8 Minutes in the Morning to Lean Hips and Thin Thighs - 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

Thin Thighs and Hips Await

Get Ready to Lose Up to 4 Inches from Your #1 Trouble Zone in Just 8 Minutes a Day

8 minutes to firmer hips and thighs!

Welcome to 8 Minutes in the Morning to Lean Hips and Thin Thighs. I'm so excited to bring you my latest 8 Minutes weight-loss solution, one specifically designed to address the number one trouble zone for women!

The fat that tends to accumulate along the thigh and hip area may very well be the most stubborn type of fat there is'" and you probably don't need me to tell you that! That's why I'm so happy to tell you that no matter how stubborn the fat, you can burn it off. And you don't need expensive food plans, pills, potions, or equipment. You don't need to spend hours at a gym. You don't even need to sweat and strain at home.

your '?8 minute'? edge

8 Minutes in the Morning to Lean Hips and Thin Thighs will help you:

'· Lose up to 4 inches in less than 4 weeks

'· Smooth away cellulite

'· Boost your metabolism

'· Allow you the convenience of doing it at home

You need only commit to spending just 8 minutes each morning completing a set of targeted and effective moves. How can I promise to help you slim down your number one trouble spot in just 8 minutes a day when other programs that took more time and more effort failed to yield results? Throughout the first few chapters of this book, you'll find the answer to that important question. But here's a sneak peek. 8 Minutes in the Morning to Lean Hips and Thin Thighs is based on a revolution that is going on right now in the weight-loss industry. You see, aerobics'"otherwise known as cardiovascular exercise'"and dieting are out.

Experts now agree that to most efficiently shed fat, you must do resistance training to build lean muscle tissue. Lean muscle helps you to rev up your metabolism'"no matter how sluggish. Train with me for just 8 minutes each morning and you'll boost your metabolism and sculpt your muscles, creating lean, sexy hips and thighs.

I believe resistance training is so important to your success that it is the cornerstone to all Jorge Cruise® weight-control plans. The Jorge Cruise® revolution will help you burn off the most stubborn fat deposits in your body and shape up the flabbiest muscles. Once you experience our simple 8-minute technique to restore your metabolism, I am confident you will never diet again.

the history of 8 minutes in the morning

I understand the struggle to lose weight and keep it off. I've struggled with weight as a child and young man. That struggle helped me create the Jorge Cruise® plan which I published in 8 Minutes in the Morning. That book'"designed to help people lose up to 2 £ds a week'"quickly climbed the New York Times bestseller lists. I promptly followed up with my second book 8 Minutes in the Morning for Real Shapes, Real Sizes, designed to help those who wanted to lose more than 30 £ds.

As a result of the great success of both books, I appeared on numerous television programs such as Good Morning America, CNN, The View, and Dateline NBC. It seemed every time I appeared on television, my Web site'"www.jorgecruise.com'"wentcrazy. As more and more people logged on to my site, I received more and more e-mails from people just like you, asking me to help them slim down their hips and thighs.

At the same time, my longterm clients who had already lost 10, 20, 30, or more £ds with my first two 8 Minutes programs were telling me that they were ready to take the next step. They had lost most of the weight they wanted to lose. Yet they still wanted to give their hips and thighs some extra attention.

I responded as soon as I could. I designed an 8 Minutes program that specifically targets the hip and thigh area. I tested it on my online clients over and over until I was completely confident that it would help all women get lean hips and thin thighs in just 8 minutes a day. The program uses the Jorge Cruise® weight-loss formula and applies it specifically to the hips and thighs. I'm happy to tell you that anyone can use this supplementary program to slim down the lower half'"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 the 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 slim down your hips and thighs is right here within the pages of this book.

the nature of hip and thigh fat

Many women tell me that every stray calorie seems to migrate to their hips and thighs. This is not a figment of their imaginations.

Before menopause, many women's bodies store excess fat predominantly in the hips and thighs, creating what's come to be known as the '?pear- shaped'? body. Your body can easily mobilize this excess fat during pregnancy and breastfeeding, when the body needs as many as 1,000 extra calories a day. Fat storage in these sites dates back thousands of years, when it greatly helped certain cave-dwelling humans survive during times of drought and famine. Women who could easily store fat in their hips and thighs tended to be able to give birth and feed a baby during a drought, thus passing on their thigh-fat-storing genetics to future generations.

This is one reason why thigh fat is so difficult to get rid of. Genes left over from your cave-dwelling ancestors cause hormones and enzymes in your body to direct every extra calorie into waiting fat cells in your hips and thighs. For example, your levels of the female sex hormone estrogen may be a tad higher than other women whose bodies don't store excess fat in these areas (or as much of it).

But there are ways to coax these fat cells in your thighs to release their contents, and to coax your muscle cells into burning it up! So don't despair.

the causes of cellulite

Besides excess fat in their thighs, many women complain to me about a certain type of fat known as cellulite. They tell me that no matter how much weight they lose, they can't seem to smooth out the tiny lumps of fat on their thighs. Indeed, some of the most slender women have cellulite. As many as 85 percent of teenage girls have it.

Cellulite is created when fat manages to push its way through tiny holes in your connective tissue, the thick web of interwoven fibers just underneath your skin. Strong and healthy connective tissue forms a tighter web of interwoven fibers, preventing fat from pressing its way through. Weak, unhealthy connective tissue, on the other hand, more easily stretches apart, allowing tiny fat pockets to poke through. Many factors can weaken your connective tissue, setting the stage for cellulite. They include:

High hormone levels. Women with higher-than-normal levels of the female hormone estrogen tend to suffer more often from cellulite. Other than directing extra calories to fat cells in your thighs, estrogen also weakens connective tissue. When estrogen softens connective tissue around the womb, it makes childbirth possible. Unfortunately, estrogen softens all of the connective tissue in your body, not just that around your womb.

