Ok, we’ve all hit it.

It’s inevitable.

The dreaded weight loss plateau.

What in heaven’s name do you do now? 

If you’re like most women, you panic!  [Picture Gotham City burning; the Bat signal on the clouds; nothing but mayhem below—you get the idea!]  You start googling everything under the sun.  Here are some classic examples:

how to break a weight loss plateau

how to add intensity to cardio

how to lose 5 pounds in 5 minutes

hacksaws and their effectiveness (I see we’re getting desperate here)

It’s right about now when all rational thought tends to leave your mind.  You can no longer be trusted with your own exercise program.  You are as volatile as Elizabeth Lambert on a soccer field with a sea of pony tails in front of her.  Basically, put the keyboard down and back away slowly. 

Let’s be smart and think about this.  What causes a weight loss plateau?

1)       You’re in a rut. 

Have you been doing the same routine since the gym opened 3 years ago?  Seriously, when’s the last time you changed your workout?

2)       You’re too chicken to raise the weight.

If you have been lifting the same 10 pound weights since you can remember, it is time to make your exercises harder.  You must gradually increase resistance so you can keep challenging yourself.  Now, if you do this and you realize you can lift a car by yourself or one of the stones in a strongman competition, I would venture to say that that is not your issue.  At that point, you need to keep reading for other ideas.

3)       You do the same intensity workout day in and day out.

Your idea of an interval workout is leaving the remote by the tv and standing up in between commercials to change the station.  You need to branch out and add some hutzpah to your routine!  No matter who I talk to about this, I always find someone that knows this to be true but still doesn’t actually *do* it.

4)       You’re a hamster stuck in a wheel.

Now you’re the opposite of 3.  You are so neurotic about your exercise, you are doing plyos on Mon., Wed. and Fri., marathon training on Tues., Thurs., Sat. and Sun., Yoga on Wed and Sat, Jujitsu on Mon. and Thurs., Rock climbing every other weekend, bootcamp Tues. and Fri. and etc.  You have more going on than a bingo hall on a Friday night.  Less is more in this case.  Back it down and you’ll lose 5 pounds right away.

5)       You’re starving.

Have you pushed the cals so low you don’t even realize you’re biting your nails for extra protein?  When’s the last time you took a break dieting?  Every woman is on some kind of diet at some time in her life.  Have you been on one just a wee bit too long?  Do you count everything that you eat?  Or measure everything?  Have a hard time letting go of the structure?  Believe it or not, if you walk away from this for a week or two, you’ll probably break the plateau.

There are countless reasons for weight loss plateaus, these are just a few, and all of them are frustrating.  Before you make any rash moves, take two minutes to be as objective as you can possibly be about your program.  Keep track of how you are feeling and how you are doing with your program so you can spot trouble before it happens. 

Keep in mind, three things have to be the same for 3 weeks in a row to constitute a plateau:  bodyfat, pictures and weight.  If you are only checking one of those, it is not a true plateau!

It’s time for me to start a new series.  I have not decided on what it is going to be but I have kicked the idea of a weight loss plateau around.  Just know, another series is on the way very soon and like the ones before, will be very informative. 

Ok, get to the gym and start raising that weight!!:o)

So far in this menu series we have laid out proteins, fruits and veggies using a simple system of color coding.  Color is tremendously important in the world of food because the more colorful the food, the nutrient packed the food is.  Keeping your plate looking like the Rainbow Coalition is a great way to stay on the healthy side of life. 

But unlike protein, fruits and vegetables, starchy carbohydrates are not easily broken down by color.  A perfect example of that would be potatoes.  You have red potatoes, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, Yukon gold potatoes—and I would recommend that you eat them all at the same frequency because none is more nutritious than the other (ok, sweet potatoes have a slight edge;).   

Starches are also *not necessary* to be in your diet the way that fruits and veggies are or any other food source for that matter.  Yes whole grains are healthy, but they are not necessary.  For one thing, we just started eating them as a species.  We never ate grains on a regular basis thousands of years ago.  We were more meat based and plant based.  Also, no matter what grain you choose, it will require some level of processing just to be palatable.  When’s the last time you went wheat berry picking? 

So going strictly by color might not be the most prudent methods of choosing a starch.  But what about a starch’s texture?  I would venture to say that a starch’s texture is far more important than any other aspect of its composition.  There are 3 types of texture:

Shards of fiberglass:  This starch is the mainstay of any person’s diet who honestly says they are serious about looking good naked.  Fully represented by cut up gums, acquired taste buds and hard core chewing, this starch is all about health.  Do not even THINK of giving this to any family member who has not been thoroughly sworn into the “I care how I look AND feel club” or you will never hear the end of it.

Barley, quinoa, couscous, shredded wheat, millet, brown rice, steel cut oats.

Pass me the water, please:  This starch is characterized by a thick, smooth feel on the palette.  Nowhere near as intense as the shards of fiberglass family, but not an easy sell either.  Family members may not hate you after these, but they are still not party favorites. 

