I started my new healthy lifestyle back in January 10th of this year. I was doing great. I was losing a steady 2 lbs a week like clockwork. Then after losing 20 lbs on March 1st my weight stalled. I was still losing inches, but during all of March my weight didn't change. Not even a little bit. I tried different things to help like increasing my calories, taking a break from hard exercise, doing different exercises, basically trying any advice I could get. Nothing worked.

Then early April I got sick (stomach flu type thing) and lost 3 lbs. I thought maybe that would help break the plateau I was in. Then about a week later I got sick again (same thing) and I lost another 3 lbs. During this time I had gotten to the point where my exercise was dwendling and my eating habits were starting to get worse. I was doing fine during meals, but my snacks started veering off course. My portions were getting bigger too. I usually like to stay around 1300-1400 calories a day, but I was getting closer to 1500-1600 a day now.

My weigh in day was this morning and now my weight has gone up 2 lbs. I know I haven't been on my best behavior as far as my "diet" goes. It's just really depressing. I don't want to give up and don't think that is a choice for me. I plan on doing more exercise. I want to start doing 1 hour of the treadmill in the morning (which I usually burn 600 calories). Then I want to do 30 mins of strength training in the afternoon. Then I also want to do 1 hour of a fun activity that gets my heart rate up in the evening. Does this sound like too much? Do you think doing this for a couple weeks will help get me out of this weird plateau thing I'm in? I'm also going to go back to controling portions and getting my calories under control again.

I feel like I need a little bootcamp to get myself back on track. Do you think there is any other way to do this?

Sorry this is so long, but I really need some advice and encouragement. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Hi Chef,

It is definitely a lot but I dont think it sounds like too much... but maybe ease into it? You dont want to injure yourself and put yourself on the sidelines. That would be too frustrating.

I wish I had the will to do that much. I did before I went off to college, and got down to at least 114! Im too exhausted now to get up before work to workout.

That doesn't sound too bad, except that you might want to alternate the weight training with the hour of active fun instead of doing both. "They" -the powers that be- recommend doing weights every other day to give your body a chance to repair and build muscle. You may injure yourself if you do weights every day - I know that I almost did!

When you've had a setback... though pound-wise, yours wasn't a disaster... it's not a bad idea to recommit yourself and find some new inspiration. You'll do fine! And don't worry, we'll be here to help you out!

-Lala

I'll be doing different exercises for the strength training. For example Mondays - upper body, Tuesdays - lower body, Wednesday - none, Thursdays - upper body, Friday - lower body.

When I went and seen a nutritionist at the end of March she suggested I do more strength training than I was. Then after reading some of what Jullian Micheals has written on here and other places online, I decided to give this a go. It will only be this intense for a couple weeks to wake my system back up. This is definately not something I want to stick with for very long.

You can do it! Don't give up!!! But at the same time... take it easy - don't hurt yourself! Keep in mind with all that extra exercise you will probably need to eat a bit more

Well it looks like you lost 6lbs just being sick. So a 2lb gain would actually be a success considering by all right you could have gained the 6lbs back and then some when you started eatting again. I know for me.. any weight I lose being sick I always gain right back quickly because it wasnt taken off the right way. So try to look at it like that, but still get back on track.