How to Use Chopsticks - Chapter 4: The Different Japanese Restaurants You Can Visit

Chapter 4: The Different Japanese Restaurants You Can Visit

The best part about learning how to use chopsticks properly is testing your mettle at the many Japanese restaurants that you can visit. The interesting thing about Japanese restaurants is that they have a tendency to specialize. You’ll have a hard time finding a restaurant that will serve you ramen and okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancakes) and yakiniku (Japanese barbecue) and sushi all from one menu. Usually, what you’ll find is a ramen shop or a sushi shop – it’s rarely both.

The best thing about this arrangement is that you can actually visit different restaurants and explore the subcultures of each one. And believe me, there’s plenty to learn.

Here’s a guide to the different kinds of restaurants that you’ll find in Japan and maybe in your own neighborhood:

1. Sushi Restaurants
Say Japanese food and people think sushi. It is by far the most iconic kind of Japanese food but it isn’t for those newly inducted into the halls of Japanese cuisine because it often comes with raw fish. The most common form of sushi is the nigiri sushi, the finger-roll kind of sushi. The other kinds of sushi are the maki sushi like the famous California Roll and the temaki, a nori-cone filled with thinly cut ingredients.

One of the most famous restaurants in Ginza, Tokyo is a sushi restaurant called Sukiyabashi Jiro located in a subway and run by a renowned sushi chef, Jiro Ono. It was awarded three stars by the Michelin Guide and is the subject of the documentary Jiro Loves Sushi. It takes months of waiting to get a reservation at this revered restaurant where sushi fans go to worship.

Sushi restaurants range from the formal and expensive to the cheaper varieties like the conveyor belt sushi. While most sushi restaurants serve sushi exclusively with maybe a few offerings of side dishes, it is also traditional for them to serve sashimi or thin slices of raw fish served without the sushi rice.

The Japanese often eat sushi by picking them up with their fingertips but using chopsticks is also traditional.

2. Shabu-shabu Restaurant
A shabu-shabu restaurant is one of those strange Asian creations where you actually cook your own food at a restaurant. Truly counter-intuitive but surprisingly fun and it makes for a great group dining experience.

In a shabu-shabu restaurant, you will find a small stove on your table with a simmering pot of water or dashi (Japanese broth) which you can then add thin slices of beef, sliced vegetables, and other flavouring ingredients. Traditionally, shabu-shabu would always feature beef but these days they also offer pork, crab, lobster, chicken, and even lamb.
To cook, you use a pair of chopsticks to place the ingredients in and to stir the pot but a ladle is usually provided for the soup. Sukiyaki is not so different from shabu-shabu but it is considered a sweeter version whereas shabu-shabu is savory.

3. Yakiniku Restaurant
The yakiniku restaurant is another cook-it-yourself setup where you usually order raw ingredients like slices of beef or chicken or onions and other vegetables so don’t panic when they serve you raw food. Yakiniku literally translates to grilled food which is why you’ll find a small grill right on the table top where you can grill your food to the doneness that you want.

The yakiniku experience can be fun but it can also be a little intimidating. Don’t be afraid to ask for assistance in turning on the grill. You will be using long chopsticks, usually metal, to place and turn the food on the grill. You can see right away why knowing how to handle a pair of chopsticks can be both fun and important.

Yakiniku restaurants also often offer signature sauces so don’t be afraid to try them.


4. Tempura Restaurant 
In most Japanese restaurants, you’ll find that tempura, usually prawn tempura, is served as a side dish but there are also restaurants menus that are designed around these battered and deep-fried food. While prawn tempura is the most common, you can cook just about anything as tempura; even beef!

Take note that panko or Japanese breadcrumbs aren’t used for tempura. Instead, a mixture of low-gluten flour and potato starch or cornstarch is mixed with water to create a batter that comes out crispy and thick when deep-fried.


Tempura is also traditionally served with a light soy and ginger sauce. In Japan, tempura is considered expensive fare which is why people sometimes opt for the more affordable tendon option instead. Tendon is basically a set of tempura (prawn, vegetables, etc.) served as toppings on a rice bowl.

5. Izakaya
The izakaya is less of a restaurant and more of a pub. It is essentially a drinking place but still comes with a few signature dishes. In Japanese, izakaya is actually a combination of two words which are ‘stay’ and ‘sake shop’ (sake is Japanese rice wine).

Izakaya dining is usually very slow paced and, unlike in other Japanese restaurants, everyone usually splits the bill (remember, etiquette dictates that whoever invited everyone pays). In these Japanese watering holes, what you’ll usually get are snacks on small plates. The Japanese usually start with the milder flavoured selections like edamame, those small green beans that stands in for peanuts, and sushi. As the drinking progresses, they move on to karaage (deep fried, ginger-flavored chicken) or yakitori (grilled meat on a stick).

Another thing that makes the izakaya different is that you can actually get a bit of everything in terms of food. You might find sushi, yakitori, gyoza, okonomiyaki, or maybe even a few rice dishes or bowls of noodles.

