Less Bread, More Veggie Juice

I’ve lost 50 lbs since I started cross-fitting and eating mostly Paleo, and suddenly I’m on a plateau.  This is a serious plateau.  It’s one of those zero-grade, perfectly flat plateaus that one might encounter in a physics problems:  “Imagine a perfectly flat plane.”  This is like all of Kansas rolled into my metabolism. This is like I’m on Family Feud and the topic is, “Top 100 people surveyed, Things That Are Flat,” and the Number One Answer is “My Weight Loss.”  * & **

jen before and after picsSee? I want to keep going! I want another, better “after” picture where I’m wearing size 12 jeans and looking all hot and stuff. (Size 12 jeans is my goal size right now.)

So I turned to friends and also to the internet for some learning and inspiration.  Because surely there has been at LEAST ONE PERSON IN THE HISTORY OF THE WORLD who has hit a weight loss plateau and somehow overcome it, right?

As it turns out, I am not alone! Here are the most common suggestions I found after examining many sites devoted to weight loss and getting past plateaus:

1.  Keep an accurate food journal and count calories for a while; you’re probably overeating for your new lower weight which now requires less energy to maintain.  You may also be having little “cheats” here and there which all add up.

2.  Seriously, track your food in a journal and see what you’re really eating these days. Tweak as necessary.  Are you having too many carbs? Not enough carbs?  Too much fat? Not enough fat?

3.  Mix up your workouts to boost your body into burning fat and calories in new ways. For example, focus more on cardio “fat burning” style workouts and less on heavy weights – do more reps with lighter weights when you incorporate weights into your routine.

4.  Make sure you’re getting enough water, sleep, and stress relief.

5.  Try intermittent fasting.

6.  Maybe you’re eating too few calories – again, the food journal can help.

7.  Maybe you’re not exercising enough.

8.  Maybe you’re exercising too much (this can overtax the body, increase cortisol, and actually make it harder to lose fat.)

9.  If all else fails, get your hormone levels checked.

After I wrote this down, I though: This is definitely a nice laundry list,  and I deserve extra points for the fact that there are several OPPOSING ideas on there! Too many carbs? Maybe too few carbs? Too much exercise? No..too little exercise!  Figuring it all out could be the experiment from hell!

But I decided to go through the list and determine which of these things would be the right place for ME to start, based on my own health and activity levels.  And here’s my current plan of action:

  • Keep an accurate food journal to determine what I’m eating – my problem would be too many calories rather than too few, too many carbs and the wrong kind of carbs, and possibly too much fat. I’ll watch those things carefully.
  • Be sure to drink enough water every day.
  • Keep getting enough sleep.
  • Get to the gym 3x/week, but not more (I need the rest days for sure!)
  • Try to attend more fat-burner classes and focus on less weight/more reps.
  • Do walks or bike rides with my daughter to the park every night.
  • Have less coffee, more cinnamon tea & jamaica tea.
  • Stop having all the “cheats” I’ve been sneaking in (yes, guilty here) – Girl Scout cookies, pizza, energy bars with gluten, slices of bread with butter, extra spoonfuls of Maple Almond Butter, French Fries, etc.
  • No intermittent fasting, but I’ll add in more green juices (I’ve been slacking off on them lately)

Writing it down like that makes me realize that my plateau may be coming mostly from the unhealthy snacks that keep making it into my diet lately.  For several months I was VERY strict; I’d take cucumbers with me to pizza places and I would not eat a single chip if a bag of them made it into my house.  But lately I’ve been slacking, having mouthfuls of junk here and there, and it’s adding up.  I need to start being more strict about Paleo, and keep my cheats to one cheat meal here and there, not a continuous stream of cheating every day.

One of my favorite quotes about the food journal comes from Jillian Michaels, who says on her blog, ” Truth be told, I mostly think of plateaus as a myth. My philosophy on weight-loss plateaus is that someone claiming to have hit one isn’t paying enough attention to detail. When you first start a diet and fitness program, you make drastic changes — maybe you gave up soda, started counting points, whatever — your body responded to that and you lost weight fast. To continue to lose weight, you’ll need to create a consistent calorie deficit, which means you’ll need to start paying attention to what really matters — how many calories you’re consuming and how many you’re burning. The only way to track this accurately is to count calories at every single meal.”

I don’t want to count calories forever, but it helped me at the start of my weight loss journey by opening my eyes to how MUCH I was eating.  Once I got into the swing of Paleo, I found that I could eat almost whatever and as much as I felt hungry for, as long as it was Paleo, and still lose weight. I hope that will still be true if I get back to strict Paleo eating!  But for a while I’ll track my food and calorie count to stay honest to myself about what I’m putting into my mouth.

I don’t know about you, but the “get enough rest” really resonates with me. There are people I know who can and do work out daily, completing hard workouts! — but I can’t. Three days of cross-fit a week is right for my body at this point.  Maybe a year from now I’ll be doing 4-5 workouts a week, and that would be great, but right now I need to listen to my body.  Although I push hard during each workout to be stronger, faster and lift more,  I don’t want to push past my body’s recovery limits.

And although I love lifting heavy (because it’s something I’m starting to be good at!), I’m taking seriously the suggestion about incorporating more fat-burning style workouts into my exercise line-up.  I hope that will increase my stamina as well as helping me to burn more fat. (Live in the Phoenix area and want to join me? My gym is called Made In Crossfit.)

