Plateaus

Plateaus – We all have them.

I returned from vacation to find plateaus. I quickly let go of the retained water and excess weight for 3 weeks exceeding my sustainable weight loss goal by 5 lbs. (2 kg). Then it stopped for three plus weeks, and I gained 2 lbs. back (1kg). Anyone else had this happen?

Today in the fourth week after the plateau began, I’m down a slight tick. I’m now within 1 lb. of the former lowest weight since vacation.

What caused it? I wish it were a simple clear answer. But life winds and meanders. This is where my journal and recollections come in handy. As I re-read my journal, I noticed that in the third week I started to get urging (uh oh a craving) for more substantial food.

In those first few weeks, I wasn’t hungry and was satisfied, voluntarily, with ease and natural by the return to fresh squeezed juices and a little soup.

By the end of the third week, I wanted a little rye bread, nuts, and my downfall cheese. My impulse control, self-efficacy, was faltering. I started snacking in between meals a little.

Plateaus – a cause.

My journal indicated I was fasting (mild starvation – one of the fat triggers that makes us put on weight and fat) and I wasn’t acting to counter the lack of nutrients I needed.

Therefore, fueling the craving and telling the mind I was starving, instead of adding a glorious salad and fresh real foods to give me a more balanced nutritious diet to satisfy and still lose.

Why? I was busy writing about weight loss, serving patients, and developing a broad outline that covered these topics and more. I was focusing on writing and consulting with retreat patients. Life interferes with the best laid plans of men and women.

My stress went up as I didn’t make progress writing, and my weight got stuck and we got busy for two weeks. I was slow noticing and reacting even though I did my morning routine regularly that helps by exercising, meditating, and reflecting.

I was nervously and unconsciously grabbing a handful of nuts (raw food at least) and a piece of toasted rye with cheese (my downfall a processed food). The root cause was over-fasting, and I didn’t have the real lunch that I needed.

Plateaus – a change is required.

I made changes at the end of the second week of the plateau when I realized this and started eating a well-rounded nutritious lunch with enough nutrients to keep me from feeling I was starving. These better choices and removal of desire for snacking when I ate better lunches helped.

I cooked and ate dinner with our guests, I ate a bigger dinner than I needed to. As I applied a little impulse control asking myself if I really wanted and needed the food it helped me stop when full.

Adjusting food quantities for appetite and needs helped. Yet I still wasn’t moving. The feeling of starving activates the fat trigger and to overcome it we must ensure adequate nutrition. In addition, we must eat in peace, calm and consciousness. This allowed me to naturally eat enough and not too little while avoiding most snacking.

Plateaus – not that simple.

Yet two critical steps remain as important pillars to succeed at maintaining or losing weight. The first is to sip water (living, preferably, freshly squeezed juices) all day long. Hunger signals often indicate dehydration, not actual hunger. I was drinking my four 500 ml juices from early morning and the three meals but not much in between.

When I drank additional water during the day, especially when I felt hunger cravings – it helped also. [Do you know the amount of water (juice) you need per day for your body weight to carry away the waste and stay hydrated?]

Plateaus – my secret breakthrough tool.

The big so far unspoken pillar of weight loss is managing stress and our mental/emotional state. Looking at my current state as I wrote this I found I was feeling pressure (stress) to outline my topics and manage the retreat patients. It was a Laissez faire attitude (I’m too busy – I’ll just continue without taking care of it) and do it later.

So, I’m tapping, a major part of my weight loss program, and productivity work, with patients during their morning program, and my program, that I had put on hold. I also did my six healing sounds with emphasis on the kidney sound which relates to the emotions I am having today and in the last three weeks.

As I released these emotions and did my tapping, breath, and sound work I felt relief and more grounded. I am committed to managing this journey more every day as soon as I notice.

The plateaus are only a small part influenced by the physical actions of the food we choose the liquids we drink but a much larger part depends on the fat triggers and mental emotional patterns, mindsets, we allow ourselves to run.

The emotional journey.

After three weeks at the plateau, I remembered I need to manage the emotional journey and watch my food (the stress of plateau makes me want to eat more even though it was more of a hydration issue).

I tapped and worked on the emotions every morning and occasionally during the afternoon and on the weekend for about five days, I stepped on the scale and found I was at 148.8 my pre-plateau goal for the next week.

I’m not at my goal of 145lb but I’m moving again, and the goal is back in sight. This is what a plateau is. It’s like a thermostat, we start reducing the temperature and the house (our body) holds the heat (weight). And it’s hard to get it moving and break through the setpoint. Then it drops until we hit the next setpoint (plateau).

Use your tapping, learn it if you don’t already know it [Jim’s article, new to tapping look at tapping 101 at tapping solutions].

Conclusion, be and act in your life and don’t forget the important emotional journey. Also pay attention to your mindset, clarify your goals and remain focused on achieving them.

Do you want to know more about the ancient solutions, more than seven thousand years old, to this millennia long problem of losing the last pounds, avoiding plateaus, and even starting to lose weight?

Find out more.

Find out how modern medicine has verified the validity of these ancient techniques, i.e., for instance the Nobel prize in medicine in 2017.

How modern hacks have shown it’s not just CALORIES IN and CALORIES OUT. The importance of the 10 Fat Trigger Programs that will hijack weight loss no matter how few calories you eat.

Finally, a holistic program that looks at your individual needs and bodies requirements to help you create a sustainable natural fit and lean lifestyle not a DIEt (note how diets start with DIE).

Allow me to be your coach: find your body’s natural reset blueprint, become aware of alternative ways to lose weight, help you craft your own individualized plan, and provide you accountability to take and keep the weight off.

Contact Jim NOW)! For more information on his new program “Your Natural Body Reset Blueprint” an ayurvedic and modern science based balancing program for your body type and specific needs.

Live Joyfully and Vibrantly the Life you Wish to Live,

Jim Montrose, Ayurvedic Specialist – Living Wholeness Ayurveda, 071 959 0786

PS           Do you know how much water you should drink per day for your weight?

Pounds (US) – Take your weight in pounds divided by 16 = # cups (8oz) per day

Kilograms – Take your weight in KG multiply by .1305 = # cups (250 ml cup) per day

PPS        What have you experienced?

Do you have any observations and tips?

Please share your experiences in the comments below.

What’s your dream?

PPPS.     Do you dream of a healthy, vital, slim, and energized body?

But don’t know how, tried, no time, life intrudes, confused what foods, can’t starve, etc.

You want to let go of extra weight, reduce cravings, eat healthier, get fit, get lean, have fun.

Transform the struggle into a healthy plant-based diet that tastes great, wake your bodies   desire to get thin, let go, and satisfy cravings more effectively.

Then go beyond simple weight loss to have the health, vitality, energy you are meant to live.

Contact Jim NOW !

PPPPS    Did you enjoy this article? Drop me an email with the subject: “Sign up mindset tips” and receive mindset tips for weight balancing in your email.