An izakaya can also be called akachochin or red lantern but this nickname has now become reserved for those that aren’t part of big izakaya-chains or small, hole-in-the-wall kinds of places.

6. Teppanyaki Restaurant
Teppanyaki restaurants use an iron griddle to cook food but it’s nothing like those iron griddles that you might see at some American diners. The teppanyaki iron griddles are usually built onto the tables and can be very long, sometimes encompassing the entire length of a bar-type table. This is so all the cooking can be done in front of the guests.

Cooking teppanyaki today has actually become about the performance as well as the delicious food with experienced teppanyaki cooks doing tricks and tosses to impress the crowd. They might juggle utensils, flip food, or toss eggs and crack them mid-air.

7. Kushiage Restaurant
Kushiage is all about serving deep fried goodness on a stick. Also known as kushikatsu, this type of Japanese restaurant serves a wide selection of chicken, pork, seafood, and vegetables that have been breaded with panko, deep fried, and served with house sauces. When serving the kushiage, some chefs will point the end of the bamboo skewer towards the sauce it’s meant to be eaten with or away from the sauces if it should be eaten by itself.

You can probably tell just by the food that a kushiage is also a good place to have some drinks. A lot of these places also serve takoyaki which are savory balls of pan-fried batter filled with vegetables and octopus as well as okonomiyaki which is a savory pan cake often topped with pickles, cabbage, some form of protein like chicken or pork, and sometimes even bacon.

The Shinsekai neighborhood of Osaka, Japan is particularly known for their kushiage (along with its fugu  or toxic puffer fish restaurants).


8. Karei Raisu
Karei Raisu is just curry rice but spoken in typical Japanese fashion and this restaurant serves exactly what with variations of what goes into the curry. It can be a curry of ground pork and vegetables or it can be bite-sized cuts of beef or even breaded and deep fried chicken cutlets served with curry, all served with rice.

While the idea may seem simple, I would urge you to try an order of karei raisu for yourself; it doesn’t even matter what kind. Japanese curry is infused with a lot of spices and flavors and is a lot subtler but also more flavorful than its Western and even other Asian counterparts. It is also often served spicy but most Karei Raisu restaurants let you request the level of heat that you like.

9. Teishoku Restaurant

A teishoku restaurant serves set meals which is usually made up of a main dish like chicken or pork and a bowl of rice, pickles, miso soup, and maybe a piece of gyoza. Teishoku dining is popular among the working class, especially for lunch when they’re looking for a full meal for the rest of the day.

Eating at a teishoku restaurant is a good way to get the bang for your buck since they’re usually affordable and basically offer a no muss, no fuss kind of meal. But make no mistake; there are a lot of good teishoku finds. Being typically Japanese, they wouldn’t dream of cutting corners and still use the best ingredients they can get their hands on.

10. Yoshokuya Restaurant
The yoshokuya restaurant is a relatively new addition to the rest of the line-up – it is basically a restaurant that serves yoshoku food which is what the Japanese call western-style cooked food. But before you start thinking of McDonald’s or meatloaf, the menu for a yoshokuya is still very Japanese but heavily influenced by the West.

Some of the food you’ll find in a yoshoku joint are the katsudon (a breaded and deep-fried pork cutlet cooked in a mirin, dashi, and egg liquid and served on top of rice), korroke (croquettes), and hayashi rice (a beef, onions, and button mushroom stew in demi-glace sauce served with rice).

If you’re looking for something familiar but still has that distinct Japanese touch, a yoshokuya is what you’re looking for.

11. Kaiseki Restaurant
Kaiseki dining may be the most interesting type of restaurant offering in this list but it is also possibly the most intimidating. To call it a formal affair is an understatement; it features the most meticulously and elaborately prepared Japanese dishes. Not surprisingly, it is also the most expensive. More than being a fine dining experience, kaiseki actually stems from the imperial-style dining of early Japan.

A kaiseki meal is a mutli-course meal, with the number of courses reaching as much as fourteen but no less than seven. The food presentation is guided by Japanese aesthetics and the dish selection is guided by seasonality and locality. You will be hard pressed to find a kaiseki menu that has been repeated, even by the same chef.

The complete kaiseki courses are the following:

·         Sakizuke, an appetizer, usually bite-sized and similar to an hors d’oeuvre.

·         Hassun is made up of several small dishes and may come with one piece of sushi.

·         Mukozuke is the sashimi course which are slices of raw fish or seafood.

·         Takiawase is the vegetable course served with fish, meat, or tofu.

·         Futamono translates to ‘lidded dish’ and is usually a soup (served with a lid, of course).

·         Yakimono is a grilled or flame-broiled dish, usually fish.

·         Su-zakana is a palate cleanser and is usually a small dish of vegetables marinated in vinegar.

·         Hiyashi-bachi is a course that is only served in summer and includes lightly flavoured, chilled vegetables.

·         Naka-choko is another palate cleanser, often in the form of a soup with an acidic component.

·         Shiizakana is the heavier course of the meal. It is a hot pot dish and can be anything from beef to lobster.

·         Gohan translates to rice. This course is a rice dish featuring seasonal ingredients.

