Weight loss plateaus

Over the past several days some clients have started expressing frustration with their weight loss plateaus. Becoming obsessed by breaking through this barrier can aggravate people so much that they abandon their meal and/or exercise plan. There is no need to "hang it up" and give in to cravings and avoid exercise because of a temporary setback. With a little investigation we can help you!

As your personal fitness coaches, the Personal Trainers of Fitness Together would like to offer some tips and tools over the next few weeks to help you get through, and over, this temporary barrier. Today's suggestion is to get back to the basics and dig out your Accountability Journal.

Get back to journaling. Journaling was important in the beginning to help you understand how start eating and exercising as part of the plan to take off the excess body fat.

Starting to log your meals (EVERYTHING you put in your mouth) and exercise will help to give you insight to exactly what you are doing. After a few days, go back to the beginning and assess what has changed. It may point out some glaring habits that you had dropped and now have crept back into play. Also, you might have been a little too confident in your food choices, or portion awareness. The opposite can sometimes be the issue as well. You may be too restrictive (because the scale stopped moving) on your caloric intake and stifling your metabolism with insufficient fuel.

Taking the time to update your Accountability Journal does take a brief moment when you add it up at the end of the day. It is much easier to keep it with you and write down what you ate or did right after doing it. If you think it takes too much time, think about this... Do you find the time to watch 30 minutes to 3 hours of TV each night? Well, in the total time of a commercial break or two, you could have your entire day's meals and activities documented.