Lentils, beans, oatmeal (slow cooked), Ezekiel bread, oat bran, whole grain, brown rice

Flashbacks of Sade:  That’s right, these are Smooth Operators.  Eating these guys makes you forget about the 3 molecules of water that you’ll be holding on your butt for every gram of starch in them.  To be honest, you don’t care.  If you could slap a stick of butter on these and hum while eating them—you would!  These guys make ya wanna holla every time you eat one.  Family members will eat most of these starches but typically they bathe and dress them in things that would make you do double cardio just knowing they were in the house.

Potatoes (sweet, red, white, gold), Squash (acorn, butternut, spaghetti), pumpkin, root veggies, bananas

There are some foods that are missing off of this list on purpose:  peas, corn, lima beans, tortillas, pasta etc.  They just are not worthy of any good press.  Try to limit them to one time per week or less if possible.

Here are the rules:

1)       VARY YOUR TEXTURES!  Because we are creatures of habits and eat oatmeal like it’s our jobs, we deny our palettes the fun of pumpkin!  Texture is AS important as color when it comes to variety and beating food boredom.

2)       Try to have at least one from each texture every week.  If you are not eating starches on a regular basis, try starting with the Flashbacks.  They are easier to get down and chock full of vitamins.

3)       Do not repeat a texture in a day.  Most people have 1 to 3 starch servings per day but may find themselves eating different variations of oatmeal all day long.  Do not do that.  Vary your starch as much as possible.  Although quinoa, millet and spelt are all very healthy for you, eating them all in the same day may preclude you from any long board meetings for a few days.  Easy on the fiber there quick shooter!  OY!

Ok…we’re getting closer to having all of our foods laid out on the counter.  We have fats next and then we ‘order’ them.  I hope you have been trying some of these suggestions as to how to put some variety in your menu.  Feel free to share some tips in the comment section below if you have any!  I really want to hear about them!:o)

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What a one hit wonder they were!   And when it comes to menu planning for an effective diet, you do not want to be a one hit wonder!  But you do want to C.O.L.O.R. yourself bad! 

Menu planning may seem incredibly daunting task at first if you think you are just going to write one up without a “plan”.  You know how much simpler life seems when you have a step by step guide that shows you how to do something.  So let’s quickly break down the process of making a menu and it’s as simple as adding some C.O.L.O.R.:

C             Color code it           How many colors do you have in the week?  Can you add more?

O             Order it        Your goal decides your menu format.  There are a few and we’ll cover as many as we can.

L              Liven it up     Too much seriousness in your menu is no good.  Let’s dress this puppy up!

O             Optimize it      Step back and look at all you have.  Can we improve anything anywhere? 

R             Repeat it all over again      Create your own “bank” of menus.

If your menu has COLOR, it has everything!  When I receive food diaries to check out (and in season I probably view over 50/week), I see many of the same eating patterns that we as busy people like to perpetuate:

Eating the same thing everyday

Limited choices of fruits and veggies

Focusing on only the “super” foods (how much broccoli can you eat?)

No “fun” in the diet

No rhyme or reason for food placement

If you do not know why you do something or are not sure how to do something, you will never really do it well.  You are just going through the motions faking it while in reality you hope you are “making” it.  But you know you really are not making it yet you are not quite sure why.  You are falling short somewhere and it is getting old to you.

There are hundreds of books out there with recipes in them and now there are even people selling ebooks of menu plans.  You are more than welcome to find one of those and follow them if you want.  But what’s going to happen?  You are going to become bored with the food choices or feel limited by the way they put the menus together.  What happens if all of the recipes are not clean enough for your goal?  What if they give you plans and their lowest cal level is 1400 and you are 4’10” and 95lbs?  That’s like Thanksgiving for you!  And because you do not know why they did what they did, you cannot adapt it to be what you like it to be.  How about just creating your own menus, with your own fun added to them? 

Let’s begin the process of creating our own menus and take it step by step—from color coding it all the way to repetition—because face it, no one really knows what you like but you.  And success depends upon you planning an effective menu and adhering to it as much as possible.   Next post:  Adding some COLOR!

Next Post in Series

If you have been on my Facebook page today (and if not, friend me now and go check it out) you would have seen my ’smokin’ body’ friend Mandy (and I do mean smokin’ body!) ask me to check out an article.  It was on Time Magazine’s blog and it was about exercise making you more fat.  She wanted my take on the article and you know that’s just asking for trouble!

I am sure everyone thinks that that article is ridiculous–and you know, you would not be too far off!  BUT, on the same hand maybe not.  I am warning you…this is going to be long.  Also, I am going to come from two completly different angles on this article so be prepared to stretch your brains today. 

First point:  I want to always look good naked.  I don’t just want to be thin/skinny/small/whatever.  If you said to me right now, “Jodi, you have two choices 1) thin but with a saggy tummy and an ass that could be mistaken for a sackcloth at an Amish Revival OR 2) big like Queen Latifah but you could lift a small child with one butt cheek”, I would be in a day care right now moving some kids around!  Do you hear me?  I ALWAYS WANT TO LOOK GOOD NAKED.  PERIOD.

