Hit a wall

Today I've hit a bit of a blogging wall. Maybe my brain's just a bit tired on this Friday night. Fair enough. But in the spirit of staying authentic, I'm just putting it right out there with all of you. That's cool, yeah?

We all hit walls, don't we.
I can't tell you the number of plateaus I've gotten stuck on during my weight loss journey. I remember being stuck around 94-96kg, and a biggie at 82-83 (I reckon that one lasted more than a year), and another really long one at 76-79. Bouncing around like a ping pong ball, I was, but not progressing for months and months. Gee it's so tempting to give up at those times.

Here are a few of my top tips for continuing on the journey uphill, through the wilderness and surrounded by doughnuts.

1. Don't give up, even when it seems like you're failing. Speak words of life to yourself, eg. "This is a temporary struggle, I'll get through this" rather than words that kill off your hope: "I've stuffed up again, I'm never going to win". (This one is especially important to practice when you've eaten one of those doughnuts.) Be gentle with yourself. Things are going to take time. Be patient and forgiving. You're only human after all!

2. Look after yourself - don't demand perfection when you're in a hard period. You wouldn't expect seeds to germinate in a dry spell, would you? Just bunker down, give yourself space to rest and weather the storms, do things that recharge you, then when things are more stable, give it another go.

3. Put the scales away for a while, if you're getting too hung up on the numbers.

4. Put the cheese away for a while, if you're too hung up on the cheese. ;)

5. Don't sweat the small stuff. And by small, I mean exercise - shock horror!
I believe very strongly that for those who are metabolically challenged (ooh, there's a fun term!), eating is THE MOST important thing to focus on. If you want to get all empirical, we could say that diet is worth 80% of the effort and gives the most return on investment as well. So if things are tough at the moment, try to continue with the thing that gives the most return on investment - i.e. maintain the good changes you've made in eating low carb, and let the other things sit on the shelf for a bit.

6. Tweak some things:
When your strength has returned or your schedule has calmed down and you're ready for another spurt, try changing something up in your routine. Have a fresh look at your current usual diet and decide on another new change to introduce. Are you still eating cereal for breakfast? What could you swap to that has less carb content? Do you need to pare back your fruit or dairy intake?

What about frequency of meals and snacks? You can change that up too. This is worth a post on its own - and I'll add that to the list for sure. Eating less often can certainly be helpful (in fact, that's how I got off my last plateau), but it sometimes takes a bit of a process to get to the point where you can last easily from one meal to the next without needing snacks. We'll talk about it more in future.

Oh I'm sure there are more great ideas that I could've included in this, but I'm back at that blogging wall again and it's time to call it a night! See you sometime on the weekend when I will begin to work through some of the questions I listed in the last post - I know you're itching for information!
G'night folks!

Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice

at the end of the day saying 'I will try again tomorrow.'

~ Mary Anne Radmacher.

- Juliet.