Plateau

I've mentioned "the plateau" in previous posts, in so doing taking for granted that everyone knows what that means. Certainly, anyone who manages their weight has experienced a plateau. So has anyone who has pursued any sort of goal. Simply put, the plateau is the point at which whatever you're doing to improve ceases to be effective.

To put it in the frame of weight loss, most folks begin with excitement over a new plan. They lose 5-10 lbs in the first week, then less and less week to week until they stop losing, but they're doing the same thing that lost ten pounds in week one! Some folks get discouraged and quit at this point and gain twenty pounds.

The plateau is something that happens to everyone. My take on the plateau is that whatever change you make initially shocks your body into change. This is a good thing. It's what we want. Gradually, our body adapts and what we're doing is no longer a shock. We can maintain this level of achievement, but we want to continue! It can be frustrating. So, what do we do?

Make another change.

Take my current weight loss as an example. At first, I ate exactly the same foods, I simply cooked at home instead of eating out. This simple change resulted in 10-15 lbs of weight loss in a few weeks, which I maintained for a few months, but lost no more. I plateaued.

Next, I began a journal. Because I've done this before, I set a calorie goal and tracked calories in my journal all at once, but it is also effective to step through each of those changes. I lost another 15-20 lbs, then plateaued again! I feel great, but it's time for more change.

The next changes I plan to make are to increase my intake of vegetables and clean water and to start a daily exercise program. I'm still researching the exercise, which is new to me. I expect these changes to bring me to my goal weight, but if I plateau again, I'll simply make adjustments to my nutrition and exercise, because the bottom line is that's what weight management and fitness in general are all about.

Incidentally, I'm also still wrestling with old habits. I ate cheeseburgers at a fast food restaurant tonight, which would be fine, if I hadn't eaten out last night, and lunch two days ago, etc. However, I will succeed because I know that no matter how many cheeseburgers I eat all I need to do is resume eating veggies and exercising.

Weight management is like housekeeping. It's never over, but it's much easier if you stay on top of it.

You Know What To Do

In retrospect, this should have been my first post.

At the risk of sabotaging your defense strategy, I want to let you in on a secret. You already know how to lose weight. You already know what habits you need to change to improve your health. Nobody accidentally eats a supersized double quarter pound cheeseburger meal with fries and a tub of soda. Everyone knows that they're going to feel a little ill after they take a second slice of cheesecake. Everyone knows that if they ran more, they could run farther.

How many times have you heard/read, "Eat less. Exercise more?" Ad nausseum? Me too. Is your reaction the same as mine, "Yeah? How?"

I was overwhelmed. I knew I had to change how much I ate, how often I ate, what I was eating, how much I exercise, what I did for exercise, etc. That's a lot! It makes me want to crawl back into my hole.

The first change just happened. I had to stop eating out because I couldn't afford it for a couple months. This might be the best thing that could have happened. I learned two things. First, the quality of food at restaurants is less than that of what I make at home. Which interests me greatly but I'll save that for another post.

Second and more importantly, I learned that I can make one change at a time.

Wow! What a relief!

After eating at home for a while, I decided to keep a journal and count calories. I want to cover reading labels and counting calories separately. For now I'm grouping those into one change, because I've done them in the past and already knew how.

Change three was adding snacks to my lunch bag for work.

Change four was replacing those snacks with fruit and yogurt.

Change five was eating more salad.

Change six is learning how to exercise efficiently and effectively. In the meantime, I'm walking for exercise several times a week and feel much more energetic.

The point of all that is, to succeed at anything make one change at a time and track your progress. You already know what to do. In fact, you have everything you need to get started.

Keep A Journal

This tip applies to anything you want to succeed at, actually, but I'm going to keep the focus on weight management. As we wander through our day there is a strong tendency to pop things in our mouth one bite at a time:

• Spoonful of peanut butter
• Handful of pretzels
• Cookie from the jar on the counter
• Candy from the jar on our desk
• The last few bites someone left on their plate
• A taste of what we're cooking
• A soda
• Coffee with sugar

Do you want me to keep going, or have you got the idea? By bed time we forget anything we ate which was not a sit down meal. Don't believe me? Can you list everything you've put in your mouth today? Everything? Me either.

