Breaking Through the Plateau

I don't mean to sound overly simple, but there's no secret to losing weight. If I write a mealplan and you commit to it 100% for four weeks, I Guarantee you will lose weight. So if you're stuck at this step, this is where you need to start. Get a plan, and follow it for one month with every fiber of your being.

But as hard as it can be to make that commitment, the harder part by far is getting through your first big plateau. Every single person on our wall of success hit that plateau at some point. For some, it derails their path for quite some time.

The plateau can be very discouraging. You've made all these great changes, you've dropped pounds. You know how to lose weight, and you're seeing positive change in your body, energy, and how your clothes fit.

Then it hits you like a brick wall. WHAM! The scale stops moving. "uh-oh. What happened? I was cruising along fine and then it just stopped. But I'm doing all the same things." And this is where the real commitment and growth happens.

Everyone can have success with something they put their mind to. You can learn to cook and get good for a month or so. Sign up for the gym and go 5 times a week for a month. Start practicing golf, and see dramatic changes in your short game over a few months.

The little secret here is two-fold. 1) we get bored with doing what works, and we slack off 2) there's always a growth period in the beginning of something new where change comes rapidly. But to experience real and lasting growth and change...you've got to stick it out. You've got to dedicate yourself to growing and give it patience. You've got to get a coach of some sort and help them put a magnifying glass up to your actions and see what needs tweaking.

This is EXACTLY what we've been doing with the winner of our last challenge who we'll call Jane. You see, Jane lost over 20 lbs in the last challenge and won the whole thing. She dedicated herself to hard coaching from her buddy, she got serious about a mealplan, and she put that goal of winning the challenge firm in her sights.

But then it came! The END date. The challenge was over. She'd won her prize. The confetti was all swept up (figuratively...because we didn't actually have any confetti...although maybe that needs to be added next time). Then BAM, no more progress.

It's taken time and coaching, but Jane has gotten back on course. She has proven that she not only had the guts to lose that first 20, but she had the tenacity to ride out that pride-swallowing plateau and push herself through it.

So I guess you'd like to know how??? Ok, Twist my arm. Before I go on, realize that Jane's story is true to her. Your walk will be different. There is no one size fits all plan to get you through a plateau.

After trying and failing to get her refocused, we gave up on the old plan. She was no longer impacted the same way from being accountable to a buddy. Her friend who she was losing weight with at home was moving out of state. The meal plans she was writing were great...if she would actually follow them. But she wasn't. She was using her "cheat day" as a cheat weekend. She was eating out a ton, going days without following the plan, and her weight loss just stopped.

This was no easy fix. But about three weeks ago she and I had a breakthrough. I didn't even know it at the time, because there was no guarantee she would go home and act on it. BUT SHE DID...and I'm happy to say she's now lost 3.5 lbs last week and another 2.6 lbs this week. This is the first 6 or so lbs of many more that she will burn off.

But I digress. Here's exactly what we did. Jane is good at following a budget. I mean good, like she should really be ALL of our financial planners. She's awesome at being a self-proclaimed "tight wad." Which in our world is very challenging and honorable. She's got great health around money and saving. So I made her sense of budget her POWER for weight loss.

She was originally against cheat meals. She felt that if she cheated once, she would cheat three times. But here's the dirty little secret. She was now cheating on her nutrition every day. So that's all well and good in theory, but it wasn't working.

The coaching I offered was to simply make her cheat meals like a budget. "Jane, you can't pay off a credit card if your goal is to pay $500 off every month, then each day you use that $500 towards useless crap at Walmart." And guess what? Weight loss is the same thing. You CAN'T lose 2 lbs a week if you're cheating every day.

So we created a budget. Two cheat meals. And that's it. Only two. Not three, not two and a half. If it's a budget, it's a hard line in the sand budget, because you simply won't lose weight if you keep cheating every day.

Like I said, I didn't know if this was going to be acted upon or fall on deaf ears. But Jane is making it happen. She's been giving herself two nice cheat meals every week where she can eat whatever she wants. The purpose of the cheat meal is to take the guilt out of eating and ENJOY whatever bad pleasure you crave. I feel that more often than not, having a cheat meal or day is more helpful than trying to go cold turkey.

Look, we're trying to create life long habits, not another weight loss yo-yo. I'd rather find a Practical yet Primitive approach to eating that will burn fat and make you lean, but also support your desire for yummy, modern food that you crave.

For Jane, this was the real KEY that helped her shatter that plateau.  So what is your plateau?  How are you going to break it?  Let me know on our facebook site @ 39 Minute Workout