Plateau
This morning as I was washing my uber-dry face I was thinking about consistency. I have made some recent strides to be more consistent in certain things I do, from moisturizing my always-dry face, to more thourough dental hyeigene rituals, to sorting mail on a more regular basis and even giving my bathroom a thourough cleaning every Sunday. These little things have made improvements in my body and environment, which helps to make me want to keep up on it.
My weight, however, isn't seeming to respond the same way to my recent consistency. I feel like, since mid-July when I started focusing on getting healthier, I have been pretty consistent in my cleaner eating, aside from some heavy weekends here and there, and I am now even getting 10,000 steps a day of walking 5 out of 7 days for the past two weeks. Granted, I know that walking 10,000 steps doesn't burn very many calories and will NOT make me lose weight, but still, I feel like that has been drilled into my head since I was a child; 'exercise and eat right to reach a healthy weight'. How many calories do I eat per day? I have no idea. And maybe that's a good place to start analyzing what's not working with what I'm doing. Maybe I only think what I'm eating is pretty clean; maybe it's time to look at it more scientifically, at least for a few weeks, to see if the numbers support my thinking. When I first started seeing the last doctor she told me to cut my calories to 1,400 per day. I think I was tracking shortly after that and found I was eating slightly less calories than that at the time but I am eating far less salad than I was back then. Anyway, that is one area I need to look at.
I don't like to just focus on how I look, but I notice how some of the bumpy, stick-out parts of my stomach seem to have stopped getting smaller and my weight is still sitting at the same old 15-pound loss. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to maintain at 185 pounds instead of 200 where I was at the begining of summer, but I sure would like to see those numbers budging down even more. My body image has been suffering even though I try to tell myself that this is supposed to be about my blood pressure, not about how I look. It's hard to rewire the brain after so many years, no?
So if plan A isn't working, I guess I need to do a little research and planning to come up with Plan B. I like that I was able to reach a point of consistency with Plan A so that it felt natural, not forced and I was genuinely comfortable with staying the course. Plan B may simply end up being a tweak or two on the original plan or it may be something completely new. I am allowed free nutrition counselling through my employer, that may be something to consider.
Ideas coming through my head without researching are: Keto, adding consistent strength training and stretching/yoga, switching the bulk of my food intake to fruits and veggies, measuring out smaller portions, nutrition counselling, taking CLA as a supplement, drinking more green tea or taking capsules, weight watchers. I may take time this weekend to look into those ideas. I have researched keto before and felt that it wasn't a good fit for me (what I do now is more like South Beach style of lower-carb eating) but it does still intruige me because I've seen some of the results. Still, unlike South Beach, I feel like keto doesn't really slowly add things back into your diet so that you can maintain it long-term. And without doing that, I feel like it would feel too restrictive to me. But midset is everything. Just because you eat something that throws you out of ketosis doesn't mean you can't get right back on track the next meal. Still, I don't know if it's great for your kidneys. So verdict is still out on all that.
Or maybe it's my mindset that needs a change. I have maintained a loss without yo-yoing for the better part of a year. That's a pretty big deal in my world. Still, I am greedy and want the maintained loss to be bigger, so I know that means I have to dig deeper or change something up to help the plan work better.
I think the first step for me at this point is to keep a food journal and track my calorie, carb and salt intake. If I can see something remarkable I will work on fixing the issue, if not, I may take my employer up on those free nutritional counseling sessions. I am also considering keeping up with the 10,000 steps, 5 times a week goal after the challenge ends. It's not that much extra steps to have to put in at the end of my day, most days by the time I'm done with work I already have 6,000-8,000 steps in. As the weather warms I will enjoy getting outside for walks and that will help motivate me.
Just because I'm on a plateau doesn't mean I'm stuck, I just have to figure out a way to slide off that sticky spot.
