I came across this post (quoted below) on another 3FC forum I visit on occasion & thought it might be of interest to somebody here... the original poster was disappointed that she had hit a plateau...
Quote:
Originally Posted by kaplods
You're not necessarily doing anything wrong - except expecting the scale to "reward" you when you expect it to (whether it's every day, week or however often) for doing nothing wrong.
Fluctuations happen, and some bodies fluctuate more than others. I'm convinced that if I ate absolutely nothing I would still gain at least 5 lbs during TOM (as long as I was drinking water to retain).
The myth that weight loss should be steadily progressive and routinely rewarding (at least on a weekly weigh-in schedule) is a dangerous one. I think it's one of the leading cause of diet frustration (which I also believe is the leading cause of diet abandonment. It's not the hard work involved - it's the not seeing the expected results of that work. Unfortunately it's not because the results aren't there - we're just no seeing them when and where and to the degree we're expecting them.
Sad News! Weight loss isn't steadily progressive. Not for most of us. It doesn't have to be frustrating, it really doesn't. Frustration comes in when we don't get what we expect.
Imagine that you've only ever gotten paid by the week, and you get a new job which pays monthly or quarterly - only you weren't aware of it. How many weeks are you going to work before you give up (because with weight loss there's no way to ask the boss "when do I get paid?"
If you expect a weekly or a daily pay-off, you're going to be severely disappointed, and as a result severely frustrated, "maybe I am just supossed to be fat forever" is a way of telling yourself "this isn't working the way I want it to, the way it's "supposed to" so why bother."
The problem is we're telling ourselves a very big and terrible lie. It's not "supposed to" be linear, but we want it to be anyway. We're encouraged to want it. We're encouraged to think it's right and normal and if we don't get it, we must be doing something wrong and must work harder to MAKE it work (and it still doesn't).
Change your expectations. Stick to your plan and change your internal "schedule." If you're weighing daily, that's fine but don't compare today to yesterday. Compare today's weight to last months.
Some people are on monthly "paydays." I've even met people on bi-monthly paydays - boy that must suck. To work hard and not see results for six or seven weeks.
If you still aren't losing weight after more than a month on plan, you'll have to make additional changes, but it doesn't mean you were doing anything "wrong" before. Maybe you're not cutting calories enough. Maybe you're cutting them so far that you're exhausted and aren't moving as much (except during your exercise sessions), or aren't sleeping as well, or a billion other things that can affect your metabolism. But you can't declare failure by comparing today's weight to yesterday's or last week's.
Women need at least a monthly cycle, so you have to be on plan at least three months to really even begin to understand your cycle patterns (some people experience one water weight gain week per month, some women experimence two, and some experience none).
Experimenting is the only strategy you've got, but you have to go in willing to look for patterns, not determine ahead of time what they're supposed to be and try to somehow force yourself into the pattern you want (I know it's the way most of us have been taught to diet, but it's also the way most of us have been taught to quit a diet too. Most diets fail, and it's not a stretch to suspect that false expectations are a major cause).
~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~ ~~~
I've lost count now of how many days I've been back on protocol, but it's been more than a week!.. YAY!!!.. feels good to be doing this for myself again... I'm staying off the scales for now, just going by how my jeans are fitting & they are a little looser this morning than they were a week ago... thank goodness!.. I was getting worried that they'd never be baggy again... I was looking at some of my photos from earlier in the year & those same jeans were loose, so that's my goal for now, to get back to that same looseness...
Another thing I'm doing is amping up my calories-out (exercise).. I haven't lost any significant weight since joining the gym in February, so I'm adding 200 kettlebell swings a day (100, rest about 5 minutes, another 100).. doing 100 KB swings non-stop raises my heart & breathing rates more than any of the hour-long cardio classes I do at the gym... I'm not planning to quit the gym, I enjoy it, but I'm hoping that adding KB every day will get the inch-loss/weight loss going in the right direction again... I know, this much exercise goes against the IP rules, but last year when the inches/lbs. were just melting off, I was doing more exercise than this... somehow it works for me... I just had this thought -- maybe exercising at home makes me more conscious of my diet, whereas exercising at the gym separates me, mentally, from my diet... I don't know
, but it's worth the experiment...
hugs
While you are dreaming why don't you dream us up some weight loss! I don't think I have time for dreaming right now... it's just been a busy week. Three funerals on top of my regular work load. And when I called to get the results of the MRI on my ankle, it was one of those ..."we need to have you come in for a follow-up appointment." 
I'm less than excited about that, but we'll just see what happens when I see the doctor tomorrow.
Not easy during the holidays. But anyway here I am again. Going to order more food when I get back into town next week.
