The Dreaded Plateau!

OH, NO! I hit the Plateau! Ah, but this is a good thing. I bought a DVD course on Nutrition Made Clear from The Teaching Company some time back, and I learned that when we hit the dreaded plateau, meaning no progress with weight loss, it means that the body is adjusting to the change. For the most part, our body burns glucose for fuel, but when we embark on a change in lifestyle (notice I did not use the phrase weight loss – the brain hates to lose anything, and it will cling to homeostasis for as long as it can), it takes awhile for our bodies to adjust to the use of a different fuel. For example, I want to burn body fat, but since the body normally burns glucose it will take a shift for my body to begin to burn fat. Heck, if it needs a week to learn a different trick, that’s fine with me! My brain has been trained to comply fairly quickly, because it knows I am relentless, but it still takes time for my body to make the shift to burning fat.

This week I spent a total of five hours on the Elliptical machine, and I kept up my commitment to drinking at least sixty-four ounces of pure water a day…well, for the most part. I have to admit, this is not always easy, but if I want to flush out the body fat, I know how important the water is in doing just that! I suppose if I visualize the water cleansing my body of the free-floating body fat that I just loosened up from exercising, like rinsing food off a dish, that that it will help me drink more. (That’s not really how it works, but it’s a good visualization for me.) It will also help if I visualize the body fat that does NOT get flushed out finding its way back into the fat cells, like little fat rats going back to the hole in the wall. Okay, now I’m really wanting that water! Scat, you fat rats!

Last week I promised to write a bit more about programming changes. Anything that disrupts the craving for excess food will work, as long as it is used consistently. For example, if we are looking for emotional nurturing, we can find another surrogate other than food: a soft blanket, a teddy bear, certain music, anything that will give us that feeling that we want. Food, for overeaters, is never about sustenance; it’s almost always about nurturing. Is overeating ever really about nurturing? Do the resulting shame, pain, and guilt we feel afterward make us feel better? I DON’T THINK SO! So, we might be able to say that overeating is more about punishing ourselves for something rather than helping us feel better. Now that’s a deep question: What are you punishing yourself for?

Today, find a surrogate for emotional eating, something that is truly good for you. It could be as simple as taking several deep breaths each and every time the craving surfaces. Remember, what you really want is to FEEL better, and overeating always backfires.

Next week we’ll look at the habits of people who achieve and maintain their ideal weight. The easiest way to get what you want is to find someone who already has it, and then find out how he or she got it.