i've lost 5lbs since starting my weight loss journey but recently ive hit a brick wall. what can i do to move past this and continue losing weight?

Going to need a lot more info before we can comment. How long have you been stuck? How much are you eating? What are you eating? How much are you exercising?

i've been stuck about a week now and i wake up every morning with a small bowl of raisin bran cereal with a little milk, then have a lunch of either a small PB&J sandwhich or a garden salad then have a late snack of a peeled cucumber and finish the day with usually a steak or chicken or pasta dinner but in perfect portion(about the size of my fist). before bed i workout for an hour doing various exercises (crunches, core training, push-ups, etc...) and atleast 2 times a week i go to hot yoga (about 90mins a class)

A week is not a plateau. Keep going for another 2 weeks or so. Most likely the scale will move a bit again. If not, you have a lot of options. You can up or change your exercise (adding HIIT, for example, or adding more minutes to your exercise), lower or change the source of your calories (lower by 100-200 per day, or shift more calories to protein sources instead of carb sources).

But really - a week is totally normal. The scale fluctuates. There's a great thread with reasons for this: http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/weig...er-weight.html

A week is not a plateau and is totally normal.

Well, a week isn't considered a plateau.

It also seems to me that your diet is lacking fruits and veggies and is high in sugar (pb and raisin bran) and refined carbs (what kind of bread is that sandwich on and what kind of pasta is that?)

So my suggestion to you would be to try and clean up your diet a bit with whole foods and lots of veggies, lean protiens and whole grains. My other suggestion would be patience. You don't have a lot of weight to lose so it might take you some time and you won't lose weight every week. Also make sure you're eating enough as it sound like you're working out a fair amount. Good luck!

Like the previous poster stated, a week is not a plateau. Do you know how many calories you're taking in every day?

The one thing about your post I would like to comment and warn you about is that you don't seem to be weighing/measuring your food. "About the size of" is really not exact; usually for meat, you need a portion of 4 ounces regardless of the size of your fist and the only way to measure that is weighing it. And the actual pasta would be hard to measure without a scale, 2 ounces of pasta can run you well over 200 calories. Just off the top of my head, I would say if you were weighing/measuring all of what you listed out in perfect portion, you are not eating enough, I would guess it comes somewhere around 800-1000 calories at best. If you are not weighing/measuring everything, you could be guesstimating those portions by giving yourself too much. So the reason you may be seeing a stall could go either way.

It is REALLY cheap to go to walmart and get one of the $2-$3 measuring cups/spoons sets and also a $4-$5 food scale. I have one like that, it is just a little clear cup that sits on top of a plastic scale.

At your weight a week without weight loss is not a plateau. You're doing good just stick with it and try not to let yourself get all worked out. Losing weight is going to be a lot harder for you then most of us on here. 4 pounds a month at your weight would be a very big accomplishment and you've already accomplished that. Keep up the good work.