The Plateau (Day 8)

This is getting annoying. To do so well so fast and then stall is very deflating (again, probably why he didn't want us weighing ourselves every day.) Luckily, Dr. Ian Smith actually addresses this in his book. He says that all sustained weight-loss efforts are beset at times with periods of seemingly inexplicable failure and stagnation. This, he explains, is a vestige of the periods of famine that often faced our distant ancestors. A plateau represents a manifestation of the body’s preventive defense against starvation.

Well that's fantastic, what should I do? The strategy that Dr. Smith suggests to break through a weight-loss plateau is varying the nutrition and/or fitness routine slightly. For example, increasing the duration of exercise by 10%, or focusing on another type of cardiovascular exercise than the one usually engaged in, can both fool the body into dropping its overprotective defenses against starvation and help dieters move past even the most stubborn plateaus.

So there we have it, folks. Maybe it's not scale goblins like I originally thought, maybe instead my body's being smart and I have to trick it back into being dumb again (much preferred). So today I'm going to go to the gym and hit the elliptical instead of dancing around my living room. I will also concentrate on eating more of the foods I've been skipping over during this diet (like salad and rice) and see where that takes me.

I feel better having a plan, but if I don't lose 5 more pounds by tomorrow, I'm going to add an extra day (kidding)... (sort of).