Busting Through A Plateau

What do we need to do to bust through a plateau?  If you ask... There's tons of suggestions that people will offer.

The Month of March felt like a total wash for me.  I was so excited to be close to losing that 80 lbs, but could not reach it.  In the month of March I lost a total of 1.4 lbs... in February I lost 7.2 - quite a bit of difference.  Very disconcerting because just a month ago (March) I started training for a 5k.  You'd think that shaking it up a bit would work.

So I'm going to share with you some of the tips I received to deal with my plateau:

• Are you getting enough protein?
• Eat beef, it fills you up faster and sticks with you.
• Exercise less (if that's what is making you more hungry)
• Do you eat enough before working out or do you wait until after?
• Before Work Out:  Try 150 -200 Calories of Carbs a half hour before
• After Work Out:  24-26 grams of protein within an hour
• Spread out meals into smaller but more frequent meals.
• If working out hard - examples of things to eat
• Breakfast:  oatmeal and egg whites on the side
• Snack:  egg whites and spinach with salsa OR PB2 with rice cakes
• Lunch:  3 oz lean meat, complex carb (brown rice or sweet potato) and a green veggie
• Protein Powder mixed with water or milk for after work outs and then a piece of fruit too
• Protein Ideas:  individual packets of tuna, chicken breast, turkey burger, turkey breast (not lunch meat)
• I found an article here on plateaus and how to deal with them... it's pretty decent and bumps up against some of the suggestions above:  http://www.care2.com/greenliving/6-steps-to-get-over-your-weight-loss-plateau.html

These were all ideas sent to me because I had posted to my Weight Watcher group that I increased my work outs and all i'm getting is more hungry and not losing any weight.  So I did try and incorporate the eating before and after my work out - but not sure I'm getting the right stuff in.  I am eating more often - getting in more healthy snacks such as fruit and yogurt.  Incorporated the chia seeds back into my yogurt - needing that healthy fat additive.

I think I need to increase my healthy fats a bit too.  I also need to be better at meal planning... I did ok this week, but March was iffy.  We did a lot of on the fly eating (where it was fend for yourself)... and although the meals were within my points they were not always the most filling - therefore I was left feeling hungry in the evening and then eating!

I did do better this week (as I said)... I lost 1.6 lbs... which is not enough to hit my 80 lb mark!  Still pretty good for a holiday weekend and a dinner out one night as well.  Also, If you look at my last two weeks combined I've lost 2.4 lbs (more than March's total)... so that's not too shabby.  Glad I did the math because I was truly pissed today that I didn't hit my 80!

If you have any suggestions on how to get over a plateau - please leave comments.  I'm sure we've all been in this boat many 'o times... and I still feel like I'm at the plateau!!!

I can't wait until I'm Healthfully Ever After!