I am going to have some professional pictures taken for BOOST Health later this month. This may come as a surprise but I may not have my shirt on in some of them. Those of you who follow myboosthealth on Instagram and Facebook probably know that is a joke!The fact is that I take a lot of my workout pictures without a shirt because I want to show I have nothing to hide. I want to show that if you maintain a certain lifestyle, you can have a flat stomach and abdominal definition year round. With that said, I am not going to do anything special to get ready for this photo shoot. No crash dieting, crazy workouts, or water pills. I will just keep doing what I do every day. I was actually having coffee with my buddy Ric, after a bike ride recently, and he said he didn’t like how he heard a few people say that I am able to keep fit because I don’t have a “real job”. We laughed because we know it requires discipline and effort to have a good physique, and doesn’t necessarily have a direct correlation to whether or not I work a typical office job. In fact, I had the exact same body composition several years ago after I switched to a plant-based diet, and was still working in the corporate world. And nowadays I spend most of my time in front of a computer researching and writing for the blog and podcast. It isn’t as if I am exercising all day long. The truth is, you can have a strong and defined midsection, even if you have a busy career.When I say defined and flat stomach I am not saying I am super cut up or the most shredded guy in the world. There are plenty of people that have more abdominal definition than I do. Body builders and figure competitors get their body fat down into the low single digits and you can even see vascularity in their abs. While this is impressive, this isn’t something that anyone can, or should, maintain year round. To get to this state there is usually a bulking phase where lots of fat and muscle are added and then a massive cutting phase to get the body fat super low while maintaining as much muscle as possible. These big swings in body composition are not healthy. According to an article on mensjournal.com that discusses negative effects of extremely low body fat, registered dietician Georgie Fear noted that body builders often go below 5% body fat during competition but this is actually too low for a healthy cardiovascular, endocrine, reproductive, skeletal, and nervous system. You can see why they don’t stay in this low zone for very long.My point is, if you are not a competitive body builder or figure competitor, how about just having a flat tummy and nice abdominal definition year round? There is no need to go to extremes to get and maintain this. Wouldn’t it be nice when swimsuit season comes around and you don’t have to do anything different to be “ready”? It just requires a disciplined lifestyle. In an effort to prescribe this lifestyle to you I have identified below 13 Tactics for Year-Round Abs to Get and Maintain a Flat and Defined Stomach. One of my goals with BOOST Health is to share ideas to help people find their wellness balance. I know not every tip will work with every individual, but I am hopeful that some of these ideas will work in chorus with what you already know about your body and what works well for you.1.