Last week we talked a little about hitting that wall where nothing you do seems to make the scale budge in the direction you want it to. I listed some of the most common reasons why you may have hit this thing called a plateau, and how to identify if you actually have in fact hit a true plateau. If you need to come up to speed you can read that here: Are You Stuck At Your Weight?
Ok, so now that you know what and why, let’s get to the ‘what to do about it’ part:
First, you need to look at that list and determine which one(s) apply to you. Today let’s talk about external factors in a plateau. That means things that you can’t always seemingly control (notice the word seemingly).
Not enough rest
When we’re talking sleep many women instantly throw their hands up and say I have way too much to do to get any more sleep. I’m lucky to get what I get! I totally understand. But most everyone I know could eeek out even an extra 30 minutes of sleep (at the least) by preparing for your week at the beginning of the week. Here is where a lot of time could be saved:
A. Are the clothes you and your family going to wear washed and pressed if needed?
B. Have you set your menu for the week and done all your grocery shopping in one trip?
C. Can you pre-prep certain meals so that all you have to do is pop them in the oven at night?
D. Have you made and confirmed carpool plans, what errands need to be run, etc?
By simply getting organized you’ll find that you have a lot more time than you ever thought you had. For instance, when you get home from your day, if all you have to do is throw dinner in the oven instead of running to the store, coming home and prepping, etc., you can spend time with your family or get some things done for you. When a reasonable bed time rolls around you won’t feel like you still need to unwind and will be more likely to go to bed on time. Having clothes ready in advance also means you can set your alarm a few minutes later in the morning.
When it comes to exercise, you do need to rest from that too. It’s best if you have at least one day off each week. Also, not every workout should be done at full throttle. If you do sprints on the treadmill at 10pmh one day, repeating that workout the very next day is not ideal. Your body needs to rest to and recoup. Progress happens when you are at rest, NOT while you’re working out. If your body never has down time, it’ll never have time to repair from the good stress you put on it and it will not get stronger and leaner. That’s the goal right? You gotta rest then, and you need to cycle your training to incorporate really intense days with days that are less intense (less intense does not mean long hours on the treadmill). It can mean going a little slower (like sprints at 7mph) or doing a shorter workout (do 25 minutes of cardio if you worked out for an hour two days in a row).
Too Much Stress
This is a tough one, I’ll admit. There is so much that puts stress on us these days that we can’t control. Paying mortgages (or not being able to pay them), more work because your jobs are understaffed, normal stress or raising children, long commutes. The list truly goes on and on and on……
So what to do?
First, let’s go back to time management. If the rest of your life is as organized as you can control it takes a lot of un-needed stress away.
Then take some time to “brain dump”. This is where you take a piece of paper and literally write out every possible solution to your problem. The key is EVERY possible solution. Even if it seems totally ludicrous, unhelpful or you don’t like the end result. If it is a solution, write it out. You will be amazed at how much more focus and clarity and peace you have even if you do nothing else about the problem at this time.
Two, exercise is the BEST stress reliever! Come into a workout stressed out and then give the workout all you’ve got and you’ll find that you leave a lot of your stress on the studio floor. Stress energy has to go somewhere. Do nothing but fret, worry and complain about your circumstances (we women call that venting) and it’ll come out in panic attacks, breakouts, sleepless nights, cranky moods and most likely, weight gain or lack of weight loss.
And in the case of stress, intensity is everything. When you are stressed it is not the time for a long slow walk around the park. When you are overly stressed it’s time to crank it up and work out like you’re in a movie montage for Rocky. It’s time to suspend disbelief about what you can do and go for it. Yes ladies, it’s time to work out like a rock star. Leave a puddle of sweat underneath you when your workout is done and ask your trainer for some more. You will find that not only does the weight start coming off again but you’ll feel so much more positive about your situation whatever that is.
Action Steps Outline:
1. Find out in what areas of your life you can be more organized and make a list (for most of us it’s gonna be a loooong list)
2. Pick just one or two areas and work on them this week. Take the extra time, split it in half and use half for “you” time. That could be more sleep (best use), relaxing or exercising.
3. Repeat this week after week. I’m pretty sure you’ll find that after a few weeks a lot of things will fall into place naturally but keep actively working on that list.
4. Take the other half of that time you saved by being more organized and do a “brain dump” of all the solutions to any overly stressful situations in your life. Sometimes just writing out all your options no matter how “bad” they may seem will help you find the right one.
5. Schedule your workouts and stick to them as if your life depended on them (and really the quality of your life does).
6. In your workouts, block out everything else and give it 100% and then some more.
I hope this helps. In the next blog post I’m going to talk about the nutrition side of a plateau.
your good