Man! I didn't see that coming.

PLATEAU – what a horrible word - At least in the “diet” world it is.  Definition: - to remain at a stable level for a relatively long period.  In my case, 4 weeks and counting.  Talk about being discouraged!  You’re doing everything right, you’re eating the right foods, tracking, staying within your points, exercising and BOOM!  Your weight loss slows to a screeching halt.  Being warned ahead of time that this would happen really doesn’t prepare you for when it does.  I was OK for the first couple of weeks, but then 3 weeks and now 4 weeks and still no major breakthrough.  YIKES!!!

So, what does one do?  Go back to your old habits of drowning your disappointments with food?  NO

Get off the program for a few days to give your body a rest and time to reset itself?  NO
Throw out your old scales and buy new ones? NO - Actually that might help.  J
Give up and just accept the fact that the weight is never coming off? NO

 Here’s what I decided to do, even though in the past I did do all the above things and put back on more weight than when I had started.

 1.       Stay on the program and keep doing what I know is right.  The Bible even instructs us to not grow weary in well doing because in time you will reap the rewards of your hard work if you don’t give up.

2.       Remind myself of how far I’ve come.  I have plenty of old pictures to support my journey.

3.       I did a graph of my weight loss and it looks pretty impressive! Downward baby all the way!!!
4.       Look through my closet at all the smaller clothes I have now.
5.       I may not be seeing results on the scales right now, but my clothes tell me I’m losing inches.  To prove that point, I went shopping and bought a size smaller shirt and jeans.  Now that made me feel much better than gorging myself with food and then hating myself afterwards.

Just so there’s no question, I am not quitting!  This difficult time is just proving to make me more focused and determined.  I can do this!  I am 116.25 pounds down from my heaviest weight in January 2000.  This time around, I’ve lost 75 pounds and I am very proud of it!  There's no going back for me.  My rear view mirror has been destroyed.  I will take a closer look at the foods I'm eating and plan on increasing my activity level as well.  I'm sure that will help.

In my next blog, I will let you know how long the plateau lasted.