Dealing with the Dreaded Plateau

When I first set out to make this blog a few months ago I made a list of all the topics I wanted to cover. Although I had not been through one yet, going through a a plateau was on my list.

As luck would have it (haha), in the interim time between my first post and today I went through and conquered my first plateau. When I made my first post on February 8, 2017, I weighed 185 pounds. On February 25, 2017 I weighed 185 pounds. On March 8, 2017 I weighed 185.8 pounds. Needless to say, I was about to lose my mind come mid-March when I was still hovering around 185 pounds.

Why Do I Think It Happened?

That is hard to say. Plateaus are normal and they come about regularly. If you are a parent you probably know babies have very predictable growth spurts. They have them at 2 weeks, 1 month, 6 months. These are predictable, common, and expected. Weight loss plateaus are very similar.
It is also predictable that in the first few weeks of a new diet or exercise routine people lose weight very fast. This is common because of water weight and other factors. I was about two months in my journey of losing weight, so I knew it was around time for things to slow down. I was already anticipating the inevitable plateau that was headed my way.

Also I have to point out, the heavier you are the faster you lose weight. That is why people who are morbidly obese can often drop twenty pounds in a month, while a healthy-weight person could take a year using the exact same methods. I am a few pounds away from being no longer obese, but instead just plain old "overweight". So I know that from here on out things are going to be a lot slower and a lot less exciting.

Another factor, in my case at least, is that I started to focus very heavily on weight training shortly after I started this blog. I also increased my calories by around 243-300 per day in order to support my new activity level and muscle growth. This can sometimes stop things for a minute or even lead to an increase. However, despite because of strength training, I was losing inches at the same time I was in this plateau (but more about that later).

So What Did I Do?

First and foremost, I reminded myself of everything in the "Why do I think it happened" section. I focused on the facts. That I am working out and eating at a deficit. I am going to lose weight. There is a formula and it is undeniable. I focused on this everyday.

I kept my calories the same. Even though I increased my daily amount, I was exercising more than enough to make up for it and I was still at a deficit. In fact my workouts improved significantly with the slight bump in calories and paid for themselves over again. At 1200 calories I might have worked out enough to burn 200 calories a day. At 1400 to 1500 calories I started easily working out enough to burn 600 to 800 calories per day. The slight pump in "fuel" was well worth the reward in output.

I kept weighing myself every day and taking the average of the 10 day total. For a while, it stayed the same.

Then, suddenly, this week the weight just started to fall off. In the last 30 days I've lost 4 pounds and 3.5 of them were lost in the last six days. Amazing, right?

 Trust the Formula

So there you have it. I accepted my plateau as part of life. I did get discouraged. I did get upset. But what would I accomplish my going back to eating whatever I wanted and lying around the house? What would I accomplish by giving up? Nothing at all. So I kept doing what I knew was right. I kept doing my workouts. I kept eating 1300 to 1500 (sometimes a bit less, often a bit more). I kept my protein level high. I kept lifting increasingly heavier weights.

and the result?

Today, April 2, 2017, I am 179 pounds and once again dropping a few ounces every day!



 

Thirty Pounds Lost and Feeling Great

Hello Lovelies!

It is the first day of the rest of your life (or something like that).

I do not know what led you to my beautiful budding blog today, but I can tell you why I started it.

• I want to help others like me who have struggled to lose weight.
• I want to encourage you to make changes in your life.
• I want to prove that you can lose weight over 30.
• I want to prove that you can lose weight after having a gaggle of kids.
• I want to prove that you can lose weight after overcoming an eating disorder.
• I want to prove that you can make a difference in your life.
• I want to hopefully prove that you can keep off the weight.
• I want to help myself (we are all after all an inherently selfish species)

So let me tell you about myself! 

I am a mother of 5 children under 11. I have been pregnant 7 times, I had 2 first trimester miscarriages. I live in the deep south surrounded by a plethora of delicious fatty fried foods. I am solidly over 30. I have struggled with weight my entire life. I am an eating disorder survivor. I work a sedentary job. 

Despite all this I have managed to drop from 220 pounds to 185 in the last 50 days. I have done this by eating a relatively strict low-calorie diet and working out a little bit here and there. I have recently started to take some supplements, but I have not used any sort of magical elixir or weight loss pill. In fact I have done all this on a non-existent budget with very little outside magic.

I do not have a gym membership. (Although I am working on getting a YMCA membership and I am looking forward to using that to ramp things up).

I do not spend hours a day working out. 

I am not starving myself. 

I believed for a long time that this was not possible. I kept putting it off and having a slice of cake instead. However, it is possible and I am determined to stick with it no matter what setbacks I come across along the way. 

So as of today, I am going to begin documenting my journey with you by my side. Hopefully it will be a long and fruitful relationship for us both!

Welcome to the humble start of Low Cal Mama.