Plateaus

Getting fit is hard work! Anybody who tries to tell you that it's easy is either lying through their teeth or has

never truly tried to do it before. Or they're selling you some diet pill that down the road will turn out to cause cancer or heart damage or both. The first two months of the year I worked my tail off, both in the exercise arena as well as the nutrition arena. I was pushing myself hard and being very vigilant about what I ate. And it was hard. It's hard to decide every day that you're going to get up and work out even if your 4-year-old was in your room at 1 in the morning asking for water and then you couldn't get back to sleep for the next three hours. It's hard to pass up that brownie 9 times out of 10 (don't want to put myself into deprivation mode after all) and take the time to make a healthy meal as often as possible even though you know your kids are going to whine about it--again. So it's not terribly surprising to me that I've slacked off somewhat these past 2 weeks. My eating has really gone downhill--lots of treats, not enough vegetables. My exercise has been mediocre at best--I'm still doing it (most days) but I'm not putting quite as much effort into it as I was before. And I'm "escaping" more often, which means getting to bed way too late and waking up too tired to exercise or even to look forward to the new day.

And my weight has stopped dropping. Shocker, right? I lost a total of 11 pounds in the first two months of the year--11!--and now I am fluctuating between the same 2 or 3 pounds, unable to break through the 140 barrier into the 130s. I have officially hit a plateau. However, instead of whining about how I can't seem to lose weight, I am choosing to look at things as they really are. I have been a big slacker these 2 weeks, and it's absolutely no surprise to me that my weight has not continued to drop. It's disappointing, perhaps, that I can't lose weight without working; but not surprising.

I've been thinking today about what a plateau really is. If I were hiking up a steep mountain and part-way up I came to a plateau, I'm sure I would be happy and relieved to be there. The ground is flat, after all, which means less work and a chance to rest a little before I continue the upward climb. However, if the ground stays flat forever, I will never reach my destination. One way or another, the only way to get to the peak is to go up. And as nice of a reprieve as the plateaus are, the more there are, the longer it will take me to reach the summit. Seeing it from this perspective, I am recognizing that plateaus are actually an important part of my progress toward my goal. I do need a chance to rest a little after working so hard. But I don't want to stay here too long because that goal is still calling.

This little analogy is helping me to not beat myself up about these lazy last 2 weeks. Perhaps they are just what I needed to give me time to rest and find renewed motivation and dedication to my goal. And I do feel motivated again. I feel excited to keep moving forward, more excited than I have in weeks, actually. Hopefully the next plateau will not come for at least another 2 months. And when it does come (which I recognize now will be a good thing), I will take that time to relax and renew so that I can be even stronger once I start heading uphill again. Forward, march!

6-Week Update

I have now completed 6 weeks of regular exercise and healthy eating. Hooray for me! I have been seeing some good things happening. The weight is coming off; I'm out of the habit of late-night binges or treats; I'm no longer craving many of the treats I used to want daily; and I drove by a restaurant the other day that I used to stop at several times a week and realized that it has been a really long time since I've been there. My habits are changing for the better. 

But despite the fact that I'm seeing progress--or perhaps because of it--I have been feeling less motivated lately to make good choices as far as lifestyle is concerned. I've been going to bed late, only doing partial workouts some days, and not being quite as careful about what I eat. I have thankfully established some pretty good patterns by now that are keeping me from straying too far from the path, so the end result is that I'm still working out, but I'm so exhausted that I feel like a zombie most of the time; I have no energy because I'm so tired; and I'm not happy. It's really hard for me to feel joy when all I'm trying to do is get through the day so I can finally go to bed.

This type of thing always happens to me when I start into a new workout plan, but usually it hits sooner. This time I feel like I'm handling things a little better because I have actually been able to see some progress and because the exercising and eating better have become habits. I know that won't work for long, though, if I don't get back to a place of enjoying what I am doing. Here is another one of those times when I need to address the emotional side of things. Why am I losing motivation? What about being healthy feels unsafe or scary? If I want to reach my optimal level of health, I cannot ignore these questions. I must address them as I go so that when I finally get to a point of great physical health, I will be able to easily maintain it because the rest of me will be healthy as well.

