It’s bound to happen, you’re working out, watching food intake, making progress but then POW, the scale get’s stuck. The not so nice “weight loss plateau” has hit again. What are you going to do?

It’s easy to get frustrated and throw in the towel. Not so fast! You have to remember that a plateau here and there is normal. You have to take the focus off the scale and focus on what you’re doing. Here are a few things to get those pounds moving again:

1. Switch up your exercise routine.

After doing the same routine for several weeks, your body gets bored (and accustomed to the same intensity). If you mix things up, challenge yourself a little, you’ll get things moving again.

*if you’re at the gym, do a different machine or try a new class
*Add weights to your cardio routine. ChaLEAN Extreme and RevAbs have some great ways to do this
*Add intervals (really push yourself hard for a minute or so and then scale back. One thing I love about Beachbody workouts is that these intervals are built in and I just have to follow along.

2. Switch up your calories.

You’ve always heard, you’ve got to eat less to lose more, but this isn’t always the case. According to Beachbody Director of Results, Steve Edwards, “zig-zagging” calories can make a difference: If your average daily intake is 1,400 calories, try dropping to 1,200 one day, going up to 1,800 the next day, and then dropping back to 1,400. The idea is to keep your metabolism guessing. There’s no magic number that works for everyone, so you’ll have to experiment until you find the right calorie levels for you.

3. Switch up your snacks: try almonds.

Almonds are a great snack, plus there’s some research that indicates that they can help you burn fat. A study published in the International Journal of Obesity compared two groups of people who ate a 1,000-calorie-a-day diet. As part of their daily diet, one group ate 3 ounces of almonds every day. The other group ate a mix of complex carbs. What happened? The group that ate the almonds lost more weight. So grab some nuts instead of crackers or pretzels.

4. Get more sleep.

According to experts, an over-trained body holds on to weight as if it were starving to death. There’s no better way to test this than to try and sleep more. The reason is that your body recovers much more quickly from exercise while it’s asleep, and if you’re burning the midnight oil while trying to do a high intensity workout, you could easily plateau from lack of recovery time.

5. Relax.
Believe it or not, the one big thing besides diet and exercise that can cause you to plateau is stress. One of the best ways to combat stress is to get some alone time to zone out. Try breathing exercises, stretching, meditation or yoga. Find something to do to turn your mind off.

Making a few adjustments in your routine will keep those pounds melting away. Remember, this is a commitment you’ve made; stick with it during the highs and lows and you’ll see results. If you need some help, call me and we can visit.

Christie Ryan
785-827-3131
www.christiesryan.com