In my readings about weight loss, exercise and nutrition, I’ve seen the concept of weight-loss plateaus come up again and again.  The idea is that a person will be doing everything “right”, but their weight stays at the same level.  I’ve read cases where this is attributed to gaining muscle at the same rate as losing fat, or the body adjusting to protect itself.  My opinion is that both of these are entirely possible, but are more extreme cases and not the norm that they are perceived to be.  I think that most plateaus come from deluding oneself and refusing to take responsibility.

I’ve been at a plateau for the past 6 weeks - hovering back and forth between 210 and 220 - up and down, up and down.  This morning I finally broke through the 210 mark and weighed in at 209.6.  My plateau did not happen because of muscle gain or my body being in starvation mode.  It happened because I wasn’t active enough and was not consistent enough with my nutrition.

This is the 4th weight loss plateau I’ve been through since last June.  Each time I’d start off thinking “oh, that’s just my body adjusting and holding me back” - but after reviewing what I’d written down each time I found that I was completely responsible for each plateau.  Each time I plateaued, it was my own fault.  I was being inconsistent with either my nutrition or my activity.  Each time I realized that and acted in a more consistent manner, I broke through my perceived plateau.  When I took complete responsibility for my actions, I got the result I wanted.

Inconsistent action gave me inconsistent results.  Consistent action gave me consistent results.  So simple, but so hard to really accept.