I strongly recommend you write down everything you eat at the time you eat it. If you aren't counting calories or servings, yet, then don't worry about that to start. We'll talk about that in another post. Just practice writing everything down. When you're done eating for the day review your journal. You will be surprised by what you ate. It's also likely that you ate less than the day before, simply because you didn't want to write down, "Three pretzels."

The Poverty Diet

My current journey toward weight loss began in November 2010 when my car broke and needed to be replaced. I was planning for that car to last me at least another six months, so its replacement was underfunded. I had to empty my bank account for a down payment and live paycheck to paycheck for a couple months. This meant no eating out.

Prior to that, I was eating all of my meals out. Most people react to that with disbelief. Of course, I must be exaggerating. I'm not. I ate lunch and dinner out, and breakfast several times a week. Other days I skipped breakfast or ate snack food. My weight was high 260s (lbs). I was having a lot of problems with asthma, chronic nasal polyps (those are related), and migraines.

Once I started cooking at home, my menu was fairly limited. I mostly ate the same food I ate out, but I was losing weight eating hamburgers, spaghetti and meatballs, and boxed macaroni and cheese. I will discuss that further in a series of articles, because I find it very interesting.

After losing 10-15 lbs, I decided eating at home was a good idea. Now that I can afford to eat out again, I do so infrequently. For me that means once or twice weekly. That proved to be sufficient to maintain the 10-15 lbs lost, but I plateaued there. I'll talk about how I pushed past that plateau in another post.

Mission Cupcake

It is approximately 11:13pm. I am squeeging the condensation off the inside of my window while waiting for the red light. The dark-haired, scruffy man driving the car behind me searches desperately for something else to stare at. This is the second dark-haired, scruffy driver to do so today.

Roughly two hours ago I labored on the treadmill to burn 250 calories so that I may enjoy a tasty confection.

Proceeding through the red light I near my objective: the grocery-specifically the cupcakes, therein.

I arrive dressed in navy pinstripe suit pants, a beige printed t-shirt featuring a red space ship stylized as a sake label, brown loafers without socks, and a wool overcoat. The incongruence (that word is mine, you will pay me to use it) being that I have not come for baby formula. A man crosses the parking lot parallel to me reciting his shopping list into his flip phone. Flip phone? Really?

Due to the late hour, I must enter through the exit. I nearly walk into someone to divert the attention of all away from my costume. Briskly, I walk to the bakery.

"That is entirely too many cupcakes," I utter aloud within ear shot of two off duty clerks. They, their shaved heads, and dirty work out clothes depart with no audible response. Realizing I am looking at the "party" cooler, I scan the displays in the aisle and locate my quarry.

It started with donuts. Last night a business associate recounted a tale of hypoglycemic shock and salvation in a box of donuts. Earlier this evening a friend tweeted me about her box of donuts. The pressure mounted, and finally crested when yet another tweep declared the cupcake man's greatest achievement, above fire and the wheel.

That was the straw.

As I munched my healthy and tasty dinner, I began to obsess over the sweet, chocolate cake which was absent from my tongue. The sticky and almost sickly sweet icing I was not licking from my lips. How I had a birthday this year, and every year with a birthday in it should be celebrated.

Arriving at the check out I prepare my excuses.

"Cupcakes, what cupcakes?"

"Oh, they're not for me. I have a friend. He needs cupcakes. It's some medical thing."

"You know kids... (I have no kids, sadly)"

"Drugs? No! Why?"

"Well, a cheesecake would have been ridiculous for just me, don't you think?"

All are unnecessary, as the grubby duo from the bakery have created a diversion. Sweet.

Once home, I review my purchase and find ingredients but no nutritional information. I am consuming unknown calories! I'd better have just two.

11:19pm. Omnomnomnom