Poor blood circulation. Usually, high estrogen levels alone won't trigger cellulite to form. Many experts believe that you must also have poor blood circulation to your connective tissue, which tends to cause swelling. The swelling stretches the connective tissue apart, allowing the fat to bulge through.

Fluid retention. Many people think that fluid retention takes place only in the abdomen. That's not true. It actually occurs all over your body, including your thighs. If you've ever pulled on a favorite pair of pants and found them tight in the thighs on one day and loose on the next, you've experienced the ebb and flow of fluid retention. Any type of swelling in your thighs'"particularly on a chronic basis'"will stretch out and weaken connective tissue.

A frenzied lifestyle. Emotional stress has been shown to weaken connective tissue. My 8 Minutes in the Morning to Lean Hips and Thin Thighs program will help you smooth away cellulite in many ways. First, daily exercise will help to normalize your hormonal levels. This not only helps prevent cellulite, it will also help to prevent mood swings. Second, my Cruise Moves exercise program will increase blood circulation to your thighs, helping to keep the connective tissue healthy. Better blood circulation will, in turn, help to remove excess fluid. Finally, as you shed fat in your hips and thighs, you'll have less of it to press against your connective tissue.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some questions that I often get from clients about their hips and thighs.

I've been doing lots of leg exercises, but it seems like my thighs are getting bigger and bigger. What's going on?

To slim down your thighs, you must build muscle all over your body to boost your metabolism to burn the fat. Doing lots of leg lifts will only build muscle in your legs, but won't burn the fat. As the muscle grows, your legs will grow. You must burn the fat to shrink the size of your thighs. My program will help you to do just that.

It seems like every time I go on a diet, my upper body shrinks, but my lower body doesn't budge. Why does this happen?

The only way to shrink your lower body without shrinking your upper body is to stop dieting! Dieting sends your body into starvation mode. To help you survive the famine, your body preferentially burns fat in your upper body and conserves the fat in your lower body. The more often you diet, the more perverse this problem will become. The only way to burn fat in your lower body is to stop dieting and start strength training!

Everyone in my family has big thighs. Slimming my thighs is a hopeless battle, isn't it?

That couldn't be farther from the truth. You may have inherited the tendency to store fat in your thighs from your parents, but that doesn't mean you can't burn the fat! Stick with me and you'll soon be a believer.

some good news and some bad news

Genetically speaking, there are two predominant body types. Some people gain fat in their lower bodies, creating the pear shape mentioned earlier. And still others tend to gain fat in their abdomens, creating what's known as an apple shape. (See my all-new 8 Minutes in the Morning to a Flat Belly.)

Though you may have come to despise the fat on your hips and thighs, you should know that you have a major advantage over people who tend to gain it elsewhere. Research has shown over and over again that abdominal fat'"and not hip and thigh fat'"is particularly dangerous to your health. Abdominal fat more easily makes its way into your bloodstream, clogging your arteries. Thigh fat is much less likely to do so.

Now for the bad news. Thigh fat is a little harder to burn off than belly fat. You probably know this already. If you and a boyfriend, guy friend, or husband have ever resolved to lose weight at the same time, you probably noticed that he had a much easier time dropping the weight in his belly than you did in your thighs.

Regardless, that doesn't mean you can't burn it off.

I know that women who have excess thigh fat are generally the most motivated to get rid of it. So I probably don't have to give you much of a pep talk to help motivate you toward your goal. Abdominal fat is easy to hide with a big sweater. Thigh fat, on the other hand, is almost impossible to hide. And summer can be a very difficult time for women. My female friends and online clients tell me that they hate wearing shorts and swimsuits because they hate revealing their legs. And they tell me that their pants tend to hug too tightly in the thighs.

Diane Sutherlin lost 4 inches!

I went from a size 14'"16 pant size to a size 10. I have lost 21 £ds and feel so much better about myself. I feel better not only because I have dropped the weight but also because I feel I have so much more control over my life. I realize that I have choices and I am no longer a victim to food. I don't have to give up my favorite things; I just have them in smaller quantities. I am proud to say that I am over halfway to my goal and that I have learned other ways to cope with my stress than turning to food. Jorge has taught me some lifelong tools that I will always be able to fall back on in those difficult moments.

Diane dropped 3 pants sizes!

But you are going to change all of that! We are going to slim down those thighs and hips and smooth away that cellulite, creating a beautiful, sexy body from head to toe. Have you always wanted to wear those low-rider jeans but shunned them because they were too tight in the thighs? You'll be able to after finishing this 8 Minutes in the Morning to Lean Hips and Thin Thighs program. You'll be able to confidently bare your legs in shorts and swimsuits. Your thighs will no longer rub together when you walk.

And those are just the visual benefits. The muscles in your legs are some of the largest and strongest muscles in your body. Stronger leg muscles make your overall life feel so much more effortless. You'll walk with more confidence and a spring in your step. You'll be able to climb stairs without getting tired. And you'll be able to go on strenuous hikes'"all because of your strong legs!

You will feel better about yourself from the inside out. And isn't that really what it's all about? Sure, you will look better. But you'll feel fantastic! So promise me right now that you will make the commitment to sticking with the program. Promise me'"and promise yourself'"that you will find 8 minutes each day to complete your morning moves. Once you've made your promise, turn to chapter 2 to find out more about the magic of the 8 Minutes in the Morning program.