Even though everyone loses weight in a different way, it is common and perfectly normal for any dieter to reach a plateau. Instead of allowing it to frustrate you, use it as an opportunity to double up your efforts and reconnect with your strategy to carry you through to the finish line. Listed below are 5 of the best ways to re-ignite the healthy weight loss process when you feel challenged. Choose the tips that work best for you or simply go for them all!
Healthy Weight Loss Plateau Breaker #1: Start Exercising
Although you can lose weight without exercise, it will always accelerate your efforts. If you are not injured or do not suffer from severe asthma, be thankful that you can get outside and move your body. Take advantage of your ability to be active because many people do not have that luxury. The more you exercise, the better you will get at it, and the less it will feel like work.
If you are already exercising, add something different to the mix to make your body working harder. Add intensity, in the form of extra weight, run faster or for a longer distance, or more duration. Going until you fail is the easiest way to ensure you're pushing hard enough. Add extra sit-ups and push-ups before you go to sleep and when you wake up. Done in the AM on an empty stomach, this can kick-start your metabolism by teaching your body to more efficiently mobilize its fat stores for energy.
Healthy Weight Loss Plateau Breaker #2: Make Healthier Eating Choices
When you are trying to lose weight, there is nothing more important than proper nutrition. Your body can perform miracles with choices like soy protein shakes, fruits and vegetables. You'll not only bust past your plateau, but you'll do it in a healthy way. Eliminate refined sugar grains (most pre-packaged snack foods) so carbohydrates can not get their way unnoticed into your diet.
Cutting back on how often you eat can have a negative impact on your diet plateau as well. Small, frequent meals are more satisfying and produce better weight-loss results than the same number of calories consumed in three large meals. Take advantage of healthy snacks like protein bars, soy nuts and fresh vegetable and fruit slices. Eating more of the right kinds of food is a much smarter plan of action to break a healthy weight loss plateau than starving yourself.
Healthy Weight Loss Plateau Breaker #3: Drink Green Tea
Whenever I want to lose 5 or 10 pounds of stubborn belly fat, I drink more green tea. Packed with more vitamins and antioxidants than any other drink, green tea is an all-natural way to give yourself energy to compliment your enthusiasm for losing weight. The best part, however, is that green tea has the amazing ability to actually speed up your metabolism! You will notice results right away with just one cup, but the more you drink it, the more you will want it!
Healthy Weight Loss Plateau Breaker #4: Keep Your Incentive Strong
The body achieves what the mind believes. If you don't believe you can make it past the hurdle of a weight loss plateau, you probably won't. You'll give up before you have a chance to even try. Focus on re-capturing the determination you felt when you first began your weight-loss program. The excitement of watching the pounds drop one by one should be the focus of your motivation. If it was something that has come and gone, like a high school reunion or a wedding, choose a new goal.
Start keeping a diet journal of everything you eat and drink. You may quickly discover that hidden carbohydrates and sugars are keeping your healthy weight-loss progress stuck at the plateau. Eliminate trigger foods or anything that you think may be contributing to your inability to lose more weight. If you are eating pretzels every day at 2pm, don't starve yourself by not eating if you are hungry at that time...just replace the pretzels with something healthier like fruit or chicken.
Healthy Weight Loss Plateau Breaker #5: Drink More Water
It is extremely important to replenish your fluids by drinking plenty of water on any weight loss program, especially if you are incorporating exercise on a daily basis. An inadequate supply of water can slow down your weight-loss, so carry a water bottle with you wherever you go throughout the day. Keeping well hydrated not only helps you burn fat efficiently, it also helps control hunger.
Follow these 5 steps and you will have a better chance of breaking your healthy weight loss plateau than if youcontinue stressing over the obstacle. Each time you sit down to eat or have a snack, take a moment to become mindful that the food you are about to eat is either taking you one step closer to your goal, or one step away. As you make this mental connection, and dedicate each serving of food or drink to your weight loss, you will naturally be inclined to enjoy the foods and drinks that pushed you past your plateau.
Bill Winch is a Personal Wellness Coach whose mission is teaching and coaching others who are struggling with getting healthy, losing weight safely and keeping it off for good. He is also a Certified Business Growth Specialist, former High School and College Business Educator and Counselor, and mentors from his home office in Rochester, NY. If you are interested in receiving his Free Report "9 Weight Loss Myths Exposed" visit his website by clicking on FREE REPORT or by calling him directly at (585) 271-3767 for a free wellness consultation.
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