Busting Plateaus

I got this article from Jillian Michaels'
newsletter.

For those who may not know, Jillian is my
hero and awesome trainer on Biggest Loser.

There is nothing more discouraging than stepping
on the scale after a week of diligent dieting and
grueling workouts and not seeing any drop in the
number. The plateau is a common problem among dieters
and can typically be waited out, but there are
measures you can take to keep your metabolism
fired up even as you reduce your caloric intake.


The best way to break a plateau is to keep your
salt intake below 2,000 milligrams a day and
drink lots of water. Make sure you're not eating
any processed carbs, period. That's right — no
chips, sugar, white flour, and so on. And hit
the gym hard! The boost in exercise will make
your body swell and hold fluids for a few days,
but after a week you should see the benefits
on the scale.


You can also try playing around with your
caloric intake a bit, varying it from day
to day throughout the week while keeping
the same weekly total. The body can't slow
its metabolism to adjust to a reduced caloric
intake if the intake isn't fixed from one
day to the next. For instance, to bust my
plateau, I might have 1,200 calories on
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then eat
1,500 calories on Tuesday, 1,600 on Thursday,
1,400 on Saturday, and 1,700 on Sunday.
Get it?


The plateau effect can sometimes simply
be a matter of flagging resolve. If mixing
up your caloric intake just isn't working,
make sure you're not slipping up on your
diet or slacking off in your workouts. I'm
serious; it happens.

As with any program, there will be highs
and lows, but stay with it. Your body is
trying to adjust to the weight loss. Don't
get scared or discouraged. Just be patient
and know that you are worth it!

What's Food Got To Do With It?

Actually, food, diet, healthy living and exercise
have nothing to do with this particular post.

If you noticed the Entrecard ads on this site
and wondered what the heck does this have to
do with a weight loss site, well don't feel
alone, I thought the same thing.

Now that it's possible to buy ads on Entrecard,
I'm getting tons of ads that I have to reject.
Not so much because it isn't relevant to this
blog, but I have no desire to have X or even
R rated blogs advertising here.

As I begin to learn more about this new Paid
system, I will be able to go in and change
what I will allow on my blog.

Entrecard has always been a cool way to get
visitors interested in what I'm writing about,
but now, it's just a frenzy to see who can
get ads placed anywhere with no regard to
whether it's appropriate or not.

So with that off my chest, it's 6:47 A.M.
and I need to get to the gym.

My Kingdom for a Good Tomato!

Changing to a healthy lifestyle includes
eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables.
But finding a really good tomato is almost
impossible.

Tomatoes have to be picked before they are
actually ripe so they can be shipped and
arrive at their destination before they
go bad. For us that means never getting
a tomato that actually tastes like a
tomato!

I am sick of lousy tomato taste, so this
year I planted a little garden. I have
two kinds of tomatoes!

I hope to have enough to share with
friends. I live in an apartment, so
I recruited some space in my aunt's back
yard. She is providing the land, and
I'll share the fresh veggies. I know
this is really a southern thang, but I
can hardly wait to make a fresh batch
of okra and tomatoes from the garden.

It's not too late to plant a garden
in most parts of the country. I got
little plants that were already started
instead of starting from seed so it's
all good to go now.

Here's to fresh home grown veggies!

Another Day, Another Pound

I weighed in at my usual morning hour
today. Lost one pound over the last week.

I guess that's better than gaining a
pound. I've lost 32 pounds so far and
seem to be at a plateau. The dreaded
plateau!

Guess it's time to beef up the workout.

The weight loss so far seems to have
eased some of the pain I have from
Osteoarthritis. I'm hoping that keeps
up.

A trip to the doctor yesterday revealed
several good things from the weight loss
and exercise.

My heart rate was 67! That's down from
98 so that's awesome.

My blood pressure has always run low, but
after packing on pounds it was showing up
at normal. Normal is fine, but it's just
not me. Yesterday my blood pressure was
106/71, and that's a little more like
what I am used to seeing.

My blood sugar is still stablized and I'm
going to fast tonight to get a new
cholesterol reading tomorrow morning.

I started taking a cholesterol medication
several weeks ago but had an allergic
reaction. Now I'll see if all that oat
meal, cheerios, Omega 3 and Red Yeast
Rice combined with the diet and exercise
have lowered it. Keeping my fingers crossed.