·         Ko no mono features seasonal pickled vegetables, often an integral part of any Japanese meal.

·         Tome-wan is made up of a miso-based soup and a rice bowl, served to make sure that you’re not still hungry. People often eat this course very lightly because the different courses can be very filling.

·         Mizumono is the dessert course and usually features a seasonal fruit, confection, or ice cream.

Dining kaiseki is a good opportunity to refresh all of the chopsticks etiquette that you learned in the previous chapter. Believe me, it’s all going to be called for. Still, the chef and servers are going to take into account that you’re not as experienced in Japanese-style fine dining as the local residents would be, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. It’s also a chance to show off some of the skills you’ve learned on how to use chopsticks!

This is an excerpt from the book: How to Use Chopsticks

How to Use Chopsticks - Chapter 3: Learning How to Use Chopsticks

Chapter 3: Learning How to Use Chopsticks 

As promised, we’re giving you an entire chapter dedicated to learning all about chopsticks – how to use them and how not to embarrass yourself with them. With this chapter alone, you can avoid those awkward date moments in Japanese restaurants or even more awkward experiences when visiting friends in Tokyo. But first, let’s learn a little bit about the history of chopsticks.

A long time ago during the ancient era of Asian lands, there were times when resources were slim and finding fuel for fire was difficult. The ancestors of Asian cooks solved this problem by cutting food into small, bite-sized pieces so that they would cook faster, needing less fuel and saving resources. Because the food was already cut into convenient pieces, the knife was never really needed for eating which eventually paved the way for chopsticks.


There’s a lot of lore about chopsticks including an old Chinese belief that silver chopsticks would change color when it touched poison, but the role of these eating utensils is even more important in Japan. You might be surprised to know that in Japan, chopsticks were originally used strictly for religious ceremonies like honouring the dead. They have also been used in Japan since the 8th century which is a very, very long time ago. You can see why chopsticks are more than just the eating utensils that they are; they are also deeply rooted in tradition and the Japanese culture.

Japanese children start to learn how to use chopsticks when they’re very young until it becomes second nature to them, but that doesn’t mean that it’s difficult to learn how to handle chopsticks. Here’s how you get started on handling a pair of chopsticks like a pro.

Once you’ve got the basics down, what you need to do is practice, practice, practice. Try using chopsticks for home meals every now and then. You can get a whole packet of wooden chopsticks for a couple of dollars. You’ll find that it’s a lot of fun once you get the hang of it, and you’ll definitely look great on your next date at a Japanese restaurant.

But before you march your way over to the nearby sushi bar, you’ll also need to know what chopsticks rules you just can’t break, ever. We’ve covered some in the earlier chapters but we’re giving you a more comprehensive list in this chapter so that you can avoid the ultimate faux pas or mistakes in Japanese dining.

Do not:

1. Stick your chopsticks in your bowl in a vertical position.

2. Stir your soup with your chopsticks looking for that last piece of meat or tofu.

3. Spear your food with your chopsticks.

4. Sucking off the sauce or the bits of grain from your chopsticks. Also, do not lick your chopsticks.

5. Grabbing something else like a glass or a soy sauce dispenser while still holding the chopsticks in your hand.

6. Point with your chopsticks. 

7. Wash your chopsticks in soup.

8. Allowing drops of soup to drip from your chopsticks.

9. Pass food from chopsticks to chopsticks.

10. Strike dishes and make sounds with your chopsticks. Remember, they’re not drum sticks. 

These are the top ten things you should absolutely avoid when handling chopsticks in a Japanese restaurant or in the company of Japanese friends. Other lesser evils include rubbing two chopsticks together to get rid of splinters because you’re implying that your host has provided chopsticks of low quality. This isn’t really a hard fast rule because some of my Japanese friends pointed out that sometimes the chopsticks do have splinters and rubbing them together is called for. 

So there you have it; a background of the proper use and the possible misuse of chopsticks. There may be a lot more rules and regulations than you expected but at the end of the day, learning how to use chopsticks is just plain fun. And you can impress your friends the next time someone craves sushi, donburi (rice bowls), or tempura (deep-fried prawns in a special batter) for dinner.

This is an excerpt from the book: How to Use Chopsticks 

How to Use Chopsticks - Chapter 2: The Etiquette of Dining

Chapter 2: The Etiquette of Dining
“Itadakimasu!”

Pronounced i-tah-dah-ki-mas.

A sure sign that a Japanese restaurant is good is if it’s filled with actual Japanese diners. And if you’ve ever found yourself enjoying a meal in the midst of a Japanese-filled dining room, you’ll be sure to hear the phrase “Itadaki-masu!” a lot. It means ‘I gratefully receive’ in Japanese and is traditionally said at the start of a meal. But that’s just one thing in a very long list of polite dining rules that the Japanese follow.


Knowing how to use chopsticks is essential in proper Japanese dining, especially when the setting is formal. Did you ever notice that while you might get a fork and spoon at Chinese or Korean restaurants, you never get anything but a pair of chopsticks at a
Japanese food place? That means there’s no going around it; if you want to eat Japanese food, you need to learn how to handle a pair of chopsticks.

