"Do a vacuum in the morning and your belly will go away," Zina sees a cheerful girl in reels.

"It's so simple!" Zina thinks. "Why didn't I do this before?"

She starts sucking in her stomach every morning to the sounds of "ommm" and sometimes a nervous, strained "f*ck."

Two weeks pass, but her belly is still there. However, her lower back hurts like a pensioner's.

"I'm sick of this vacuum!" Zina gets angry and goes to Google for information. She stumbles upon an article that impresses her greatly.

It completely trashes the vacuum exercise, so much so that Zina is now sure: a little more, and her organs will tie themselves in a knot and never come undone.

And the belly? Well, the belly grows from high insulin!

To keep it low, you need to eat two to three meals a day, the article says.

"So that's where the problem lies!" Zina thinks with relief. Finally, the cause is found, and she will get rid of that annoying belly. She switches to two meals a day to ensure her insulin stays low.

She holds on for a week on enthusiasm, but gradually it becomes harder to maintain. She wants to eat, but she can't, because insulin would spike.

But here's the catch: no matter how hard Zina tries, her belly doesn't go away!

Instead, a new truth arrives from the stories of another guru: "The belly grows from cortisol!"

"Aaaah! So that's what it's really about!! I'm stressed: work, home, husband with questions like 'where are my socks?' — of course, my cortisol is off the charts!"

Hope flares up inside, and now Zina is Googling how to lower cortisol without meditation.

Zina cuts out coffee, takes supplements, tries to stay calm, even though everything has been driving her crazy since early morning.

But it's not working. No coffee, no calm, but the belly is still there.

Zina continues Googling.
She'd better not have.

Because the information flow turns into a hellish circus.

Some shout: "Do abs!" Others: "Don't you dare, it'll protrude even more!"
Some: "Fasted cardio is the only salvation!" Others: "Fasted cardio will kill your adrenal glands with cortisol!"

Zina is in shock. How is this possible? How can Zina get rid of her belly, who should she believe?

What do you think Zina's mistake is?

I'll post the answer in the next post. In the meantime, give me a like and write your guesses.)