Are You Stuck?
“I’m stuck! I’m doing everything right and nothing is happening!”
This article is for you when you’ve got your eating under control, training regularly with intensity, and you’ve got a support system backing you up, and have had some success at losing fat recently. But the scale has frozen and you’re getting frustrated.
This is a dangerous situation.
If you’re stuck long enough you lose your motivation. And this can lead to the slippery slope of “why bother?”. And “Why bother” leads to buying larger pants real fast.
I see these 4 factors causing the majority of sticky problems.
1) No Plan at the Grocery Store:
Sometimes you can get away with no plan and no strategy. But at some point you’re going to need to tighten your aim. This is my “don’t buy it diet”. You PSP(Plan-Shop-Prepare) once a week to tighten your eating super-fast.
Plan-every meal on paper ahead of time. Sure you may not stick exactly to the schedule. But you’ll avoid a lot of roadblocks through the week by planning ahead.
Shop- Buy all the food you need for the week. If you only get enough for 4 days. You will find yourself in the drive-thru on day 5.
Prepare-Nothing will boost your confidence and fat-loss more than having all your meals set up before the busy week begins.
2. I’m So Tired!
-Sleep get some. how much 7-9 hours sounds right. Lack of sleep stresses your body and causes your cortisol to go up. This in turn makes it harder for you to lose weight and you’re cranky as an added negative bonus. Fat-loss stalls suffer, spouses suffer at your mighty wrath and your workouts suck. This is not good at all.
I’ve had clients go on vacation and start sleeping 8-10 hours a night and come back 5 pounds lighter.
If you have an alarm to get up. Set it for bed time too. Want to be in bed by 9pm-set your alarm. When it goes off put the book down, turn off the TV and the lights and go to sleep.
3) Not Counting Calories(at some point)-
This becomes necessary sometimes. Make no mistake I’ve had clients lose as much as 50 even 80 pounds without counting calories.
But, if you’ve stalled and especially if you’re a female and have dropped below 170-150, counting calories may be necessary.
The reason is-The smaller you are and as you drop weight your numbers (weight loss, calories needed for metabolism etc,) get smaller and your aim has to get tighter. So where as 200 calories won’t affect a 220 pound guy. For a female wanting to go from 130 to 125, 200 calories will matter.
For a quick cheat sheet for how many calories you need to take in to lose fat go here- Body Firm Calorie Cheat Sheet
4) “I eat really good for a few days then I fall off the wagon”
Consistency is key to long term success.
Eating great Monday thru Friday and throwing it all out the window on the weekends is a recipe for disaster. I had to shut this down years ago when my clients were taking in more calories on Saturday and Sunday than they were all week! This just doesn’t work.
Your eating must be consistent.
Choose a cheat meal once a week and go for it. And I do mean go for it. Get all of your cravings out of your system and get ready for the week ahead. You’ll feel fresher mentally by indulging yourself once a week. It helps get past those cravings during the other 6 days too.
If you’re stuck check yourself and see if one of these 4 are your problem-and fix it.
Talk later.
Dave