Losing 30 pounds in the first month of my weight loss was very exciting. Like most contestants on The Biggest Loser I had hoped for big numbers on the scale week after week. I mean I had 100 pounds to lose so as long as I wasn’t eating anything bad and I was working out almost every day, shouldn’t this kind of weight loss continue to happen week after week? Imagine my surprise when I hit a plateau during the third month when I still had 60 pounds to go. I was following the same restricted diet and still hitting the gym 5-6 times a week so I was a little bit frustrated and confused as to why my continued hard work wasn’t paying off in the same way. The thing is once I decided I didn’t want to be fat anymore I couldn’t wait a second longer to shed the weight.
Unfortunately weight loss doesn’t work that way. It’s actually 100 times easier to gain the weight and in some cases a lot more fun – that is until your clothes don’t fit you and you don’t have a good side in pictures anymore. So now that I was on the road to losing weight I really wanted to get to the next level and reach 50 pounds. While I’m typing this I’m wondering why I didn’t give myself mini goals instead of always trying to reach milestones. I need to do that moving forward. I started wondering how could I get back on track to losing weight again. I reached out to a few friends each of them had great advice. One friend just said keep doing what you’re doing and your body will catch up again. Another friend suggested taking a class that focused on using weights instead of being so cardio focused. Another girlfriend told me to make sure I was packing healthy snacks during the day to keep my metabolism high. All of those suggestions were helpful and after a few weeks I did start losing weight again.
As I mentioned in the title, plateaus will happen. My most recent plateau lasted almost three months and I’m not going to lie that was a tough pill to swallow. During that time I again focused on incorporating some different group fitness classes into the mix. A couple of my favorite classes were Ballet Burn at West Loop Athletic Club and Yoga at Bucktown Athletic Club. Both classes really help me to focus on toning and also doing something with lower impact to counter all of my more intense workouts during the week. Workouts aside I started looking at what I was eating throughout the day and re-evaluated whether I needed to switch somethings up there as well. Stay tuned for my next post when I share some of my favorite go-to snacks that have helped me to stay on track. Until next time!
Heidy