May 19, 2009

Breaking the plateau

I haven’t weighed myself daily lately, but when I have weighed myself, I’ve been very pleased with the results. Last year, when I was calorie counting pretty strictly, there was a certain weight that I just couldn’t dip below no matter how hard I tried. I could eat as healthy as possible and exercise as hard as possible (in the month of September, I did three marathons and a half marathon!) but the scale would just not budge below that weight… even if I was still carrying an extra pound or two. But recently, for no apparent reason, I’ve been able to get a pound or two under that. And this morning, I hit what I’ve long considered to be my goal weight, which is 5 pounds below that plateau point, 15 pounds below what I weighed when I was traveling for consulting, and a weight that I haven’t seen since my freshman year of college!

On the plus side, I have no idea how this happened. I haven’t been working out that much, I’ve been indulging in tasty-but-bad-for-me treats a few times a week… and yet I’m dropping weight like never before. I’m thinking it’s some combination of sleeping more and being less stressed? I wish I could figure out exactly the reason why, because I’m worried that once it stops, I’ll have no idea how to replicate my success. At the same time, as long as I’m losing, I can’t really complain!

On the minus side, while I can see that I’m looking much trimmer than before, I still think I could drop a few more pounds. That kind of surprises me – I thought that reaching this particular number on the scale would be more than enough weight to have the exact body I want, but I still think I could look a bit better. It scares me a bit, because with my obsessive perfectionist personality and past problems with weight (as a young dancer, I was told that I didn’t have the right body type and would need to quit – pretty harsh for a size 2 teen) I’m always worried about the potential for me to develop an eating disorder. Even though I sounded crazy for asking, I verified with Boyfriend and my roommate that it would be safe for me to continue trying to lose a few pounds, and they said I looked great but that a few more pounds would be fine.

I guess for now, I will just revel in my ability to pull things out of my closet that used to be tight and are now relaxed fit 🙂

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6 thoughts on “Breaking the plateau”

  1. Hmm, you think you might be loosing muscle instead of fat if your not working out as much? Just a thought…
    But one way to not obsess about your weight is to also not write about it. We all go through it as athletes, we are all in the same boat. But maybe you could eliminate it from your blog for a while and see if that clears up…your interesting even without the weight talk!

  2. I think it’s great that you recognize that too much weight loss can be bad, and that you’re keeping yourself in check. Enjoy those clothes you can wear again! Just in time for summer. 🙂

  3. It sounds like you’re being sensible with the whole thing. I bet sleeping more is helping a lot!

    I think I used to put too much thought into a certain number re: weight, but now I just judge by how my clothes fit and how I feel. I don’t even know the last time I checked my weight – haha!

  4. I have read several things about more sleep and less stress helping keep weight down. I bet it’s that. I, too, focus more on how clothes fit/feel and how I’m working out than the exact number on the scale. So enjoy your loose clothing!!

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