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The Plateau

You’ve been working really hard lately. You punched your card at the gym at least four times this week. You stuck to your diet. You even turned down that candy bowl at work. You tracked your water, packed your lunch, did an extra 20-minute cardio session because you were extra motivated yesterday.

Today, it’s weigh-in day. And… the scale says you’ve lost nothing.

Nothing!

After all the work you put in this week. After all the little battles you fought over your cravings, saying “No!” to bad habits and working hard to maintain new ones… just, Nothing.

It’s like a five-year old whose new balloon has sprung a leak, our motivation and momentum deflates to a piece of damp latex. You feel like literally throwing in the towel, sitting on the curb and asking the ice cream man how much he’d take just to leave his truck with you.

We’re angry at the fact that this thing that we want (which is good for us!) is harder to obtain that we thought it would be. And we’re scared that we just don’t have what it takes to make it happen. Weight loss.

The plateau happens to us all. And it’s really frustrating when it does.

But it doesn’t have to stop you in your tracks and be the end of some well spent effort.

Here are four things you can do when you hit the emotional slump of a plateau:

1- Recognize that this is a snapshot of where you are right now, not a summary of what you’ve accomplished up until this point.

2-The future is still unwritten. This is not the end of your journey. Take this time to be patient and charge up your resolve about what you will do next.

3- Take a deep breath. You’ve been living a certain way for a long time. Admit it’s probably going to take longer than you think to change it.

4- Give yourself a time limit to be upset. When it’s up, it’s time to put it behind you and gird yourself for more effort.

Now, to move forward, here are five suggested changes you can make when you hit a plateau:

1- Change up your DIET. If you’ve been doing no to low carbs for a long time, have a high carbohydrate day. If you’ve been balanced with your carbs, protein and fat, take out some carbs and go high fat/ low carbs for a few days.

2- If you’ve been exercising 6-7 times a week, take a week OFF to recharge.

3- If you’ve been steadily increasing your workouts, take ONE day and do TWO workouts in that day. (i.e. one in the morning and one in the evening)

4- Change the TIME of day you workout.

5- Change the TYPE of training you are doing. Get outside and try something new like trail biking, swimming, mixed martial arts or an adult sport league.

I recommend just making ONE of the changes above. Find out if it works. If it does, Hurray!, you’re moving again. If not, try another one. Keep trying until you figure out what it is that’s holding you back.

Don’t give up. Things will change if you keep making the changes.

Keep moving,
Priscilla

p.s. Know what you want but not sure how to get there? That’s where we come in. We give you step by step instruction on what to do next. With all the ideas, diet advice and newest forms of exercise, it can be overwhelming. So let us help you determine your next step. Click here if you’d like to set up a free consultation.

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