THERE ARE NO STRAIGHT LINES TO HEALTH, NUTRITION, AND WEIGHT LOSS

There are plenty of reasons why a person can hit a plateau in their health journey. As much as we would like to believe the road to weight loss, or improving our eating habits and overall health, is a Point A-to-Point B straight-line scenario, that is simply not the case.

In many cases, though NOT all, once we start making healthy changes to our diet and movement, the weight will start coming off.

But then something happens. The number on the scale isn’t going down anymore. Your clothes still fit fine, but you haven’t gone down a size (or another size) in a while. You’ve stalled out.

The shortest, though not ENTIRELY correct, answer is your calories in-to-calories out ratio has balanced itself out. You are no longer burning stored fat to meet your body’s energy demands.

The deeper question is what is happening in your life that you have reached this impasse?

There are usually 3 underlying reasons why this can happen.

You’re not doing ENOUGH to lose weight.

It’s time to take your behaviors and actions to the NEXT LEVEL.

You’re trying to do TOO MUCH at once.

So, what do I mean by “You’re not doing enough”? This is where those simple things that got you started are no longer enough to keep up the weight loss momentum. I frequently discuss how it’s important to start out SMALL with your healthy behaviors so you can get them incorporated quickly and easily into your life without the stress, hassle, or let down of the “Go Big or Go Home” mentality.

If you have started taking a multivitamin in the morning, drinking a glass of water with your lunch instead of soda, and adding fruit and string cheese as an afternoon snack, you might have noticed a few changes in your weight. The scale might have gone down a few pounds over a 2- or 3-week period.

Then if you add 15 minutes of walking and start going to bed 30-minutes earlier, the scale might dip again, and those snug pants are suddenly feeling pretty comfy or maybe even loose.

But if that’s where you stopped with your efforts, then that’s where the weight loss will stop, too. You’ve balanced out the equation and you’re no longer burning stored fat as energy. This doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong! Quite the opposite! This just means you’ve hit your first plateau and it’s time to make more adjustments.

Which leads to the second underlying reason, “It’s Time To Take Your Behaviors And Actions To The Next Level”. You’ve started out great and done the small things right. Now it’s time to increase your intensity and focus. You need to be looking at NEW behaviors or NEW actions to take; or increase the level of things you’re already doing.

Time to add more fruits and veggies to your meals if you’re only getting one fruit as a snack each day. Time to make that 15-minute walk 3 days per week a 20-minute walk, or increase the number of days to 4 or 5.

Whatever areas you are working on, if you’re not seeing results any longer, it might be time to take it up a notch. So maybe it’s taking another look at what or how much you’re eating, how much movement you’re getting in your day, if your sleep needs work, or if you need to find better ways to de-stress. All of those factors can influence how your metabolism processes energy and how fat stores are tapped and burned as fuel.

And the third reason is “You Might Be Trying To Do Too Much”. This seems counterintuitive, but it’s actually pretty simple. If you are trying to make large, sweeping changes to your health, nutrition, or weight loss efforts you may also be sabotaging yourself in the process.

You’re already a busy mom. Between all the things (work, partner, kids, household, family, friends, activities, etc.) you’re now trying to include a massive lifestyle overhaul. This can include changing how you eat, your movement/physical activity, sleep, stress management, water intake….whatever.

Making realistic changes in just ONE of these areas can be daunting. If your family is used to chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, and fruit for dinner on a weekly basis, and you suddenly hit them with salmon, quinoa, and kale….they might not be so okay with that. And that just means more headache for you.

Now add extra time for meal prepping….

And a couple of yoga sessions (when you’ve never done yoga before)….

And weightlifting/resistance training….

And more cardio (30 to 60 minutes)….

And a morning meditation and daily gratitude journaling….

Going to sleep an hour earlier each night….

Do you see where this is going? I’m tired just looking at this.

Trying to do ALL of this when you’re not mentally, emotionally, or physically ready is going to burn you out. There is nothing wrong with working your way into all these new healthy behaviors. They are great goals to shoot for! But it’s important to be ready for them, and putting them into play in a realistic, consistent way.

And this does NOT include the physiological issue of taking in too FEW calories and adding extra physical activity on top of that. Your body will go into starvation mode. When you’re making eating and movement changes, it takes time to learn to balance your new eating habits and physical activity to keep your brain from “panicking”, thinking the body is “starving”, and sending out the signals to hold onto the fat stores already in place.

Those are three possible reasons your health changes might not be working in your favor anymore. Not because you’re doing anything WRONG, but because you might simply need to rethink your strategy going forward.

Whether you need to give yourself a little more of a nudge, whether it’s time to take your efforts to the next level, or maybe you’re trying to take on too much at once, any of these reasons is completely fixable and within your grasp.

And if you would like to learn more about setting goals, changing your behaviors, and what actions work best for your life, Book a FREE Consultation.