Take that plateau!!!

Dear Old Me,

I got my weight moving again! Praise Jebus. My advice to you today is that you shouldn’t be too concerned when you hit a plateau for the simple fact that weight loss ultimately comes down to one simple rule. To lose weight (unless you have a medical condition, which, by the way, you don’t) you must burn more energy that you consume! The only way to push past a plateau is to reduce your food intake (which is already pretty sparse) and/or increase your energy output (i.e. exercise). I haven’t been diligent about journaling my food intake. Truthfully, I haven’t really done it at all for the last couple of months and maybe I need to refocus on that aspect a little closer as I get closer to my goal weight. It’s good to revisit your food plan from time to time to avoid boredom or falling into bad habits. But the fact of the matter is that it is sooooo not fun and in fact, I hate it.

While playing Game On* I have gotten very used to the foods that I can and cannot eat. I have done my due diligence in figuring out what works and does not work calorie-wise. I really don’t even look at the calories on most of the food I eat. The only exception to that is my daily “100 calories of whatever”.  I pay VERY close attention to those calories. Very, very close attention. Sometimes I can taste every single one.

My weight loss has always followed the same pattern. I will lose, lose, lose and my weight will drop 10 or so lbs over a month to six weeks. Then I plateau for a week or so, I sometimes always gain some back and then it starts moving again. After losing 140+ lbs and having gone through at least one plateau for every ten lbs lost you would think I would learn to not freak out. But I always, always do. It is hard to not be frustrated. It is hard to trust the simple science that is truly the basis for this roller coaster that I am on.

About 48 hours into a “no weight loss” period of time I begin to panic. I start freaking out that I am still fat or that I will never be as thin as I want or worse yet that I will gain all the weight back. For the longest time (like, my entire life) I have always focused solely on food to lose weight. Always believing that it was simply less food=weight loss. Sometimes it has worked (for example when I initially started losing weight in May 2009 and lost my first 70 lbs) and sometimes it didn’t (every other time I have ever tried to lose weight). Looking back at all of my past failed attempts I can see now that I would hit that first plateau and then I would not have the will power or whatever I needed to stick to my food plan until the scale started moving again. All of my focus would be on food and what I could and could NOT eat. I would obsess about the forbidden, give in and the inevitable weight gain would happen. All of the weight, whatever the amount is that had been lost, would return along with a few of its friends. I didn't have anything else to fall back on. The only other part to the equation to fall back on is exercise... I didn't have exercise to fall back on.

I give full credit to the game for giving me the missing piece to the puzzle. It has given me all the tools to have the power to push past the plateaus. Seriously, I am not sure I could have done it without the support from my friends and family and the structure of the game. Back in June 2010 when I started playing I was at one of those plateaus. I had been there for several months actually. By no small miracle I had managed to maintain the 70 lb loss that I had mustered up to that point by food control alone. But I could feel it slipping away… and then along came the game with all of its awesomeness. It forced me to focus on more than just food. It put the focus on my overall health.

I stopped being all consumed and obsessed with food and started focusing on healthy habits and doing whatever I could to work out for 20 minutes a day.Up to that point I had never really exercised. Like ever. It is so not my thing. Or it was so not my thing. In junior high I used to actually forge notes from my doctor or mom (sorry Ma!) that I had some kind of random something-or-another physical (sometimes even psychological) ailment that made it impossible for me to do the “fun run” (which was probably barely a one mile run around the outer perimeter of the school property, so paltry compared to what I do now). The teacher never said a word about the fact that I had “that time of the month” every single Friday for the entire semester. I managed to get through all of my high school career without having to do a single "fun run". The game forced me to find creative ways to workout. After all, I had committed to doing 20 minutes every day. I began looking for new ways to work out, desperate to find something I could just tolerate. 

That’s when I went to my first Zumba class. I will not go into how much I love Zumba at this juncture because I could go on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on… and you get the point. There will be other Zumba related posts for sure. The important thing is that I found an exercise that I could stand to do for more than two seconds. The game made me HAVE to do it. Now I want to do it and I want to do it as much I can, for as long as I can. 

This change in attitude has allowed me to power through this plateau with very little thought or additional effort. I have spent all my time enjoying my workouts and totally forgot that I was even worried at all. I am not worried about whether I will lose or gain. I don't obsess about how I will inevitably fail and be fat forever. I am having too much fun to care about failure. And do you want to know what happened? I woke up this morning to a drop of 5 lbs! Wahoo! I like how this feels. I like knowing that I am in control and that I am able to enjoy myself while being healthy. It feels pretty darn good. 

I seriously can’t wait for my next plateau so I can kick its ass too.

Until next time,

The New You

*If you are wondering about Game On. It is the “diet” plan I have been using the last 7 months or so. I am sure I will post more about it later entries for those of you that I have not been indoctrinated into my cult yet. If you want more now, just let me know. I love sharing the game with anyone and everyone.