January's Results Are In!

This month has had a lot of ups and downs for me. And while I was not very good about posting regularly, and it may even have seemed that I had given up completely after my last pathetic post written on a very down day, I didn't. I kept going, never letting a day go by without exercising (except for rest days, of course, which are a very important part of any exercise program). And I did surprisingly well with my nutrition to the tune of 5 lbs. lost over the month! Yes, you read that right. I lost 5 lbs. in January! And I'm even happier to report that I shrunk 1.5 inches around my waist! So while I definitely had my setbacks over the course of the month and felt some days like for every step forward I was moving 2 steps backward, the persistence paid off. What a great lesson for me this has been. In the past I have gotten discouraged after 2 or 3 weeks when it didn't appear that I was making any progress, and with the discouragement came a huge hit to my motivation to the point that I stopped exercising or eating right or both. So what has made the difference this time? Well, I think there are a lot of factors involved, but here are just a few things I have recognized as making a difference this time around.

1) Weighing myself every day. I have always been strongly against this in the past because people tend to get too emotionally attached to the number on the scale. But what I found with myself is that weighing every day has actually helped me to decrease my emotional attachment to that number. Instead it serves to provide me with information about what/how/when I ate the previous day, and I no longer fear what number might appear when I step on that scale each morning.

2) Eating 3 meals a day with no snacking in between. I know this seems counter-intuitive because of what every personal trainer out there seems to be teaching, but this has helped me tremendously. I don't think we realize how many calories we are actually consuming in those in-between-meal snacks. Even though I definitely eat bigger meals now, my total caloric intake is lower, and my weight is dropping as a result.

3) A strong support system. Notice the word "strong." I love my twin sister dearly, and we have made dozens of goals together in the past several years. But despite how much we love each other, I would not necessarily say that we have been a strong support for each other--until now, that is. This time we have stopped having binges together when one of us is down, and we have set up small reward systems to help motivate us to keep going. We share our triumphs and setbacks with each other on a regular basis. I'm sure I would not have made it this far without my sis. So thank you, dear Sis.

4)Reviewing my goals. While I have set a million and one goals in the past, I often completely forget about them within a few weeks. But this time I have been reviewing them every single day, deciding what I can do each day to progress toward each goal, and finding small ways to reward myself every time I make a little bit of progress.

I can't say this is the formula for everybody out there, but for me these have made the difference. Will it make a permanent difference? I can't answer that yet, but I can say that I am optimistic about my future. 

Consistency is Key

Have you ever had the experience where you get super excited about something--a big project or a weight loss plan or a race you're training for--and you go for it with full force at first? But then, when you don't immediately see the results you were hoping for, you kind of fizzle and lose momentum, sometimes giving up completely? I have gone through that exact cycle more times than I care to admit. Recently I was starting down that path with my business. I am so excited about what I do! I can't wait to share it with everybody! But the problem is not everybody wants to listen. So when my passion didn't immediately translate into people banging down my door trying to sign up for my program, it kind of took the wind out of my sails. I started making excuses for why I should back off and stop working so hard, consoling myself that this was for the best. But thankfully I received a wake-up call yesterday that helped me realize what I was about to do--give up--before I completely went down that path, and I quickly made some course corrections.

How many times have you done the same thing this year with your fitness goals? I, like so many, tend to set unrealistic expectations for myself, and then when I don't drop 10 pounds AND 10 inches in the first week, I get discouraged and start to doubt whether the program is really going to work for me. The truth is, any exercise program is better than no program at all. But they are all going to take time if they're worth anything.

So my message today is be patient! Don't give up just because it's hard. Whether it's a business, an improved way of eating, a relationship, a new exercise routine, or anything else new you might embark on, you've got to be consistent. What you do now WILL make a difference, but it will likely be weeks or even months down the road. And you know what? That's wonderful! Because by then the change will have become integrated into your life and is much more likely to remain a part of your lifestyle for the rest or your long, healthy life.

For now, put your focus on enjoying the journey, loving yourself, and keeping faith. Those changes will come. But they will come one step at a time. Gradual progress is the best kind there is.

6 Weeks Until Christmas! If You Are Prepared . . .

As I was "helping" my 3-year-old make his bed this morning and waiting a loooooong time because he had to pick up every blanket in his stuffed shark's mouth before he could hand it to me, I had time to ponder the fact that Christmas is 6 weeks from today! For a moment panic set in, but then I realized that it is too soon to panic. As long as I have a plan for how and when I'm going to do all of the Christmas shopping, deliver gifts, decorate the house, wrap presents, do Christmas cards, etc. then I will be okay and there will be no need to panic.

The same thing goes for avoiding the typical holiday weight gain. If you want to be successful about keeping off those 7 to 10 lbs. that people typically pack on during the holidays, you just need to be prepared. Make a plan for how you are going to navigate the holidays. For example, plan to eat a small, healthy meal before going to a Christmas party; plan to drink an entire cup of water before digging into the treats; limit yourself to just one serving, or if you want to try everything, just one bite of each; and make sure that you are still making time for exercise! Your techniques may be different than these (although I don't recommend the binge-and-purge method), but as long as they work for you and you are prepared with a whole tool belt of options to help you, you will be successful! I don't recommend trying to cut the sweets out completely because that will likely cause you to feel deprived, which will eventually invite a major binging session. Not good. Believe me. I've tried it.

Now, Forward March! We WILL win the battle against holiday treats! And we will start the new year feeling better than ever!

Exercise for the Brain

As I was literally spoon-feeding my 3-year-old son his breakfast this morning, as I do with at least a portion of every meal of every day, I once again found myself fast-forwarding 15 years and imagining myself feeding my 18-year-old his breakfast before he drives off to school or work for the day. I wondered if his wife will be willing to keep feeding him his meals when she takes on the responsibilities of being married to him. Should we include that in the marriage contract? Now, this is not meant to elicit comments about my bad parenting. I actually want to talk about this habit that I would guess many of us have of projecting ourselves into the future. While this is not necessarily a good thing when I am seeing my 9-year-old as a juvenile delinquent 7 years down the road because he runs off to play with friends instead of doing his chores today, or my 7-year-old flunking out of school and not being able to keep a job because she forgets to turn in a homework assignment, I do think it can have its uses if we choose to change the vision.

Our minds have so much power, more than we realize. If we will take that ability to project into the future and just change the picture a little, it becomes a very powerful mental exercise. If, for example, you lack motivation to do physical exercise at all, start envisioning yourself as someone who likes to exercise and who looks forward to getting up and doing something active every day. The more you visualize the future you want to create, the more you will lock that into your subconscious and get the wheels in your head moving so that that vision can start to be created. Most of what we do every day is controlled by our subconscious thoughts, so if we can just lock those more positive thoughts into our subconscious mind, the things we do when we are on auto-pilot will more likely be things that help us reach our goals. And in our conscious mind, visualizing what we want our future to look like will keep us motivated to keep working toward our goal. 

So take 10 minutes today and try it. Visualize something that you would like to see in your life, whether it’s a healthier body, a better job, an intimate relationship, etc. and paint a picture in your mind of just how it will look. How do you feel? What are you doing as a result of this change? Where do you see yourself? What are the sights, sounds, and smells, surrounding you? The more detail you put in, the more you will be able to lock it in. Take a few minutes to do this every day, and see how your life starts to change. You may surprise yourself!

Holiday Challenge Tip of the Day: Eat Your Vegetables!

Okay, since nobody shared their weigh-in results, I'm taking that to mean you weren't happy with the numbers. So let's move forward here and not throw in the towel. Remember, every treat you don't eat leaves you better off than if you did eat it. So give yourself a pat on the back every time you pass one up, and resolve to do better every time you don't. Also, think about how many fruits and vegetables you eat on a daily basis. If you are anything like me a few years ago, I could easily get through an entire day without eating even one!

Let me just say, even though you already know this, that fruits and vegetables are sooooooo good for you! What's more, vegetables are typically very low-calorie, high-fiber foods. That means you can eat as many as you want and not worry about getting too many calories. And the bonus is that they will help fill you up so you don't eat as much of the not-so-good stuff. So my challenge for you is to add at least one more vegetable into your day than what you typically get. If you don't usually eat any, try putting at least one in. If you eat one at dinner, try adding one to breakfast (in an omelette, for example) or lunch (slice up a cucumber to eat with your sandwich). Your body will thank you for it.

Remember to love yourself and be kind to yourself! That's the best Christmas gift you can give yourself this year! And you deserve it!

Weigh-in Time!

Alright, here goes. I weighed myself this morning and did measurements, and the result is--actually, before I tell you, I just want to remind you that it's okay if you aren't at the point you wanted to be by now. The point is to love yourself! Do you have any idea how amazing and fantastic you are??? And that includes your amazing body that does so much for you! Loving yourself is the first step to better health, so let go of the stress and the frustration and do something nice for yourself, like eat come carrots. :)

Now, back to the weigh-in: I am exactly where I was before Thanksgiving! That's not to say I haven't indulged now and then, but I have really tried hard to eat well this week, and I've been keeping up the exercise almost every day, so the net result is I broke even. And I am so happy with that! I made it through Thanksgiving and my birthday with no weight gain, and now I'm really motivated to keep going strong. I hope you are too! Christmas and New Year's will be a piece of cake--er, celery. (-;

Happy Birthday to Me (and a holiday challenge tip)

I have had such a fun birthday today and, surprisingly, I have done it without food being a major part of it. That is a really big deal for me, and it has caused me to reflect back on all the years when every celebration has revolved around food, especially junk food. It has been a long journey to get to the point I'm at today, when a friend offered to take me out for ice cream and I actually declined because I don't eat like that anymore. And I said it without the slightest feeling of deprivation! Two things occur to me as I think about this: 1) Everybody's journey to better health is a process that happens one step at a time; so even if you're not where you want to be yet, don't give up. Just pay attention to how far you've come, not how far you have to go. 2) Don't let eating be the center of your life. Of course we all have to eat several times a day to remain healthy (and alive), but we don't have to have our entire lives revolve around it. Try putting your focus on other things, and don't stress about what you can or can't, should or shouldn't eat. Just live life! We're meant to have joy, so let's rejoice in our lives and our health and our bodies. That's my tip today: Relax and enjoy life, putting your focus on your health and your happiness and your blessings rather than on food. You'll feel so much better if you do!

I'm so glad to be alive!

The Holiday Challenge Begins!

Alright, here we are, several days into our Holiday Challenge! I'm going to be posting a "tip of the day" as often as possible to keep us all motivated and focused on our goal, which of course is better health! Don't you always feel so blah by the end of the holiday season when you've gained a ton of weight thanks to all of the holiday goodies that are constantly surrounding you? Yeah, me too! So this year is going to be different! Now I'm not suggesting that you try to cut out the goodies altogether because that's just a recipe for failure (no pun intended). What I am suggesting is MODERATION! Instead of eating that entire plate of peppermint caramel brownies, why not just have one? And don't be afraid to throw things away if there gets to be too much stuff around. Your sweet neighbor who brought it over will never know, so don't feel obligated to eat it all.