We’re going to give you a quick background on what’s proper and what’s not when it comes to using chopsticks. Impaling your food with the sticks is a big no-no. It also won’t do to play drums with them; don’t forget, these are as good as utensils for eating. When you’re resting between courses, place your chopsticks neatly to your right (there should be a chopsticks rest provided). Make sure it’s not pointed at anyone. If you leave them lying in your bowl or leave them on your plate, you’re telling the wait staff that you’re done eating. They’ll whisk your food away for sure.

Haven’t heard enough about chopsticks? Don’t worry; we’ll get into the nitty gritty details in the next chapter where we’ll tell you all about learning how to use chopsticks. But in this chapter, we’ll discuss what to expect when eating at a Japanese restaurant or when dining with Japanese company.

When you’re first seated in a Japanese restaurant, they are going to give you a slightly wet towel, often faintly scented with lavender or something equally pleasant. Do not make the mistake of using them to wipe your face. They’re actually meant for wiping your hands clean. After ordering, you’ll probably see a bottle of soy sauce nearby. When the food is served, do not pour the soy sauce directly onto the bowl or plate. Instead, pour a small amount into the small, separate bowl provided and dip the food there before you take a bite.
After a bit of a wait, your food is going to arrive. How are you going to drink soup or eat rice with a pair of chopsticks? Don’t worry, there are some pro moves that will have you looking like you’ve been eating Japanese food your whole life.

In Japanese dining, it’s okay to pick up your bowl of rice or soup. For eating rice, hold your bowl with your left hand (or whichever hand isn’t holding the chopsticks) and your chopsticks with your right. Take a bit of the meat in your chopsticks or take a bite from a big piece and then you can take a bit of rice and put it in your mouth. Don’t put any of the meat in the rice bowl; they should be separate. Also, it is considered impolite to leave even one grain of rice. To accomplish this, you’ll need to hold the bowl close to your chin while using your chopsticks to pick up food, but do not hold the bowl directly against your mouth. A lot of people make the mistake of touching the bowl to their lips and simply using chopsticks to tip the food in. It turns out this is considered extremely rude.

For drinking a bowl of soup, it’s another matter. It’s okay to take a sip directly from the bowl. Use your chopsticks to eat the vegetables and meat in the soup while holding the bowl close to your lips and even against your chin.

When it comes to drinking alcohol with company, there’s a whole different set of rules to follow. One of the most important is to always pour for the other person. When you’re drinking with someone else, you never pour yourself a glass. That means you have to be on the lookout for empty cups or glasses. On the other hand, if your friend is taking too long to notice you need a refill, hold your empty glass out with both hands. In formal restaurants where kaiseki ryori or Japanese fine dining cuisine is served, it is considered bad manners to get obviously drunk but the same is not true for other, more casual settings (as long as you’re not bothering anyone).

“Kampai” is the Japanese equivalent to cheers and salute!
While there are a lot of things that you need to do to get things right as a Japanese guest at dinner, there are also some things that you must absolutely not do. Here are some of the most embarrassing things that you can do when dining at a Japanese restaurant or in a Japanese household.

1. Blowing your nose
2. Do not point at other people with your chopsticks. Don’t point at other people while holding      chopsticks. Don’t gesture or point at food with your chopsticks.
3. When bringing gifts as an invited guest, avoid bringing them in sets of four or nine. Both numbers sound too much like death and suffering when spoken out loud in the Japanese language and are considered terribly unlucky.
4. Do not stick chopsticks into your bowl in a vertical position. This is a sign that indicates death and is considered terribly impolite.
5. Do not pass food from one set of chopsticks to another. Instead, set food down on the other person’s plate directly.

One last thing; in Japanese culture, the person who invites everyone for dinner (or for any meal) is usually the person who pays. Keep this in mind when sending out invitations for an impromptu dinner!
At the end of the meal, you can say “Gochisosama” which means ‘thank you for the meal.’ These are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to proper Japanese etiquette for dining but these handful of do’s and don’ts will carry you a long way, whether you’re in for a casual meal or a formal dinner with business partners. What’s important is that you enjoy the food, enjoy the company, and make new friends in the process!

This is an excerpt from the book: How to Use Chopsticks 

How to Use Chopsticks : Chapter 1: The Japanese Kitchen and Culture

Chapter 1: The Japanese Kitchen and Culture

“If you eat like the Japanese, you’ll be fine.”

That was something that a lot of people heard after World War II. In fact, it was during the second world war that Americans first had access to Japanese food  in all its strangeness and inspiring artistry. It was also after the second world war that Japanese food first made it to American shores, giving birth to fusion food like the California Maki and the tonkatsu, a lightly breaded and deep fried slice of pork. There was something about the subtlety of the flavors and the simple goodness that almost contradicted the incredibly detailed and precise preparations that just seemed so healthy (compared to fries and burgers and giant steaks).