Dear Old Me,

I wrote you a letter last night that said that to get the mythical “natural high” from exercise that you needed to get real with yourself and work harder, but I wanted to clarify. In the beginning you just need to do whatever you can to lose weight and exercise may not be possible. For a while you will simply need to watch your food intake and basically lug around the extra 150 lbs you are carrying. Carrying the equivalent of a full grown adult around with all the time will burn the extra calories needed to get the ball rolling. I know that at 320 lbs it is hard to exercise. Your back always hurts and you can only make it through 15-20 minutes of any kind of cardio. You hate every minute of it. At first it will be difficult to even move your body and break a sweat. You may even think that you don’t sweat.  Believe it or not there will come a time when you can literally squeeze the perspiration out of your hair and clothes when you get done with a workout. In the meantime focus on your food intake and do what you can with exercise.

Don’t beat yourself up about the fact that you can’t exercise like everyone else. The hardest part of the weight loss journey is learning how to manage your eating. Because truly, the amount of food/calories you are taking in are enough to feed at least 3 grown adults. There is no wonder that you weigh over 300 lbs. So the first thing I recommend that you do is monitor your food. Learn proper portion control. Follow the guidelines on the labels of food. Stop eating at fast food restaurants. When you get to a healthier weigh it will be okay to occasionally go to that type of place, but it should not happen frequently. You need to lose a lot of weight and those establishments will do nothing but hinder any progress you hope to gain. In the beginning you will lose weight if you focus on your food. Don’t stress too much about the fact that you are not exercising and you are not sweating or working out at the same level as others. 

When you have lost enough weight that you can work out you must find an exercise that works. You have to try all sorts of physical activity. I recommend looking outside the norm. You never know what will happen when you try out a new type of exercise. You may hate it, but you may fall in love with it. When I first decided to try out a Zumba class I had no idea that I would find the one type of exercise that I could stick with. I went to my first class and I really wish that I could describe how hard it was for me. I couldn’t really keep up. My feet were like thousand pound bricks. I could barely lift them when the dance would call for it. I certainly could not jump. Any time it called for a jump I would lift one foot at a time. I hated that I was such a prisoner in my body. There was something about the way the class was put together that made it possible to get through an entire hour. Granted I was looking at the clock every few minutes wondering if I would live until the end. I was surprised when the final song came on and it was time to cool down and stretch. I stretched and moved in the way that the instructor showed us to. I was soaked with sweat. I had never worked so hard for so long. Never in my life had I sustained that level of exertion for any period of time let alone and entire hour. That to me was enough to sell me on returning for a second class. I wanted to see if I could do it again. And truly that is what kept me going for the first couple of months. I wanted to find out if I could do it again and again and again. Each time I expected to fail and hate it and go back to my normal level of total inactivity. I am so grateful that never happened and has not happened yet. When I began to go to Zumba I had already lost about 70 lbs. I couldn’t have gotten through the workout at 320 lbs, but at 250 lbs I was ready to include exercise in my diet plan. 

It was bumpy at first, but each time I did a class I felt stronger. Each time I was able to jump a little higher or do a full dance step combination. I am not sure if it was the music, the dancing, the instructor, the other ladies in the class or exactly what made me keep coming back. I will always be grateful that it did. I have totally fallen in love with Zumba. I may be getting a little ahead of myself, but I really want to become an instructor. I want Zumba in my life as a permanent fixture. I want to help others see the potential in this awesome physical activity. I started going to a second Zumba class after about 2 months of going to just Karine’s class. Jamee, the other instructor was a spunky, cute little thing. I could tell there was some serious ballroom experience in her choreographies. Her dances were so much fun and I soon started doing her class twice a week and Karine’s 3 times per week. Me, working out 5-6 times a week for over an hour each time? It is absolutely insane but it is happening. I crave the feeling I get when I am dancing. I love the feeling of complete happiness that envelopes me when I am done working out. I have to have it. And why not get paid to do it, right. I am a Zumba-nerd and I want to be a Zumba Master-nerd. I hope I am accepted by the other instructors and potential students. I hope I can figure out how to make my feet not look retarded when I dance. I hope I can make my body strong enough that I can lunge further, squat lower and move more fluid than anyone else. The only way I will know if I can do it is by actually doing it. And doing whatever it takes to make it happen. Jamee said she will help me every step of the way. And so did Karine. I have their blessings. I hope I can be ready by the September certification class. I love how Zumba has totally transformed me. I feel like it will turn me into the person I always wanted to be. Happy, healthy, energetic, in love with life. Me and aerobics instructor? Who would have thunk it. Not me, that’s for sure.

So, Old Me, it is possible. Just get started and you will go further than you ever dreamed possible. Start with a manageable food plan and start now!

Love,

The New You