At the beginning, results can come thick and fast. But for most people, rate of change slows down and it’s easy to get discouraged.
Whilst weight loss plateaus suck, it can be comforting to know that it can happen to anyone.
Our bodies are pretty amazing at looking after us so your body sees any weight loss as a cause for concern. Believe it or not your body’s primary goal is survival and not a smaller jeans size (who would have thought?!)
Here are 3 practical ways you can shift yourself off that plateau:
- Write it down.
Have you ever written down every thing you’ve spent money on over an entire week or month?
You put down all of the times you grab a coffee, a bite to eat, or you run out for milk and accidentally spend $30. You write down everything and then put all the expenses into columns like ‘groceries’ and ‘entertainment’.
Keeping a food diary is exactly the same except your columns might be breakfast, lunch and dinner; or meats, vegetables, dairy, treats etc.
And just like when you find out you’ve actually been spending $300 at Kmart each month (you needed it right?) – when you write down everything you eat you’ll be surprised where you’re unknowingly spending your calories too.
And you don’t need to be a dietician to know that those three lemon meringue pies you had last week weren’t going to help you lose weight.
2. Try intermittent fasting.
We didn’t evolve with food available all of the time and our digestive system can benefit from regular rest.
Try skipping breakfast a couple of times per week and eating all of your meals inside an 8 hour window, say 12pm-8pm.
Fasting has some positive effects on gut health and insulin sensitivity (how well we manage carbs) plus overall people who fast tend to consume less calories in total.
This is not for everyone but for some women this method has been the golden key to unlocking their weight loss plateau.
3. Use a set plan.
When we’re tired, lacking motivation or just feeling deflated, it’s incredibly hard to think up healthy snacks, cook ourselves amazing meals or come up with effective workouts, let alone actually go through with them.
At the end of the day, the easier something is, the more likely we are to do it.
So even though you ‘know what to do’ and even though you ‘could do it yourself’, give yourself a break!
Sign up for a challenge, join a supportive community, follow a meal plan and put yourself into healthy auto-pilot mode.
If you have a meal plan on your fridge and it says you’re making one tray chicken tonight with extra for tomorrow’s lunch, then it’s easy – you’re making chicken tonight and tomorrow’s lunch is sorted.
When we’re really ‘on’ and super motivated, that’s awesome. But when we hit a stalemate it’s best to just revert to a plan and follow instructions.
No decision fatigue, no analysis paralysis, just positive steps in the right direction.
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Kelly Moriarty is an online health & nutrition coach and founder of The Green Body Plan.
After 5 years as a veterinarian Kelly was unhealthy, stressed out and generally dissatisfied.
She now helps professional women make the same changes she did to beat burn out, lose weight, recover their energy and take back control of their health naturally.
kellyannmoriarty.com 