The Plateau

Three weeks now with no weight loss.  The dreaded plateau.  It would have been more convenient to have the plateau come when I was in a definite size.  But I’m between sizes right now, belting one and squeezing in the other.  Of course it would have been even more convenient to plateau at maintenance! But since these things never seem to care much about convenience, I’m just continuing to do what I do and wait it out.

In the absence of any exciting weight loss to report, other than the 54 pounds to date (not that that's not exciting in and of itself), I’ve decided to focus on inches lost in this post.  I measured at the beginning of all this, last November, but only once or twice since then.  I must admit, I’m more focused on the number on the scale, even though everything I read tells me not to be.  But the inches lost are adding up and I was quite surprised by how much less of me there is.

There are seven areas I measure (chest, waist, hips, thigh, stomach, buttocks, and arm).  In total from those seven areas, I’ve lost 38 inches!  That’s over a YARD of me GONE!  And if you count the size I can squeeze into (which, of course, I am), I’m down 8 jean sizes.

So if you are on a weight loss journey, here is my tip for the day:  measure yourself at the beginning and then don’t do it again until you hit your plateau (and you will hit a plateau).  It gives you something to get excited and motivated about, even though the scale refuses to budge. Because right now, I gotta admit, I'm pretty motivated and excited!  

My other random tip for those taking up running or cardio that you otherwise don’t care for: audiobooks.  I started downloading books on my itunes and only listen to them when I run.  I cannot believe what a difference it has made.  I get so lost in the story, it takes my mind off the run (or cardio machine) and makes the time fly by.  Sometimes when I should be done with the workout, but the chapter isn’t finished, I keep going to get to a good stopping point.  And because I won’t let myself listen to it unless I’m working out, there are some days I can’t wait to get to the gym, or start the run, so I can find out what happens next! Books that leave you hanging at the end of chapters are especially effective in this regard.

And speaking of running, I ran my second 5K on the 4^th of July.  I beat my time goal, which was to finish in 33 minutes, by two minutes, finishing in 31 minutes.  That’s five minutes faster than the first 5K in March.  VERY happy about that!  =D  Below is my wonderful husband, Ron, who also ran the race, but finished considerably before me.   

Bottom line, plateau notwithstanding, I’m still committed and on track.  Other than a couple day splurge with some girlfriends on a recent getaway, I’ve been keeping to my calorie and percentage goals.  I’m obviously looking forward to the scale moving again, but the way I eat is pretty much the way I plan to eat long term anyway, so I don’t feel like I’m spinning my wheels for nothing.  I may not make my final goal in the one year time frame I was hoping for, but, Lord willing, I’ll hit it eventually.  And in the meantime, I feel better than I’ve felt in years!  

Nobody Said It'd Be Easy

I love those weeks where I’ve lost a couple more pounds, tried a new recipe that is just to die for in a completely healthy-okay-to-eat kind of way, or had some really cool new gadget or insight that helps propel me into the next week of my weight loss journey.

This last week was not one of those weeks.

Last week, hands down, has been one of the toughest weeks for me so far.  I have a sweet tooth craving that cannot be satisfied, jars of peanut butter that audibly call to me at odd hours in the day, and the munchies almost around the clock.  Not just today, which I could probably handle, but the entire last week.  While to some degree I’ve succumbed to these temptations, for the most part, I’ve just suffered through it.  But the longer it lasts, the weaker I get.  And the weaker I get, the crankier I get.  And the crankier I get, the more I think about peanut butter.

This next paragraph is supposed to contain the epiphany that saves the day.  It’s supposed to be the nugget that you walk away with that encourages and inspires you to stay the course, or start the course, or get back on the course.   But today, I sort of hate the course, and have nothing short of this to say:  this is hard.

Losing weight is never easy.  And losing a lot of weight throws the element of a lot of time into the mix, making it not only not easy, but seemingly unending.   It’s at this point that we separate the people who are committed to losing weight from the people who merely want to lose weight.  It’s that commitment that compels me to not give in, to not take a step backwards in my journey, only to have to make up for it next week.  Not because I’m obsessed.  Not because losing weight has become an idol in my life.  But because I have a goal to be in the “healthy weight” category.   I have a goal to be healthy and keep up with my nine kids and grandkids.  I can’t meet that goal by giving in whenever it gets hard. Yet I can already hear the voices of some well-meaning friends who would say to do just that.  “Take a couple days off”. “Life is short, eat dessert first” kind of advice.  When I get to maintenance, there will be times I do just that.  But for another 32 pounds, I’m still on a journey.  And I can’t get to where I’m going if I start walking backwards.  Please don’t tell me to just go for it and get back on track next week.  What I need is….

I can’t even finish that thought because I don’t even know what I need.  Sometimes things are just hard and you have to pick yourself up and just keep going.  I suppose if you’re really looking for it, you could find a life analogy in there somewhere, though if you find one, it would be completely unintentional.  This is just me, struggling to stay on track with the goals before me.  Even when it’s hard, even when I don’t want to, even when others would tell me to take a break.

Not the most encouraging post, I know.  I’d apologize, but it’s real.  If you think losing weight will be easy, you might as well know the truth.  It’s not.  Sometimes it’s just really hard and not a lot of fun.  But the more you distance yourself from your ultimate goal by giving in or taking breaks, the longer it will take to get to your destination.

 Just. Keep. Going.