Hi all,
I don't post very often, but right now I want to thank you all for your words of wisdom & maybe help others stuck on a plateau.
I started October 12 at 185. It went slowly at first, then I dropped a total of 20 pounds by around Christmas. Then I was STUCK at between 163-165 for close to three weeks. It was driving me nuts. I exercise 5 or 6 days a week, mostly with a masters swim club (for 1.5 hours, over 3 km each time, very hard workouts); other days I go to the gym and row, cycle & jog, also for around 1.5 hours. My calories are between 1300-1600, usually (tons of fruits & veggies, lean protein, yogurt, oatmeal, hearty soups). Anyway, that was working fine until the dreaded plateau. So I spent some time reading threads on the subject, and telling myself repeatedly that if I kept doing what I was doing there was NO WAY, mathematically speaking, that I couldn't eventually start losing again. And I did, and now I'm dropping quickly again. (and I didn't do anything special to break through it, just kept on doing what I was doing). So thanks for getting me through that one.
By the way, I feel fantastic. I quit smoking 8 months ago, quit drinking (largely to help with WL and exercise), and while I eat "whatever I want", now that I'm 3 1/2 months into this I find that I rarely actually want junk of any kind. A couple of weeks ago I had a huge bowl of airpopped corn with butter, one of my favourite things in the world, and I felt awful after, so even though I like the taste, I'm liking feeling good even better, so I realise now I'd rather have a fruit & yogurt smoothie or a big bowl of soup. I find this a little astonishing! I do generally eat a little dark chocolate every day, if I feel like it.
One other piece of great news - I bought a bathing suit at Costco recently, size 12, for an upcoming trip to Costa Rica. Realised that it's too big (!!!), so I took it back & got a 10 (a perfect 10!
, but my husband said, don't take the tags off in case you need to do it again! I suspect the 10 is a generous cut, since my training suit is a larger size, but who's quibbling? I haven't worn this size since grade 11 (25 years ago).
Anyway, here's testimony that if you keep it up, you'll leave the plateau behind. Don't let the "bad days" get you down, it's the long haul that matters.
Sue