Paunch, Buddha belly, spare tire, food baby -- whatever you call it, you're sick of the excess belly bloat you're carrying around. Dieting is one way to get rid of it, but what if you need results fast? The experts over at Prevention magazine put together a four-day jumpstart plan for reducing belly bloat, and they claim that if you follow it, you could lose up to seven lbs!

Here are some tips to follow over the four days:

• Avoid salt, meaning don't add any to your food and don't eat really salty foods either
• Avoid excess carbs, especially white breads and pastas
• Avoid gassy foods, like peppers, legumes, broccoli and citrus foods
• Avoid gum. Strange but true -- instead of helping you lose weight, it causes bloating because you're swallowing air.
• Cook your veggies. You get just as many nutrients in a smaller amount of cooked veggies than you do in a large amount of raw veggies, taking up less room in your GI tract.
  

For more info, check out the Flat Belly Diet on Prevention.

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Ok, here's the deal. I work go to the gym 3 or 4 times a week, I do yoga on a regular basis and I walk a lot. I eat healthy, I weigh a healthy weight and my body is fairly toned overall. Yet I can't seem to get rid of the little paunch I have in my midsection. It's bad. So bad that I've had people ask me when I'm due. 'No baby,' I say, 'just fat.' Actually, it's more embarrassing for them than for me. But I do feel a wave of cringe pass over me when ever I see myself in a picture wearing something even slightly revealing. Or when I see myself in the mirror at yoga (those yoga pants are great but they don't conceal much.) I'm pretty envious of people with six pack abs. And though I've learned to not beat myself up over my Buddha Belly, that doesn't mean I wouldn't love to get rid of it.

As part of their 30 Day Jumpstart feature, AOL has posted a section on flattening the belly. They have a number of exercises listed, including ones that you can do with a bad back and ones that you can do at your desk (!), where I happen to spend a lot of time. Of course, you can't really go wrong with a good old crunch, can you? Well, no, but keep in mind that it's quality, not quantity that's important when it comes to crunches. Most people focus on the 'six pack' muscles when it comes to working their abs, but it's important to target all abdominal muscles -- including the obliques (the ones on either side of your torso) and the transverse abdominus (the deep muscle layer, far below what you can see.) For some more ab workout ideas, check this out.

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That's Fit blogger Victor Agreda, Jr. blogs each week through the end of 2006 about his progress to whittle his waist.

Fact is, I don't drink beer that often. Maybe my gut evolved over time from more insidious means: lack of an exercise regimen and bad dietary habits. Whatever the reason, I have one, and I'm ready to shrink the darn thing. So each week I'm going to blog about my progress and what I'm doing to reduce my, uh, protrusion.

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