What at first seems  like a simple slice of raw tuna on rice turned out to be a carefully selected part of the tuna belly chosen for its fat content, cut and sliced to be paired with the sushi rice that was mixed with a solution of sake or rice wine, sugar, and salt and fanned until dry. It is then shaped by experienced chef’s hands and served directly to a waiting guest. In the documentary Jiro Loves Sushi, an apprentice chef had to prepare tamagoyaki or a savory egg cake over and over for weeks, even months, until Jiro finally deemed it worthy to be served to guests. He cried.

Over time, we also discovered that there is nothing simple about sushi and there is nothing simple about Japanese cuisine. It also follows that there was nothing simple about authentic Japanese dining, deeply rooted in traditional, Japanese culture. The Japanese make it look simple, the way they make eating with chopsticks simple, but it takes practice, skill, dedication, and genuine interest to prepare and even appreciate Japanese dining. But the complexity of Japanese food extends beyond the kitchen. Diners are also expected to follow dining etiquette, showing proper respect to both the chef and the food.

But let’s start in the culture of a Japanese kitchen.

The role of a chef is not just to prepare food but to engage their customers, especially those seated at the bar. Most customers come in at the end of a long day and as much as they need delicious food, they also need a sympathetic ear. The chef, then, is not only expected to master the preparation of food but should also be able to laugh, talk, smile, and be hospitable.

To reach the position of head chef in a Japanese restaurant requires decades of training quite different from their Western counterparts. While being a chef in other parts of the world is also considered demanding and rigorous, a good culinary education and a good resume are usually the highlights restaurant owners or hotel managers look for when hiring. That means that chefs in other parts of the world are encouraged to travel and learn and study from different chefs. In Japan, aspiring chefs rarely attend culinary school and instead apprentice to master chefs. These cooks apprentice to the same chef for over a decade (sometimes longer) before they are deemed fit to face the customers or prepare the more intricate dishes. Food in Japan is a serious business and requires very detail-oriented people. Otherwise, the food will suffer.

Here’s an example. Cutting sashimi is a very detailed process, with the cut starting at the base of the knife and eventually ending at its tip. According to Japanese chefs, for one piece of sashimi to be perfectly cut, you must use the entirety of the sushi knife to cut one piece, smoothly gliding at an angle through the tuna or salmon until it rests on the end of the knife. They say that if the fish is not cut this way, the quality will suffer. A true Japanese cuisine aficionado will taste the difference and complain.

Sushi Maki, those rolls of rice and fish that have become so popular in the US and in other parts of the world, also requires detailed attention. It is not just preparation of the ingredients but also the handling of the components. It is how you pick up the sheet of nori or seaweed paper, making sure your hands are moisture free. It is how you shape the sushi rice into a ball before you spread it out into the nori. It is how you roll the maki up and how you divide it with a sushi knife, its edge lightly wetted with water. It is the direction of the maki’s rotation when it is served – when it looks like the nori paper is rotated to the left, it signifies death; it should always be to the right lest you offend your customer.

There is a certain way of movement in a kitchen that a Japanese chef or cook has that is distinct. Even in Japanese restaurants outside of Japan, you can tell by looking at the cooks whether they were trained by a real Japanese chef, whether they themselves are Japanese or not. Theirs is a craft of tradition and of respect for the food and ingredients. It is no wonder that they expect the same level of attention from their customers.

Daisuke Uttagawa, an influential figure in bringing Japanese cuisine to American taste buds, was once asked how he translates Japanese food to the American palate. He simply answered, “We don’t.” Instead, he spoke of instilling the Japanese philosophy into the ingredients that are available in the US and preparing them in the same Japanese traditions. One look at the California Maki and you see his point.

The California Maki has become one of the best known sushi maki worldwide and was actually first made in Los Angeles, California. Made in the 1960s in a land that rarely had sushi grade tuna (at the time), it was made with the more readily available ingredients like avocado, cucumber, and crab meat. It soon gave birth to a long line of what a lot of people considered Japanese-American fusion cuisine. But it is only the ingredients that were substituted; the traditions of sushi maki preparation weren’t sacrificed. Some would say that these traditions would never be sacrificed, but are sometimes evolved. 

This is an excerpt from the book: How to Use Chopsticks 

How to Use Chopsticks - A Guide to Japanese Dining and Culture

Despite the high praise and talk of endlessly delicious food, there is a certain level of intimidation when it comes to dining at a Japanese restaurant. Even just using a pair of chopsticks can be pretty nerve-wracking for the uninitiated. But more than just being a pair of utensils to eat with, chopsticks have become iconic for Japanese cuisine and it has come to stand for the culture that dictates the unique Japanese dining experience. By mastering a pair of chopsticks, you are also exposing yourself to a world built by centuries of cooking and eating and enjoying meals with friends and family.

In How to Use Chopsticks, you will not only get detailed instructions in how to use a pair of chopsticks, you will also find out how to handle them properly in the Japanese way. You’ll not only know what to do when dining with Japanese company, you will also learn the reasons behind the dining protocol expected in Japanese restaurants. You will also find out more about different Japanese food, the restaurant culture, and the underlying soul of Japanese food that has captured the fascination and attention of food lovers everywhere. With this book, you can immerse yourself in the secrets and the attraction of good Japanese food and the immense culture that it has created.

