Long Term Plateau
 

LOL I feel like I've been on the forum for awhile complaining. I had hit a 2 month plateau and honestly had a hard time seeing any light at the end of the tunnel. It all started when I had an allergic reaction to something. I had just lost a few lbs and I was feeling great! Then BAM, I end up in the emergency room being treated. After that my weight wouldn't budge and actually I ended up putting back on 5 lbs! I know 5 lbs doesn't sound like a lot but it was the kind of weight gain that isn't great in numbers but is enough to leave you feeling bloated and your clothes feel uncomfortable :(

I honestly had my moments where I just wanted to give up. Then I thought "What good would that do?" I had to decide which was worse....sticking to my plan and remaining on a plateau or giving up and gaining more weight. I stuck it out, kept exercising, watching what I was eating, and I even took the time to target some areas for improvement....I was consuming way too much coffee, cream, and sugar, I was sorely lacking in good vegetables, and my workout was getting stale and I needed to shake it up.

It was hard to be patient, but I am happy to say after 2 LONG months of sticking this out. I finally lost those 5#'s PLUS another 2! I guess the whole point of this is just to tell others do not lose hope! It's hard to be patient but you'll be rewarded in the end. Also, don't obsess over the NUMBERS. I drove myself up the wall watching them go up! I finally got off the scale for a couple weeks. I just made sure I was doing the right things, and didn't get back on the scale until a co-worker mentioned to me how great I was looking. LOL honestly...which is better a NUMBER or an acknowledgement that you look good?!

This is was SO nice to read! Glad you're off your plateau!! :carrot:

I've been eating diligently, got down to 173 and then I literally ate a cookie, (but was still within my calorie limit) and I have no budged almost a week now!! I hope something will change soon, I'm so used to the 'quick loss' I saw with the first 20 lbs I loss, that this time losing feels so so hard!!

Btw this is a little off topic, but did you eat 100% clean to go down ? I can't tell if I have to be extra strict with myself. I know it's calories in and calories out. But I feel like for me, I have to eat extra clean to see any loss, like cheating, but staying in my calorie range doesn't cut it for me. I also think I'm extremely impatient with weight loss lol.

Honestly no I didn't eat clean, I had a couple of cheats. I stayed within my calories but there were a couple of days I allowed myself some homemade cookies (Yep I calculated the calories!) and a few snack sized candy bars. I very rarely do this and I still kept myself within my calorie limit for those days. I did end up on the high end of what I like to consume that's all. I'm wondering if that calorie boost was needed to?

I truly think adding vegetables into my diet made the biggest impact. I kept buying eggs and chicken to have some good protein but it suddenly hit me that I didn't have any good vegetables on hand. Of course eating higher protein you have to keep things "moving" so to speak :) I love cabbage, broccoli, zucchini, etc. and after a day or two of feeling kind of bloated my body adjusted and I felt great. Very full on less food too.

My coffee consumption was also adding a lot of extra calories. I love lots of cream and splenda in mine, and I honestly didn't realize that I was averaging about an extra 200+ calories each day just in my coffee consumption! I've just been careful to measure out my cream and limit my splenda.

I normally stick to walking for exercise and it will always be my exercise of choice. To shake things up a bit I just started heading over to the 30 minute circuit instead of spending a full 45-60 minutes walking. The circuit is that 30 minute workout that mixes up weights and toning with steps. It's based off of the Biggest Loser and reminds me of the Curves workout. I love that I'm adding some toning exercises to the mix. I definetly lack in muscle tone!

I'm going to try really hard to stay off the scale so much. As long as I'm doing the right things I think I need to focus less on those numbers and more on how I feel.

Good luck in your journey! I'm sure you'll break through soon. Just be patient!

Glad to hear about this for you, vealcalf; it seems that you're always such a positive influence on the forum, and I'm excited to hear that you've had another small success.

Respect to you for how you kept on, despite the challenges - and also for changing your relationship with the scale/numbers. It sounds like you've made some pretty impressive progress, beyond simply breaking past a plateau. :hug: