Man I hate plateaus. I'm sure that in the 3+ years I've been writing this blog...that I've mentioned this before. But it bears repeating. A lot. I HATE plateaus. And this one finally seems to be OVERRRRR! Woohoo! *happy dance*. Today I weighed in at 214.8, which is 115.8lbs total lost! It was not my worst plateau by far. I remember being stuck in the 260's for about 6-8 months and that had me ready to give up completely...but I didn't. This one had me stuck in the 217-224 range for about 3 months and it felt just as long. But when I realize that between the 260's plateau and the 220 plateau, I lost more than 40lbs...I guess it's not so bad huh?
I was feeling very frustrated a few weeks ago and I was ready to just accept 220 as my final weight and just maintain from there. I didn't want to give up my treats or eating out. I didn't want to have to "eat clean" for more than a day at a time. I was tired and I wanted to just do what I wanted when I wanted. But I was miserable. I knew I wasn't done. My awesome sister Heidi told me, "Jill just look at it this way. If you had buckled down and done those things you say you don't want to do...you could have been done by now. But you can do it NOW. Work really hard, eat really well for the next 6 months and THEN you can maintain! You can eat out once in a while and enjoy your favorite things and just focus on your workouts. You won't have to lose weight anymore." When I looked at it that way, it made perfect sense. I could keep beating myself up and eating horribly more days than not and maybe lose 1 pound every 3 months or I could be a little more strict and get it out of the way NOW instead of in another 2-3 years!
So that's what I've been trying to do. Instead of allowing myself an indulgence day, like I used to...I've reigned it in. I would always let 1 day become 3-4 and then I was scrambling to get it all out of my system by weigh in time. Now I'm trying it a little differently. I'm allowing myself a little treat here and a little treat there instead of having a 24 hour period where all rules go out the window. Take today for example. It's my baby Ari's 10th birthday! (Man I feel old) Tonight we're going out to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner to celebrate. Normally I would see that coming and just make the whole day a free for all, but not today! Today I had my apple bran muffin breakfast and am eating a healthy lunch and snacks and will WAIT until dinner to have that treat. And even then I'm not going to see it as a free for all. I am publicly announcing this NOW so that I'm held accountable to myself. But tonight, I am going to have a giant salad FIRST. And then I will allow myself 2 pieces of pizza, a breadstick (or 2...they're amazing) and then a slice of her birthday cake. It will be a fun indulgence and it won't spill over into tomorrow. Tomorrow night, however, I know I'll be having dinner with my dad in the city so I will plan accordingly! No more day long binges. I'm done!
So yes, it's nice to see the scale moving again, but it's more than that. In my Burn It class that I take on Saturdays, we've begun using a body composition scale to track our body fat and muscle mass. After 2 weeks of that class (and 2 weeks of clean eating), I've lost 6lbs, over 1% of my body fat and gained some muscle! That is so much sweeter to me than just the number on my stupid scale. My clothes are finally loosening up again, my wedding ring (which I have to wear on my middle finger now) is starting to fall off...and I feel GREAT!
I know that eventually I will have another plateau. I know that this amazing will power I'm feeling now won't last forever and that I'll have another bout of feeling miserable and stuck. But blog entries like this one will remind me that it won't last forever. I'll always come out the other side. And when the will power and drive hits me like it has these last 2 weeks...I'm going to RUN LIKE HELL with it!!!
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