This is an excerpt from the book:  How to Use Chopsticks 

The 9 Essential Ways of How to Lose Belly Fat Fast : The Cycle of Losing (and Gaining) Belly Fat

The Cycle of Losing (and Gaining) Belly Fat

After reading the nine ways of losing belly fat fast, you may be wondering if these are really the best and fastest ways of losing the fat around your stomach. The answer is a resounding yes.

I’m not going to promise you results in three days the way some programs do (though I’m not so sure about their effectiveness) but I can promise that you’ll start feeling the difference in as little as seven days. These nine different ways of losing weight will work a lot faster than you realize and they will also help you maintain the belly fat loss. The last thing that you want is to go through all that effort then just gaining it all back in a month.

You might have noticed that for most of the book, I talked about changes that mostly involved your lifestyle and daily routine instead as opposed to talking about spot exercises directed to your belly. That’s because getting rid of belly fat is all about getting rid of visceral fat and visceral fat isn’t something that you can get rid of by continuously flexing it because it can’t be flexed. Instead, you have to send the right message to your body so that it will start using up its energy reserves which is the fat that’s padding the spaces between your organs right in your mid-section.

In a nut shell, the visceral fat is a big problem when it comes to getting rid of belly fat. It’s also the reason why you can’t just exercise without changing your eating habits or dieting without caring how many hours you sleep. All these different ways of losing belly fat are all interconnected and are actually a cycle that will either help you lose or gain belly fat.

Having a large belly can affect your sleeping patterns so that you don’t get enough sleep. When you don’t get enough sleep, your cortisol levels shoot up which makes you more prone to stress. When you’re stressed out, your body will start retaining more fat than it needs. Small habits like smoking can have big consequences – a Harvard study shows that smoking will encourage your body to store fat around your belly (as visceral fat!) instead of your thighs where getting rid of it would have been easier. It’s a vicious cycle that you can turn into a cycle of weight loss and health if you follow the nine steps that we’ve talked about.

Because it works both ways, getting started on one of the nine ways of belly fat loss will make the rest of the program easier. Drinking more water will help your digestion which will make fat storage and burning more efficient. Having less fat in your body will help you maintain healthier sleeping patterns that will encourage even more fat loss. When you start getting all the nine different ways working, you’ll be losing belly fat faster and with less effort!

Pretty soon you’ll be making a lot of headway and you’ll be breaking out all those old clothes.

 But remember, belly fat is also all about getting healthier and being less likely to suffer from all those related and nasty diseases like cardiovascular complications and diabetes. 

You’ll not only be working your way towards a better body; you’ll also be a lot healthier and live longer. With less of that dangerous belly fat, you can look good, feel good, and spend more time doing the things that make you happy and with the people you love.

This is an excerpt from the book:The 9 Essential Ways of How to Lose Belly Fat Fast

The 9 Essential Ways of How to Lose Belly Fat Fast : Finding and Nurturing a Support System

Finding and Nurturing a Support System

Losing belly fat is far from easy. In fact, the road to a flat stomach is a rocky and bumpy one that’s riddled with holes. And if you think losing the weight in the first place is challenging, making sure that all that nasty visceral fat stays off is even harder. That’s why it’s important for you to have a support system that can help you stay on track and it will also give you someone to talk to. Telling your family and friends about your goals is a good start so that they know what you’re trying to achieve and won’t spontaneously drop by with a box of doughnuts. But the best support system that you can have is a diet buddy or a diet group that knows exactly what you’re going through.

A study by the National Weight Control Registry found that people who lost weight and continued to attend group meetings about losing weight and keeping weight off maintained their target weight while those who didn’t regained almost half what they lost. Discipline and willpower are important when it comes to losing fat, especially belly fat, but a weight loss buddy or group can make a huge difference between sticking to the plan and throwing in the towel. You have someone to lean on when you feel like you’re about to give up and someone to cheer you on when you start hitting milestones. Most of all, you’ll have someone who wants the same thing that you want which will be an excellent source of motivation.

There are plenty of ways to start a support group or to join an existing one. On principle, I tend to avoid commercial groups because they charge a fee for meetings, but that’s just me. You should check out what they have to offer if you’re interested. Another quick way of finding a group is by doing a quick search online. There should be a lot of free groups online or you can also look for existing local groups that you can join. I believe that physically meeting with people makes a huge difference over just meeting and conversing online. The best way to go is to find someone who wants to lose belly fat like you do so that you can pair up and start the program together. That way, you’ll both be starting out and you’ll be implementing the different steps and reaching milestones at around the same time. And because it’s more than just an online group, you’ll have someone to do your grocery shopping with, learn to cook with, and have an instant exercise buddy.

Here are a few things that you can look for in a potential weight loss buddy:

1.      Find someone accessible

When it comes to choosing someone to lose belly fat with, you need someone who’s somewhat accessible. She doesn’t have to be available 24/7 but she should at least be willing to meet up every week or every two weeks, reply to texts, and return phone calls. If your buddy can’t be reached, it’s as bad as not having one.

