Hubby put my October picture up and at first, I was super critical of myself. I thought about abandoning my entire blog so I didn’t have to put it up. Why?  I don’t really see much change except I’m even WHITER. I didn’t think that was possible. I think my abs may be showing a little more definition but it’s not an obvious change like earlier photos.  Honestly, it’s a little disappointing knowing how hard I’ve been working at the gym and that I’ve passed on so many yummy foods.  But it happens.  

Plateaus.

Yep, most people who have lost weight attest to hitting a plateau at some point.  What can you do?  First, it’s important to address the mental.  At this point it’s really easy to just give up and say “Oh well I must have bad genetics” or some other excuse.  Maybe you are fine with your body at your plateau and that’s WONDERFUL start working on maintenance. Not everyone wants to try to look superhero-ish much less maintain it. But if you want to move beyond your plateau here are a few things you can do.  

Change up your workout.  Have you been doing the same workout for 8 weeks or more?  Time to change it up.  I usually change my workout every 4-6 weeks sometimes after 2 weeks.  Are bodies are amazingly adaptable and will adapt to whatever exercise program your own.  Learn some new moves or lifts.  Increase your intensity.  Switch up your cardio machines at the gym.  Try some new classes at the gym.  If you are not doing resistance training START!  This will defiantly get you past your plateau.  If you are already strength training are you challenging yourself every workout?

Be realistic about your diet.  Start writing everything down again for a few days.  It’s easy to not count all the “extras”, the crust off your kid’s grilled cheese, cookies at the open house, soda, ect.  The extras really do add up.  A pound of body fat is 3500 calories.  To lose a pound you need to create a deficit of 3500 using diet and exercise.  That’s 250 calories a day you need to cut out of your diet and you could easily eat the 250 by grabbing a pastry from Starbucks.

Change up your caloric intake.  If you’ve been honest with your diet and you haven’t been doing the same Jane Fonda workout for the last 20 years then you might want to try cycling your calories.  This simply means you have lower calorie days and higher calorie days.  As an EXAMPLE, you might eat 1400 calories on Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday..  Tuesday you might eat 1700.  Thursday you might eat 1800 and Sunday 2000.  You get the point.  It doesn’t have to be rocket science.  It could be as simple as adding a bagel to a few breakfasts a few times a week.  Did I just say bagel???  Mmmmm.  The idea is to keep your body’s metabolism guessing.

Mess with your macronutrients.  Start by having a couple of low carb days a week.  You can google carb cycling and you will find TONS of info on this.

Be patient with yourself as you work to push pass your plateau.  I have noticed that I hit a plateau at about every 4 or 5 pounds I lose.  After a few weeks at the same weight, my body just seems to unstick itself and lose a few more until it decided it’s going to stop again.  Annoying? Yes. But my metabolism doesn’t know that there is a restaurant on every corner or grocery stores the size of small airports.  It thinks it’s saving me from the next famine.

If you have any advice on how you broke through your plateau I’d love to hear it!

xoxo
j