I did not have support group this week because it was last week. Funny how the third Wednesday of the month was the 15th. It seemed too early to me. So I didn't get to go this time. It was my son's birthday anyway so I certainly wanted to spend the evening with my family.
Today I needed to pick up something from the pharmacy so I stopped by the "official scale" and found that I'd only lost one pound since the last time I weighed. Now after that I stopped by work to pick up the schedule since I'm going back on Oct. 4th. I got lots of hugs and everyone thought I looked great. When we got back into the car, my daughter asked if all the strokes to my ego made up for the plateau. My hesitation to answer prompted her to say that when my coworkers were fussing over me the smile on my face wouldn't have come off with Ajax and a wire brush. OK I admit it. It did help. Onward through the plateau.
Now any veteran dieter will tell you that these happen to everyone who tries to lose weight. Our bodies have noticed that our lovely fat cells are shrinking. The metabolism goes into panic mode and lowers itself so that the grip on those precious fat cells becomes tighter. As annoying as this might seem it does account for survival in times of actual famine. Should you find yourself on a desert island somewhere you will want your body to hang on to all its resources until the rescue boat arrives. That being said the strategy here is to fool the body into loosening up.
I can remember those weigh-ins at Weight Watchers. At the end of the meeting the leader would announce how much everyone lost that week even though it might be as little as a quarter of a pound. (They would tactfully skip those who gained. No humiliation there) Once a lecturer brought a stick of butter to a meeting to show us what a quarter of a pound looks like. It may not be much but wouldn't you rather not have that stick of butter on your hips? At the time I first did Weight Watchers they were not really stressing exercise. Their solution to the plateau was to stick with their usual program being really precise about weighing and measuring your food. Also make sure you drink eight glasses of water every day without fail. The water is supposed to flush out the fat. Well that old fat does exit through the plumbing. (It certainly doesn't disappear in a puff of smoke.)
When I was doing the Phen-Fen my doctor told me to combat a stall by increasing my exercise and thus kicking up my metabolism. It sounded good but I really didn't try this back then.
A blogger I follow said she overcame her plateau by upping her protein intake. She found a new protein powder that she really liked which helped her accomplish this.
Another idea I heard recently was to eat more calories every third (or was it fifth) day to show your body that it really isn't starving. I did try this but it was too easy to eat more every day.
My plan is to incorporate all of these recommendations except for that last one.. I will go back to keeping track of all my nutrients and fluids every day to make sure I'm getting enough of everything. I need to get to the gym too. Since I'm heading back to the job I will have more activity anyway.
So here I am still 60 pounds lighter than I was on June 28th. The fall season is a time when mammals tend to increase weight for the coming winter. I'm not going there.
Love to all,
Marlena of Mohegan.
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