Plateau, schmateau

Before we get to the meat of today's post, check out this E. coli outbreak map. [In case you've been building a space station this past week, bagged spinach has been pulled from every grocery shelf in the country, due to E. coli contamination.] Over there toward the east, you'll notice the state of West Virginia, an island of white surrounded by Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Either no one in West Virginia eats spinach, or we're immune to the E. coli bacteria.

I am going to miss spinach, and that's a fact. Now for the real post.

I used to follow the Weight Watcher program; for reasons I've previously discussed here and here, I decided it wasn't for me. I recall from reading some of their online information, however, that a plateau was defined as six weeks of staying the same, despite continued healthful eating and intentional activity. I'm two-thirds of the way there! Yeah, me!

Not.

The Shrinking Knitter is a no-whine zone; I've been edging into that nasty territory for the past couple of days, so we're putting an end to it right now.

Googling the search term 'weight loss plateau' doesn't give you a definition, but does offer plenty of solutions, most of which involve – you guessed it – strength training.

[I did find one definition:

Weight Loss Plateau: A demon in disguise that may torture the dieter into diving into the sea of Diet Failure.

Other terms are cleverly defined here.]

The only way I can safely swim is with a life jacket, so I doubt you'll see me diving anywhere any time soon. Especially into the sea of diet failure. I've lost 43 pounds so far this year! Does that sound like failure to you?

Vickie suggested visiting Jonathan's blog post of June 7, 2006. Well, lo and behold, I did that this morning, and found that I'd also left a comment when I read it the first time! My, my, my, I certainly was in a better place then than I am now.

I said then that it was easier for me to increase activity than to decrease calories. Three months ago that was true. The trick is to make it true again today. And tomorrow. And the rest of this year. Because I think that's going to be my life jacket.

Anticipating yet another week of staying the same, I started stepping it up yesterday. Twenty solid minutes with the weights. Thirty – 30! – minutes on the rower, at 36 strokes per minute. An hour and 15 minutes walking outside. After which I employed a lawn mower, a weed whacker and a broom for about three hours, in an attempt to beautify the lawn field we live in, as well as the sidewalk and garage.

Today – and tomorrow, and next month and the rest of the year – must be more of the same. No excuses for traveling, restaurant eating, parties or holidays. What Jonathan said on June 7 – that our desire to stay the same is equal to our desire to change – may have been true for me last month [although I wouldn't have acknowledged it], but it's not true today.

Who's with me?