Today, I’m signing up for the gym. It’s decided.
This summer, I’ve decided to transform my tiny, oddly-shaped closet into something useful. The shape of my closet is slightly different than your typical closet, however, and it’s extremely tiny which is why I don’t use it everyday. It’s somewhat of a rhomboid-trapezoidal shape. I keep my purses on the floor (my belts are in there too somewhere) and I hang some of my warmer, winter/fall clothes in there. Basically, my closet space is useless to me. Which is why I’m going to transform it, from: 