My weight, however, isn't seeming to respond the same way to my recent consistency. I feel like, since mid-July when I started focusing on getting healthier, I have been pretty consistent in my cleaner eating, aside from some heavy weekends here and there, and I am now even getting 10,000 steps a day of walking 5 out of 7 days for the past two weeks. Granted, I know that walking 10,000 steps doesn't burn very many calories and will NOT make me lose weight, but still, I feel like that has been drilled into my head since I was a child; 'exercise and eat right to reach a healthy weight'. How many calories do I eat per day? I have no idea. And maybe that's a good place to start analyzing what's not working with what I'm doing. Maybe I only think what I'm eating is pretty clean; maybe it's time to look at it more scientifically, at least for a few weeks, to see if the numbers support my thinking. When I first started seeing the last doctor she told me to cut my calories to 1,400 per day. I think I was tracking shortly after that and found I was eating slightly less calories than that at the time but I am eating far less salad than I was back then. Anyway, that is one area I need to look at.
I don't like to just focus on how I look, but I notice how some of the bumpy, stick-out parts of my stomach seem to have stopped getting smaller and my weight is still sitting at the same old 15-pound loss. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to maintain at 185 pounds instead of 200 where I was at the begining of summer, but I sure would like to see those numbers budging down even more. My body image has been suffering even though I try to tell myself that this is supposed to be about my blood pressure, not about how I look. It's hard to rewire the brain after so many years, no?
So if plan A isn't working, I guess I need to do a little research and planning to come up with Plan B. I like that I was able to reach a point of consistency with Plan A so that it felt natural, not forced and I was genuinely comfortable with staying the course. Plan B may simply end up being a tweak or two on the original plan or it may be something completely new. I am allowed free nutrition counselling through my employer, that may be something to consider.
Ideas coming through my head without researching are: Keto, adding consistent strength training and stretching/yoga, switching the bulk of my food intake to fruits and veggies, measuring out smaller portions, nutrition counselling, taking CLA as a supplement, drinking more green tea or taking capsules, weight watchers. I may take time this weekend to look into those ideas. I have researched keto before and felt that it wasn't a good fit for me (what I do now is more like South Beach style of lower-carb eating) but it does still intruige me because I've seen some of the results. Still, unlike South Beach, I feel like keto doesn't really slowly add things back into your diet so that you can maintain it long-term. And without doing that, I feel like it would feel too restrictive to me. But midset is everything. Just because you eat something that throws you out of ketosis doesn't mean you can't get right back on track the next meal. Still, I don't know if it's great for your kidneys. So verdict is still out on all that.
Or maybe it's my mindset that needs a change. I have maintained a loss without yo-yoing for the better part of a year. That's a pretty big deal in my world. Still, I am greedy and want the maintained loss to be bigger, so I know that means I have to dig deeper or change something up to help the plan work better.
I think the first step for me at this point is to keep a food journal and track my calorie, carb and salt intake. If I can see something remarkable I will work on fixing the issue, if not, I may take my employer up on those free nutritional counseling sessions. I am also considering keeping up with the 10,000 steps, 5 times a week goal after the challenge ends. It's not that much extra steps to have to put in at the end of my day, most days by the time I'm done with work I already have 6,000-8,000 steps in. As the weather warms I will enjoy getting outside for walks and that will help motivate me.
Just because I'm on a plateau doesn't mean I'm stuck, I just have to figure out a way to slide off that sticky spot.
The thing about entering into a calorie deficit is it REALLY SUCKS. It feels uncomfortable and difficult (at least for me) for the first two weeks to a month. After that, your body adjusts to the lower energy intake, but for awhile it's very unpleasant.
ReplyDeleteI can recommend a good book if you like--Lean Habits, by Georgie Fear. It's a really straightforward approach to accumulated habits for weight loss that I absolutely love. It's diet-agnostic, meaning it doesn't espouse keto or anything like that, but instead focuses on what are universally good habits, like including a lot of vegetables at each meal and adequate but not excessive fat.
I will definitely check into that book, thanks for the tip! I am not sure I am mentally ready for calorie deficit, but I at least want to know where I'm at so I can decide what needs to be tightened up.
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