A good way to keep communication lines open is to decide on a primary code of contact. Whether it’s email, text or calls, deciding on how to communicate with each other can save you from checking your email, your phone, or your computer all the time. It’s also good to know where to send a weight loss SOS.

2.      Have a similar schedule

Having a buddy with a similar schedule means that meet ups won’t be too difficult to set and that you can communicate with each other. Essentially, your weight loss buddy is someone who keeps you in track (and vice versa) so communication is vital.

3.      Have a good personality

Your weight loss buddy won’t be much of a support system if you can’t stand being around her. She doesn’t have to be Mary Poppins, but she should at least be someone you like spending time with. She should also be serious about losing belly fat so that you can both be supportive towards each other but never overly indulgent. 

Let’s take a closer look at the part about your buddy having a good personality. When we say good personality, we mean someone that you like having around but will still help you achieve your goal of having a flat stomach and less fat around the belly. There are things that you would hate hearing from your friends – like calorie counting or looking too closely at the food you’re eating – is something that you actually want in a weight loss buddy. But at the end of the day, choosing a weight loss buddy is as personal as choosing a partner in your other life ventures. What’s important is that you have someone who shares your goals and that you can count on.

When you have your buddy, you can take the different ways of how to lose belly fat that we’ve outlined and explained in this book and try to tackle one chapter per week or every two to three days. For the first few days, you can learn about the difficulties of visceral fat and pay more attention to how your body works. 

For the second time you meet up or talk, you can take on the second chapter and try to put together a list of food that you can include in your meals and snacks while also making a list of the food that you’re currently eating but are counter-productive to your goals. 

You can make a steady progress towards changing your lifestyle, becoming less prone to diseases, and losing belly fat in the long term. With a diet buddy, you can make the process a lot more fun

This is an excerpt from the book: The 9 Essential Ways of How to Lose Belly Fat Fast

The 9 Essential Ways of How to Lose Belly Fat Fast : Lose the Stress, Lose the Weight

Lose the Stress, Lose the Weight

Are you having a much harder time losing weight than when you were in high school? Did you start gaining all that weight when you started working in the office? It’s more than just the hormones that you gain or lose at a certain age. There’s a huge chance that you’re having a hard time losing weight now, specifically belly fat, because you’re busier, you have less time to relax, and you’re stressed out all the time.

In a nut shell, stress can make you gain belly fat; lots of it.

It all goes back to the visceral fat. When you’re stressed out, you trigger a flight or fight response in your body which, when you break it down, means that you are producing stress hormones like cortisol, norepinephrine, and epinephrine. These hormones affect your insulin levels,your muscles, and your digestion. 

It’s actually normal for these hormones to go up or down throughout the day. But if you’re constantly stressed out, if you’re in a prolonged state of anxiety and tension, then your cortisol levels go high and stay high.

High cortisol levels are the culprit when it comes to retaining belly fat. It might not affect your subcutaneous fat too much, but it’s almost directly responsible for gaining and retaining visceral fat. When your cortisol level is high, your body actually resists weight loss because it thinks that it needs all that energy to deal with what’s stressing you out. Stress presents itself to your body in simple forms. 

Your body doesn’t know that it doesn’t need to flee from danger or that it doesn’t have to deal with disappearing food sources. Your body doesn’t know that you’re worrying and anxious because of pressure at the office or emotional upheavals. All it knows is that you’re stressed out, that you’re in trouble and that you need as much energy – hence fat – to either fight or run. 

High cortisol causes a lot more trouble than making you gain belly fat, though that causes a lot of problems already in terms of health. It also causes memory loss, loss of muscle mass, and loss of libido. And while cortisol is natural and necessary, constantly high cortisol levels can be very detrimental.

The role of stress is so significant when it comes to having a lot of belly fat that a study by Yale University actually pinpoints cortisol as the direct culprit for excessive abdominal fat in otherwise healthy and slender women. This means that you don’t even have to be fat to be affected by abdominal weight gain via stress and that your belly fat, whether you’re losing or gaining, is more dependent on your mood than what food you eat.

This is why losing belly fat fast calls for a lifestyle change and not just spot exercises. But don’t worry; a lot of the ways on how to lose belly fat fast that we’ve discussed in this book already contributes a lot in maintaining a healthy and less stressful lifestyle. Getting the right amount of sleep, drinking water to help organ functions (including brain functions), short but regular exercise, and good eating habits all help in keeping you relaxed and in a much better state of body and mind to lose weight from the mid-section.

There are also other ways of reducing stress and keeping your cortisol levels down, such as drinking green tea or aromatherapy or yoga. But developing a routine that will help you unwind is something that’s personal and can be different for every individual. For some, it was as simple as changing their sleeping patterns. For others, larger steps had to be taken, like making an effort to leave work at the office or making time out of their busy schedules for personal time. It could be as simple as having the occasional dinner with friends or a weekend trip with your special someone.

There are many ways to fight stress; you just have to identify your daily stressors and recognize when they’re triggering your moods. By knowing what’s stressing you out and making you anxious, you can either deal with it better or avoid another encounter. You can even go as far as writing down possible stressors so that you have a list with you, and then you can work on creating a personal routine that can help fight stress.

