Hitting Plateaus

It's bound to happen - you work your butt off, giving your workouts your all, and staying true to your diet.  You lose lots of weight in the first couple weeks but then, your progress comes to a screeching halt.  When this happens, it's frustrating, discouraging, and makes you want to just abandon the whole project.  Of course there's a scientific reason for it, and you knew it was coming, but that doesn't help to take the sting out of seeing those unforgiving numbers.

That was me this morning. 

Thankfully, I have an awesome nutritionist who always seems to get me out of my funk and bring me back to reality in surprisingly few words lol.  He tells me "It happens.  Keep working hard."

In addition to these words of wisdom, he often change up my diet too.  There are two ways to deal with a plateau: increase your workout intensity, or change your diet.  He likes to play with diet before increasing cardio or number of workouts.  Think of it: it's much easier to cut 200 calories per day by decreasing your serving sizes than it is to find an extra 20 minutes to work out.  Who has that kind of unlimited time?  Not me! lol 

So tomorrow I start Phase 2 of my diet.  It's basically the same as before, but now I'll have a serving of fruit for breakfast and lunch instead of my usual oatmeal and rice.  It's a shift from complex carbs to simpler carbs, as well as an overall decrease in calories.  I'm excited to see what kind of effect this has on my body, and even more excited to eat FRUIT again!!!  Anybody who knows me knows how much I love fresh fruits and vegetables, so I am going to take full advantage of this change to get some much-needed vitamins into my body, and flavours into my mouth!! 

Plateaus can be frustrating, but they can also be an opportunity to change things up.  I'm thinking: berries and banana tomorrow....