Breaking the Plateau: Part 2

Years ago I had made some good progress, the weight was dropping off, new clothes were being bought with a wild frenzy and then...

 NOTHING.

 Nada.

I was fixated on that one number down by my toes and became totally frustrated at its stubbornness to drop (it even had the nerve to go up some days!!). I marched my worn out Adidas back to my personal trainer and demanded he put me on some “plateau breaking” diet so that scale would get with the program and start getting a move on. He reluctantly agreed (don’t cross a woman and her scale, right?) and he handed me a 21-Day Plateau Breaking Diet plan. For three days I ate nothing but fruit (but NO bananas! Heaven forbid I eat a banana!) and water. After that I could add tomatoes. Then the weirdness continued on for three weeks. Easy, right? Ugh. Wrong. I only last 72 hours. Two out of the three days, I was laid flat with brain splitting migraine headaches and was irritable, grouchy and did not even attempt to workout. After miserably reporting back to Ben, he happily took me off of it, rubbed in some well deserved “I told you so”s, then we got back to work. The hard kind.

I do not subscribe idea of using popular “plateau breaking” or “cleansing” diets.  My reasons are simple:  they are not healthy.  I know, I know... You may have tried one and actually did break that plateau. But at what cost? Any type of diet that is not a long term solution is not something I’m going to get behind. Nobody can subsist on just eating tomatoes 24/7 for the rest of their lives. Or eating only 500 calories a day. Our bodies need and thrive eating a variety of foods that provide them tons of nutrients and vitamins. I strongly urge my clients to avoid the drastic measures. Just go back to the basics -- and DO IT THIS TIME :)

Here are a few tricks to breaking the plateau the healthy way:

Stick with the schedule.

Eating on a schedule takes the stress out of eating. This is a habit that will serve you well throughout your life (read more about this here).

Here is my eating schedule:

Breakfast - 8:00 AM

Mid-morning snack - 10:30 AM

Lunch - 1:00 PM

Mid-afternoon snack - 3:30 AM

Dinner - 6:00 PM

Late night snack (only if I have the calories to spare!) - 9:00 PM

Every thing that goes in your mouth has a “place”.

We throw a few handfuls of cereal in our mouth. We eat some left over bread crusts from the kiddos. We nosh on a few pretzels here and there. Pretty soon we’ve thrown in an extra 200-300 calories and we aren’t even “counting” them.

Before you eat something, ask yourself, “Is this part of a meal? Is this part of a snack” If not, put it down and go do something else for while.

Drink your agua.

Drinking a ton of water is the optimal appetite suppressant. Drink before, during, and after your meals and snacks. Drink before, during, and after your workouts. Drink water before, during, and after your errands. Drink water before, during, and after reading this post. Get the picture?

Soups and salads.

These two food options are your very best friends on an every day basis, not just for breaking through the plateau. The only way I’ve figured out how to eat all my required vegetables (five!) and fruits (four!) is by being sure to either have a salad or soup each day. 

New “normal”.

I had a client that told me she was going to eat really good for a while just to get the weight off, then she could go back to eating “normal” again. That is called “yo-yo dieting” and we’ve been there, done that. This is a new “normal” and often that takes some adjusting to.  There ain't no going back -- unless, of course, you'd like to go back up several dress sizes.

Watch the calories.

When you lose weight there is something that’s pretty sneaky that happens -- your body is smaller and needs less calories. Haha, tricked you! And to add salt to the wound, as we age we need less calories. Bwahahaha! Oh well, we might as well just accept it and work with it instead of against it. I like to view this as less work -- less food to buy, less food to prep, less food to eat, less food to clean up.  See, it's not so bad, right?

Well, I'm still not done with this topic.  So, more on "Breaking the Plateau" is on its way...

Find "The Scale Won't Budge: Breaking the Plateau Part 1" here.

Like this?  Want more?  Subscribe to Trainer Momma's RSS feed by clicking here.  Thanks!