A free chapter from my Keto Road blocks e-book
Page 26
THE DREADED PLATEAU
“Everything can look like a failure when you’re in the middle.”
Hopefully I can change your thinking when it comes to plateaus.
Because these are the times when you get to learn the most about your body! It’s a chance to pause, step back, reassess and try something new. It doesn’t mean everything has been a failure up to this point. It’s never that simple.
Consider this fact. If you think you’re on a plateau, doesn’t that also mean you haven’t gained weight? If you’re used to living on that yo-yo cycle where weight gain happens far too easily, then a plateau as a positive thing!
The next question I always ask is why do you think you’ve plateaued? What are you basing that on? The scales really are not a good judge for this. Maybe you’re building muscle? Women in particular can change their body shape completely without anything even budging on the scales.
Things like hormones, stress, anxiety, sleep can affect whether you feel things are moving or not. Often it’s not a plateau, but it’s our expectations that need adjusting. If you’ve taken 20 years to get to this point, change is not going to happen quickly or over night. Make sure you have realistic expectations.
But if you really feel you have stalled then it’s your body telling you it’s time to tweak!
Perhaps you don’t need as much fat in your diet anymore? Perhaps you’ve started mindless snacking? Perhaps you can start or increase your fasting? Perhaps you’ve increased your carbs? Maybe you need to look at your stress habits?
There could be endless reasons why.
The bottom line is you will have to continue to tweak, but don’t get anxious about the plateaus. If you make them mean more than they are, the increase in the stress response will not help to move you off it.