Consider Your Success

There are lots of ways to measure weight loss success.  The one we focus the most on, the weekly weigh in, however does not tell the whole story.  While it is true, we can influence the scale, we cannot control it.  We can control behavior.  We can control taking "brain breaks" and leaving the desk for a walk.  We can control what we place in our shopping cart.  We can control when we go to sleep.

When the scale is not budging, we benefit from looking at the big picture.  A very normal part of anyone's weight loss journey involves a temporary standoff at the scale.  It is only after a significant amount of weight loss that one can even arrive at a plateau.  That means that the scale does not move for a month--even though you are still doing the same hard work you had been.  What is really happening is that the body is adjusting to its new version of normal. While at the beginning of the weight loss journey, these new habits did manage to create weight loss, it is just as true that after a while, those new habits have become your new "normal."   Bravo!

In order to break through a plateau, the body needs new information, new work, new challenges, new everything.  Mixing up meals, spices, workouts, etc. will help your body work harder to figure out what's happening.  That means the metabolism will be revving in a new way.  That is a change worth working for.

A real plateau means real weight loss (like half of what you'd like to achieve) has happened.  On the other hand, a fake plateau is one where the scale doesn't move, but it's because you aren't measuring food, or counting points or tracking.  No judging here, but a time to revisit the basics and the reasons why weight loss matters in the first place.

We evolve one moment at a time.  We are not looking for perfection, because that is not realistic.  We can definitely look at progress.  In our thoughts, with our habits, through our choices, we can expect to make progress, thereby getting closer to what we really want.  That's not a plateau--that's a breakthrough.  So, keep going.