Okay, now for today's tip: Be nice to yourself! You do not have to be perfect (in fact we couldn't be even if we tried), so don't be yourself up just because you slipped up. If you ate a little too much pie over Thanksgiving, forgive yourself and let it go. Keep your focus on the now, and just work on doing better today, or even this moment, rather than beating yourself up for yesterday. If there's one thing I want you to learn through this challenge, it's to love yourself. So be nice, and tell your body how much you love it and how grateful you are for it!

P90x Week 4

Today marks the end of my 4th week doing P90x, which also means weigh-in and measure day as well as fit test update. Before I get to all that, though, I want to review the past 2 weeks since my last post.

Week 3 went relatively well for the first part of the week, but by the end of the week I started feeling really discouraged because I didn't feel like I was seeing any results. But I also realized that I had missed reading my scriptures for the past few days. For those of you who are not religious, this may seem odd and totally unrelated to exercise and fitness. But for me, my relationship with God is central to everything I do in life. The more I am able to enlist God's help in even things that might seem unimportant to Him (although I believe that if it's important to me, it's important to Him because He loves me so much) and the more I have faith that He will help me succeed, the more successful I am. So as I study the scriptures and pray, I receive insight and inspiration, for example, about how I can organize my time more efficiently to fit in all that I need and want to do during the day, such as exercising as well as spending quality time with my children. Anyway, I hadn't been reading my scriptures, so I wasn't feeling as close to Heavenly Father or feeling the help of His Spirit, and I just felt down. So I recommitted to making that a priority every single day, and I've been feeling much better as a result.

I also started to lose motivation to keep going with my exercise and fitness because I didn't feel like I was seeing the results I wanted to see by this time. But I immediately stopped myself from thinking that way and took the time to realize that even if I I'm not seeing results yet, that doesn't mean that improvement isn't occurring. I know that my body is becoming stronger and more fit every single day that I exercise and eat well and that eventually I WILL see big results. I recognized also that I have often given up by this point in any program I commit to because I get sick or injure myself and have to stop working out. But this time I am at a level both physically and emotionally to handle the strenuous exercise schedule I am following without burning out or getting hurt. These realizations have renewed my motivation and kept me going.

Another big help is my commitment to doing EFT every single day. I have tapped about my weight concerns, about my concerns that I'll get injured, about eating right, about cravings, and about so many other things, and I've done it just about every day since starting the P90x program. I have never been this consistent with EFT before, and I am noticing a huge difference. Whenever some big emotional issue looms up and threatens to sabotage everything I'm trying to accomplish, I have managed to weather it fairly well and not let it overwhelm me thanks to tapping about it. That's not to say I don't get down and discouraged some days, but those feelings last for a few hours rather than days or weeks, and I am able to pull myself up and forge ahead really quickly. I can't wait until I am trained to help other people deal with their emotional blocks this way. I know it is a powerful tool, and I really love the idea of helping others transform their lives both physically and emotionally.

It didn't hurt also that this was a lighter week in my training due to periodization (changing up routines from time to time to keep your body from getting too used to any routine), so I was able to give my body a little bit of a break.

So now to the results at the end of week 4: I'm down 2 more pounds today, and I've lost several inches over my entire body, including a half inch from my waist! I was able to do 4 pull-ups (that's right: FOUR!) up from 1.5 a month ago, and I was improved on every other part of the fit test as well (except for the heart rate maximizer, but I attribute that to a dying hr monitor battery the first time I did the test). Hooray! I feel like getting through that big wall of resistance I hit last weekend was like a test. Once I passed it by not giving in and giving up, my body let go of a bunch of fat and basically took a big step forward in its level of health. I feel so excited that I am seeing results, especially when I've been working so hard. I'm proud of myself and excited to see how much more I can achieve!

I have improved so much and felt so good through it all for the most part that I'm actually going to move up to the classic P90x, which is a little more intense than P90x lean, the program I've been following so far. I will start with month 2 of that program and follow that for the rest of the 90 days since I started. I'm looking forward to the challenge.