187.0 - 62.0 pounds to go

Ah, plateaus: depressing, frustrating, demotivating. It's rough watching the scale stay within the same couple pounds week after week. It's tough knowing I wanted to see the scale lower than it is by this date. It's difficult to figure out what caused it, why it's happening, and what to do. It nags, making me wonder why I'm bothering, what the point is, and who cares. It eats at me every time I step on the scale, log the weight for the week, and watch the one year date rapidly approach. And in spite of all that, it is worth it. It's tough, but it's temporary. I've come so far, there's no way I'd give up now.

I had the husband take my measurements before meeting with the nutritionist. Most of them stayed the same, a couple supposedly increased, a few decreased by a quarter of an inch. Considering they are subject to human error, since it's not like I have tattoos of where to measure, I wasn't really counting it as a victory.

The nutritionist seemed to think I'm just not doing enough anymore. Walking 40-50 minutes everyday isn't enough, nor is strength training once a week (this one I agree with.) So while it could be a plateau (which I thought she didn't believe in after the last one), she just wants me doing more. And I am willing to try, but I also feel like I have no life as a result. But, that's the price I have to pay for overindulging for so long.

Aside from exercising more, the nutritionist wants me to work on only eating 400-500 calories at dinner. This is going to be rough. Dinner is traditionally the biggest meal and to cut it way back just feels odd. And 400 calories at dinner is not a lot. I meticulously log all of my food, I create recipes when we cook from scratch, we try to cut out a lot of things, but sometimes it doesn't help. So I am trying, but I may need to gradually step down. One tip she gave me, that I loved (but shamefully haven't tried yet) was to take 1/3 less. As a typical American, if it's on my plate. By taking less, I may noticed I'm satisfied and save some calories, and if I'm not full, I can go back for the remaining 1/3 and feel like I am getting seconds. We'll see how that goes - I am hopeful.

Last night I couldn't bring myself to go to the gym. I had come home from work, started on dinner, ate, and then watched TV while letting it digest some (working out while full is BAD!) and decided I didn't want to come home and go to bed. Instead, I made myself proud and did a strength workout at home! I've done plenty of body weight exercises that I have no excuse to not do them at home: planks, side planks, calf raises, etc. And while I didn't take as long as I do at the gym, where I'm going from spot to spot and/or putting things away, I still managed to get a decent burn. I'm not sore today though, which might mean I need to make things harder on myself.

So, here's hoping for a better weigh-in this weekend. If the number doesn't move again, I'll up my calories to maintenance. The nutritionist stated the obvious in that I need less calories now that I weigh less, however, I don't think I am eating at maintenance. If 1800 calories a day is maintenance (1500 net after exercise), I greatly do not look forward to the future. Instead, I think I was eating pretty close to BMR (after exercise) for a while and my body is wondering what's going on. The first plateau was 5 months in, this one was at 4-4.5 months in. I just wish I had started steadily losing as much as I was before the first plateau. My body seemed to start the year off by saying, "ok, fun's over...we're not losing that much every week anymore. Deal with it!" I guess I just have to fight back.