So whenever I read these articles I have to laugh.  We want what we want but just don’t want to work for it.  Starve me to be thin but dear God in Heaven–don’t make me work!  OY!  What do you mean I have to work hard?  Sweat?  Oh heck no!  So instead of accepting that the human body was meant to move, exert energy and be active, we conduct study after study after study to prove how inactivity is ok or not ok.  Or better yet, we fool ourselves into believing that walking up a flight of stairs to get to our chair–I mean work–is a good substitute for exercise.  The fact of the matter is if you want to “just” lose weight (and muscle tone), then go ahead and just diet…or cut off a limb–whichever is the path of least resistance to you.  But if you want to be beautiful, hot, sexy, healthy and whatever other adjective you can put in there, then get your butt up and grab a kettlebell and work that posterior chain until you can put a cup on it and call it a tabletop!

Looking good naked is hard!  And it is rewarding.  And it separates you from all the other folks out there.  Looking good in clothes is not super easy but it is not as hard as looking good naked.  I do realize that if you are reading this blog, you want to look good naked. 

So no matter how many of these articles people print up, those that are concerned about how they look as a finished product are not going to pay them much mind.  They know.  And those that are looking for an excuse are going to laminate the article and use it as a place mat for their meals.  Know what I’m saying?  To me this is like politics or religion:  your views are not going to be swayed by one article or news piece.  It’s either you get it, or you don’t.  It’s as simple as that.

Now to bend your mind a bit…

Second point:  He’s right.  Yes, you heard me.  He’s right.  I am a perfect example of what he is talking about.  The problem is, he has the mechanism all wrong.  If he keeps up his research he will eventually get it right.

Most of you know me so you know where I am going to go with this.  I am a big girl.  I have no problem telling you that.  In fact, it’s the pink elephant in the room when you meet me.  I am not ashamed of it nor am I intimidated by it.  But I am frustrated as all get up about it at this point in my life.

I was always thin.  I was the girl that couldn’t get pregnant because I didn’t weigh enough.  I actually had to gain 10 pounds to get pregnant with my first child.  I have had to lose weight 2 times in my life:  when I graduated college (what do you mean I will gain weight if I sit in a library from 4pm til midnight 7 days a week eating Snicker’s bars?  Who knew?) and after my second child.  In between those two very brief times in my life I weighed no more than 110 to 115 pounds.  Then I competed. 

Competing brought my body to another level.  I had muscles on my muscles and if I got any leaner you would be able to see the outline of my intestines through my skin.  But just like this article, I was too extreme.  I dieted to the macro, worked out to the very last minute that I could each day and never backed off.   One month after I got off stage for the last time, I let myself gain about 15 pounds to put me at about 10 pounds above my normal skinny weight.  I hung out there for a year but get thisàI never stopped show dieting and didn’t stop working out like a clown.   Instead, I fried myself into a state of fatness gaining 40 pounds in 4+ months with no change in diet and no change in exercise.  And for the first time in my life, I was “fat”.

My fault? Yep!  Cause? Jackass behavior and metabolic disruption.  Plain and simple: I fried my adrenals and depleted my metabolic cup.  Could I have fixed it?  Sure—if I knew then what I know now, yes.  But it took me 4 years to learn that diet and exercise can make you fat if you are not responsible about it.

So this brings me to his shortcomings in the article, and honestly, the short comings of America.  Why do we have to be so SO?  Why must we be just SO far to the right or SO far to the left?  The point that he is bringing up in this article is valid but he did not QUALIFY it.  Instead he SENSATIONALIZED it and made it trivial and silly.  He made it so ridiculous that you cannot see what is really going on here.

Exercise doesn’t make you fat.  EXTREME exercise makes you fat.  Extreme exercise while over-dieting really makes you fat.  Endless deprivation.  No good fat in your diet.  Lack of sleep.  No recovery.  I could go on for days.  But working out and then “rewarding” yourself with a muffin is not even worthy of an article never mind a deep discussion.  No, let’s talk about the REAL deal.  Most women are bingeing and (not always) purging themselves into the land of heaviness.  JUST EXTREME ON ANY END WILL DO IT.

This is now what I am all about:  BALANCE.  Hormonal balance, emotional balance and physical balance that will elicit that beautiful, lookin’-good-naked body to perform on a level it never did before.  Bring on the balance!

Now I am not a “soap box” kind of girl.  I don’t typically champion causes or want everyone to “get fit” because I am.  That’s great for you if you are that way.  I am much more of a sharp wit and would rather sarcasm you into the right way to do things than rah-rah-shish-kum-bah you.  But this is now my new mantra because seriously ladies, I cannot stand to see the look in your eyes when this happens to you.  It’s devastating. 

So just know, this guy is a putz.  His article is too simple and lacks merit.  But the underlying message is real and you need to take heed.  In the mean time, I am going to go try and pick up my 3 ½ year old with my butt cheek because although I am now a big girl, I am tight.  See you at the gym!  WOOP WOOP!