Tom Venuto, noted bodybuilder, claims that building a six-pack abs look is 50% nutrition, 49% body exercise, and 1% abs exercise.  My experience tells me that he is close to correct.  I remember a few years ago, I found myself 25-30 pounds overweight and simply got MAD about it.  I hated going to the beach and feeling like I had to suck in my gut.  I hated looking at a scale and wondering how in the world I had gotten to almost 190 pounds, when I should have been in the low 160's.  I also was tired of getting on a treadmill for a few weeks, pounding out my legs and joints, spending money on expensive running shoes to save my joints, and everything else that didn't seem to wrok.  I was sick of trying a few fad diets that were impossible to stick with.

But as I said, I was mad.  I simply decided having a gut like that was ridiculous and I was going to do what it took to get rid of my belly fat once for all.  Not only that, I decided that I would go the entire way--getting my six pack abs.  I had never heard of kettlebells at that time, but I downloaded Mike Geary's ebook Truth About Abs.  I worked hard, and in the matter of a few months I had shed a lot of weight and was down to 7-8% body fat.  Geary talked about these things called kettlebells.  I investigated, bought my first 20 kg kettlebell and Pavel's book/DVD Enter the Kettlebell; and the rest--as they say--is history.

While this is not meant to be a comprehensive guide on nutrition or sports nutrition, I can say that the guidelines below represent the 80/20 rule--maybe even better than that.  If you get these down, the rest is "bells and whistles."  You will make progress by following them.  The great thing is--it really isn't a diet.  It is simply reasonable eating.  When you are working out with kettlebells or weights, the last thing you want to do is a diet that is too restrictive.

One of the great things about Geary's Truth About Abs book is that he spends as much space talking about nutritional choices than he did exercise.  If you are into kettlebells to lose body fat--you have selected probably the most powerful exercise tool to do so.  Swings, snatches, cleans and presses--will really exercise your heart with GOOD cardio (not nonsense such as treadmills & elliptical machines), tear down/rebuild muscle (a huge caloric-burning process for your body), and build your strength and conditioning.  However, you will increase your gains dramatically and decrease the time involved if you will purpose and commit to some basic nutritional changes as well.

One big misconception of "dieting" is that a person should "starve" their body of calories.  While not going into details here, that is a bad idea for those on a heavy exercise program.  You need to FEED your muscle to help it rebuild itself after working out hard.  You are going to burn a lot more calories in the hours after your workout than you do in the actual workout itself!  Feed the muscle!

• Eat food in its most natural state as possible.  Your body is best equipped to process foods in their natural state.  That means eating whole wheat bread instead of white bread.  That means whole grain cereals without sugar instead of Fruit Loops.  (Use raw honey to sweeten your cereal--I've been doing that since I was a little kid.  It's delicious!)  Eat fruit whole and raw, not juice.  Eat the whole egg (not egg whites--yes, I know what I am saying). Natural fats are not bad for you--in fact, they are helpful for your weight loss.  STAY AWAY from processed foods!
• You MUST, you MUST, you MUST avoid high fructose corn syrup at all costs!  This is hard to do...it is a cheap sweetener that seems to be in everything...including soft drinks and ketchup!  I cannot do justice here to this topic.  This stuff is evil.  It is an industry-modified corn product, and your body cannot digest and process it correctly.  It is without a doubt the single most important contributor to obesity in this country.  Do not touch it at all.  Do what you have to do--just don't eat or drink it.
• You MUST avoid trans fats.  Fortunately, this food ingredient is getting the bad press that it deserves and thus food companies and restaurants have been moving away from it--advertising the lack of it in their products.  They are still out there though.  Avoid like the plague!
• Avoid liquid calories.  Get your calories from food that your body can use and that actually fills you up for a while.  Stay away from fruit juice (except maybe right after a hard workout--when it can have some benefit).  Obviously, stay away from soft drinks for the reason that I stated earlier.  Stay away from sports drinks.  Too much sugar or artificial sweeteners.
• Avoid artificial sweeteners.  A quick internet search will reveal that these evil substances help CONTRIBUTE to fat gain, not help reduce it.
• Eat 5-6 small meals per day to help keep your blood sugar constant throughout the day.  This is one of the first pieces of advice the medical community gives a diabetic struggling to control their blood sugar.  Sugar spikes correspond with insulin spikes.  Neither are good, and both add fat to your body.
• Take one day a week to eat what you want, how much you want.  Still, though, use some restraint.  No soft drinks.  No 1/2 pound burgers.  No greasy pizzas (a well-made, non-greasy pizza is a different story).  But relax a little.  Reward yourself for a hard week of working out. Your body also does better on cycles.  I won't go into the details here, but it works better to give your body a day of increased eating.
• If you have to eat out, make Subway or another sandwich shop with some healthy foods your restaurant of choice.  Of course, don't ruin it with poor food choices when you get there!

There are some foods that ought to be a part of your meals.  In fact, some of these are super foods", as it were.  Try to incorporate these "high-nutritional value" foods into  your eating whenever possible--replacing some of the garbage that you might be eating now.

• Spinach.  I always use spinach instead of lettuce whenever possible.  When I'm out and I go to Subway to eat my oven-roasted chicken breast sandwich on wheat bread, I ask for spinach.  It is chock-full of vitamins--as opposed to iceburg lettuce, which has almost nothing.
• Extra virgin olive oil.  One of the best sources of healthy fats out there.
• Fresh fish (salmon, trout, etc.)
• Yams
• Potatoes
• Cottage cheese, yogurt (without any corn syrup!)
• Nuts (great source of healthy fats!).  If you use peanut butter, use one that is nothing but peanuts, such as Smuckers brand.
• Whole eggs (from grain-fed chickens)
• Salsa (great substitute for ketchup--check the ingredients though)
• Oats
• Frozen fish
• Berries
• Fresh vegetables (frozen if not in season)
• Brown rice and whole wheat pasta (NEVER the white stuff!)
• Chicken breasts