After you’ve identified your stressors, you can start designing a stress-fighting routine for yourself. Close your eyes and think of your own, personal Zen place. Imagine yourself transported to that place then try to identify and remember what you find in those places – whether it’s a beach, a book, a person or just an aura or feeling that you get. When you know what relaxes you and puts you in a better state of mind, you can insert those things into your routine so that you always have a pit stop every day for your body and your mind.

Establishing a routine and living by it every day can be challenging at first but pretty soon you’ll be looking forward to these emotional pit stops and you’ll be making these stops without even thinking about it. Taking care of yourself physically and emotionally will be automatic. Once you’ve reached this stage, both your body and your mind will also respond to these stops better and will recognize them as a chance to relax and unwind.

Before we end the chapter, let’s talk about the slight chance that your long-term mood swings and anxiety may be caused by hormonal imbalance. This can be caused by a lot of external factors, including eating habits, or it can be caused by heredity. If you suspect that you are suffering from hormonal imbalance, you should go see a doctor and ask for an opinion. Keep in mind that actual hormonal imbalance is rare and that chances are you are feeling anxious and stressed because of environmental and social factors. 

This is an excerpt from the book: The 9 Essential Ways of How to Lose Belly Fat Fast

The 9 Essential Ways of How to Lose Belly Fat Fast : Exercise, or Something Like It

Exercise, or Something Like It

You start the day at six or seven in the morning; you grab a quick breakfast then you’re off to work. While in the train, you’re on your smart phone, trying to tie lose ends together, getting things done before you even step foot in the office. Or you’re supermom – you have kids to cook breakfast for, who need to have their homework looked over, who need the care and attention that kids thrive in. Let’s face it; in this modern day and age, most women have their schedules full, juggling their personal lives with the professional, taking on a lot of work and flourishing in it.  So when exactly are you supposed to fit in an hour of cardio?

These busy, modern times leave very little room for a full blown workout. We see models on TV doing crunches and giving two hours a day to the gym and we tell ourselves, no wonder they have such great abs. They make a living out of looking good after all, and spending hours on a treadmill or in a rejuvenating spa actually pay the bills – for them. Two hours a day or even just an hour a day is a lot of time when you’ve already got your hands full with being awesome. But what most women who are struggling with belly fat don’t know is that it takes very little to get those enzymes started towards burning that fat.

Repeat after me – 15 to 20 minutes for five times a week. It doesn’t have to be high intensity workouts either; just moderate-intensity activities like bicycling, swimming or brisk walking at a casual pace is the trick to burn visceral fat. In fact, a Harvard study shows that while spot exercises like sit-ups and crunches can tighten your abdominal muscles, they do very little for.

visceral fat which is the real enemy. 15 minutes is less than the time that you spend reading the newspaper or checking social media in the morning. It’s less than the time you spend in that half-awake, half-asleep state before getting out of bed.

And if you spend even as little as 15 minutes on brisk walking or swimming laps (for those lucky enough to have access to a pool), you’ll see better and faster results than if you do a hundred crunches a day. 

You can also supplement your moderate-intensity exercises by grabbing opportunities to keep things in motion. Take the stairs when you have a chance or walk those five blocks to your apartment instead of taking a cab. Even stretching out a little while sitting on a chair in the office will help get the heart rate going a little. Remember, the little things count.

Remember, you’re targeting the visceral fat that’s underneath and not the subcutaneous fat which is literally just skin deep. The visceral fat is very deep in your abdominal cavity, padding the spaces between your organs. You can’t get to the visceral fat with exercises that target your stomach (although those exercises will do wonders for the subcutaneous fat and tone). You need exercises that involve your entire body, get your heart rate going, and use a lot more muscles than just the abdominal ones. The good thing about getting rid of visceral fat though is that a lot of activities actually call for using it as energy. If you take up a physical hobby – something fun that also gets you moving – like surfing or tennis, you’ll be losing that visceral fat faster than you can blink and you could even have fun in the process.

Your goal is to introduce regular, moderate-intensity, and short exercises to your routine five times a week. And while these exercises may be a lot lighter than a full blown workout of cardio and weights, they are still workouts and you need to prepare for them properly. Don’t forget to stretch properly before you start to warm up, to drink lots of water, and to cool down after your routine. Everything we’ve discussed so far is about preserving your health and giving your body

what it needs so that it’s running well and will handle fat more efficiently like when it’s burning or storing fat. The last thing that you want is to strain yourself or pull a muscle. Eat a banana at least once a week for potassium and citrus fruits like oranges for vitamin C.

If you live by what we’ve been talking about in this book, losing that unwanted belly fat is only a matter of time. But when you do reach your goal – when you’re healthier, when your jeans fit better, when you’re more comfortable with your body – you have to stick to the healthy lifestyle that we’ve been describing for you. According to a study conducted at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, women who continued their modest exercise routines maintained their visceral fat loss while those who slipped back to not exercising gained back their visceral fat, experiencing a 33% increase.

This is an excerpt from the book:  The 9 Essential Ways of How to Lose Belly Fat Fast