Last night’s Wednesday small group session at church was a grand ole time! I am jumping into a new group, so I had the chance to meet some new friends I will get the chance to connect with weekly. It’s always fun to develop new relationships to learn and grow together. Although it’s also interesting to try to explain the whole blogging thing. Yes, yes. I take pictures of my food. Yes, yes. I talk openly about my life on the world wide web. Yes, yes. I may be slightly crazy.  

For our meet up, we started off with some fellowship – aka chit chat and food.

I loaded up a plate with some pasta salad, veggies, and party mix. Quite delightful. And not just because it meant I didn’t have to cook. And for dessert, I had some fruit plus one of the Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies that I shared in last night’s post.

They seemed to go over really well. With their whole wheat flour, stevia, natural peanut butter, and all. Muahaha! although the butter and brown sugar helped I’m sure…shhhhh

We spent the remainder of the night discussing the previous sermon about God’s desire for joy in our lives and the various ways we can find it in Him, loving others, and growing personally. One of the questions even got me thinking about how old personal demons try to get a hold of me sometimes…like last week when I found myself dealing with a mini-binge experience for the first time in a long time.

I had many different factors that could have played into it, including the thought of an upcoming vacation where I wouldn’t have my “regular eats”. Then, I knew I would have my birthday, social events,and a lot of other such experiences coming my way as well. On some level, the old “all or nothing” mentality crept back in.

That’s when I decided I couldn’t judge my choices and get caught up looking into my future food choices, allowing them to determine how I choose to nourish my body in the moment. Instead, I determined that I would change my mindset…

Meal By Meal

It became my new mantra. When eating meal by meal, I can focus on making the best of my options and actively choose what will nourish me and satisfy my most at each meal. I strive for balance, so my life will certainly involve times that I indulge or eat something different than what I may have prepared for myself. That doesn’t make my eating habits any less healthy on the whole.

Having an unhealthy relationship with food makes me unhealthier  – not enjoying a weekend vacation. Sinking back into the all or nothing approach and experiencing old eating demons makes me unhealthier – not having a busy social schedule. Healthy living happens one decision at a time. It culminates into a better lifestyle, but it still breaks down into many smaller choices. 

Taking things meal by meal allows me to remove the stress from my eating habits so I can choose wisely and let each of those decisions add up to a healthier, happier belly. And a healthier, happier me. Meal by meal…  

• Have future indulgences ever affected your current food choices?
• Do you open up about your blog to new friends/acquaintances?

It takes a lot of time and effort to work towards fitness related goals. When things don’t progress how you hope, an overwhelming sense of frustration can set in. I understand and relate all too well. Plateaus used to throw a wrench in my goals time and time and time again. Over the years, I learned more about my body and effective ways to approach plateaus – to either keep them from happening or karate chop them out of the way when they would hit.

I recently received a question via email on whether or not I have had to deal with plateaus when losing the baby weight and what I would do when encountering one. For the purposes of the reader request, this post will focus more intently on weight loss plateaus, but many of the ideas presented can certainly apply to other fitness related goals.

First up – I feel the need to clarify what I deem a plateau. I think a plateau occurs when ZERO changes happen for an extended period of time – in my opinion, close to a month. You may not notice a change on the scale but can definitively fit better into your clothes. Not a plateau. You may only see a half pound loss on the scale each week for a few weeks instead of the pound you were seeing. Not a plateau. I consider a plateau a lack of progress on all counts – ZERO change even after allowing your body the time to catch up with your efforts and make changes.

Now that we have that straightened out we can focus on the ways I avoided plateaus while achieving my Body After Baby progress and the steps I took when I found myself in one.

Have Room To Progress
I never quite understand the notion to nose-dive into a fitness plan with the top intensity, highest level of dietary restriction, or most challenging plan from the beginning. That can only lead to burn out. If you have super human will power and avoid burn out, then your body will eventually adapt as it’s a smart little yoda…and then where do you go?

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I like to start with the smallest of changes so I can build up habits, remain consistent with them, and have options to tweak the plan as my body grows stronger.

Take A Break
The first thing I will do when facing a plateau is proactively decide to take a break. Counterintuitive, no? But it works. I allow my body to take it easy on workouts for a week. I eat a bit more. I don’t stress over my goals. By the end of my break, I feel rejuvenated and ready to take on my goals with a new, stronger intensity. The stress from eating less, working hard, or just fretting my goals inhibits my body’s progress greatly. So, when I chill out for awhile my body appreciates it and reciprocates with future progress, like it did after my recent vacation.

Look Closely at the Little Details
Sometimes the small things we do add up to make a bigger impact than we imagine. We know that our training and eating habits have an impact on progress and will readily look to them when facing stalls. However, we also must consider our other habits. I always take a look at the other details of my health to determine what areas I can improve. Am I drinking enough water? Am I getting enough sleep? Am I active in other ways throughout the day? Am I stressing too much? Am I “regular”? Am I facing some crazy hormones? Those things have key roles and need to be in order for progress to happen.

Track It

It doesn’t need to be drastic (like measuring raisins!). If I want to track to check my habits, I usually resort to a few simple protocols. I measure foods that I can have a heavy hand with when serving (peanut butter or cereal) to make sure I am taking proper serving sizes. I will count calories loosely in my head for a week or two to see if I have any areas I can tweak. I will stay more mindful of extra bites or licks I steal while making M her food or cooking. Nothing excessive, but enough to pick up on habits that may need to change for progress to get back under way.

Add Another Gear
Up. The. Intensity! I don’t believe in adding a ton of extra time to workouts, but I do think we can push ourselves out of our comfort zones to maximize our results and get the ball moving again. When we get in a routine, we can easily start sailing through workouts out of habit. To avoid this, I try to mix up or increase the challenge of my workouts every 6-8 weeks. I will either try something new, add in more intervals, shoot for new distances, vary up my strength training routines, or pull out workouts that I know kick my butt. Work harder and smarter.

Ride It Out With Positive Thoughts
If all else fails, I go here. If I know I have done all I can to have taken a balanced approach to eating, training, and caring for my health, then I can only accept that and stop expecting so much from my body. I trust that respecting my body will bring it just where it should be and let it happen naturally. I stop stressing. I picture my goals and keep working hard. Surprisingly enough, staying positive and committed ends up bringing the desired results down the line. After all, when reaching this point the only options are to keep chugging away with determination or give up and say forget it. I know one of those choices won’t help me achieve my goal…so why not just dig deep, ride it out, and trust? It can only do good.

• What tactics do you use when facing plateaus in your goals?
• What is a detail outside of diet and workouts that you have to take care of to feel your best? I think sleep impacts me the most!