Here are a few of the websites that I found especially useful when investigating plateaus and how to overcome them:

Marks’ Daily Apple – Advice on Weight Loss Plateaus

More from Marks’ Daily Apple on Losing Weight

Overcoming Weight Loss On Paleo from PaleoPlan

Crossfit Fire’s ideas – AWESOME Graph of “badass-ness vs. effort”!

PaleoNoPaleo’s article on Tara Grant:

If you have suggestions on what worked to help YOU get through a plateau when you were already eating mostly Paleo or gluten-free, and already exercising regularly, I’d love to hear them!  We can all learn from each other, hopefully.  Best of luck to you, wherever you are on your path to health and fitness!

more less web

Footnotes: * Other answers might be “that soda that sat on the counter for a few days before you got around to throwing it out,”  “the Earth, prior to Pythagoras,” and “not the surface of water in a glass pipette, because it forms a meniscus.”

** Did you ever watch the REALLY old Family Feud shows at your Grandma’s house on her grainy reception TV, fascinated and horrified by how Richard Dawson kissed ALL THE LADIES in such a gross, lecherous way?

PaleOverloaded – “You Can’t Eat The WHOLE Chicken”

I’m grudgingly coming to the realization that just because something is “Paleo”, I don’t necessarily get to eat as much of it as I want. Portion sizes (Newsflash!) still annoyingly matter on the Paleo eating plan.

Paleo Veggie-stuffed Omelette

Paleo Veggie-stuffed Omelette

Bacon is OK, but 27 slices? No.  Stir-fried shrimp and veggies? Sure! But a 5-gallon bucket of it? Not so much.

This bites, and I’m not using the word “bite” just because I’m hungry.  Sometimes you hear a Paleo person blithely say, “You can have as much as you want!” but I promise, they are talking about something like raw, dressing-free kale. They’re not discussing pork-stuffed peppers, or turkey-stuffed portobello mushrooms, or salmon and mango salsa.

Why do I bring up these delicious-sounding foods, you ask? Well, I recently got into Paleo eating and bought a few Paleo cookbooks, two of which have the most drool-worthy recipes imaginable. And I went a little crazy and cooked ALL OF THEM (well: many of them, anyway), depleting the grocery budget and my energy stores, yet — due to my aversion to portion control — not depleting significant amounts of stored fat in my buttish region.

Shrimp Pad Thai with Zucchini Noodles

Shrimp Pad Thai with Zucchini Noodles – From Primal Cravings by Megan & Brandon Keatley

I’m joking a bit here — obviously I KNOW that calories in are still calories in, whether they come from meat or veggies or donuts.  You don’t lose weight unless you burn more than you take in — I get it.

When they say “have a handful of almonds as a snack”, they mean – I suppose – the amount that fits into MY hand, not the amount that fits into my handbag. And a palm-sized portion of meat means MY palm -  not, like, the dinner-plate-sized cross-section of a palm tree trunk.

It’s just that some of these foods are so TASTY, you know?

On a more serious note, I really am trying to clean up our diet at my house in a mostly Paleo/Primal way. I’m buying tons of fresh fruits and veggies (organic where possible, mostly for the dirty dozen); grass-fed organic meats and butter, unsalted nuts, and almond butter.  I’m personally avoiding gluten and all grains except for oats, minimizing my dairy, and completely avoiding peanuts and all kinds of sugar.  Already I feel clearer-headed and more energetic, and I’m optimistic that combined with my cross-fit workouts, eventually the healthier eating will help me lose weight too.  Of course we’re not eating strictly Paleo — I’m allowing oats, a bit of dairy here and there, and “cheat” days. But we’re really emphasizing the reduction of grains and sugar, and I know it’s going to be good for all of us.

It’s not necessarily easy to get my daughter to eat Paleo, but cooking delicious things helps. Plain chicken breasts and broccoli? BORING.  But she likes salmon! And the adobo pork! And the zucchini “fries”!  And the lettuce wraps!   Even if it takes a while to wean her off her high-carb diet into more fruits and veggies, it’s worth it.

I’ve also started having her look through the Paleo cookbooks with me and pick out things she wants to try.  Of course she picked the hazelnut-coffee pancakes and the gluten-free brownies, but I gladly made them with her. I want to show her that we can make tasty, gluten-free treats too.

Gluten Free Brownies

Brownies – from Primal Cravings by Megan & Brandon Keatley

 

Hazelnut Coffee Pancakes (I used decaf!)

Hazelnut Coffee Pancakes (I used decaf!) – from Primal Cravings by Megan & Brandon Keatley

And she was excited to see the pictures of the moo-shoo wraps in the cookbook Primal Cravings  and then have them materialize in our very own kitchen.  I think that getting her involved in the selection and cooking makes her more liable to try the new foods AND to believe she’ll like them!

moo shoo 2 web

Moo Shoo Cabbage Cups – From Primal Cravings by Megan and Brandon Keatley

moo shoo cabbage roll webI’ve also a firm believer in preparing ahead.  If all I have is frozen meat and raw veggies, there is no way I can whip up a quick dinner when we’re all starving.  I’ve started pre-slicing veggies and fruits for easy snacking access, and preparing meals that will last for 2 dinners, or at least dinner and the next day’s lunch. That way there is always something healthy to eat so we’re less tempted to order out or eat something junky that’s still in the cupboard.  And I’ve started doing weekly meal planning so I ensure that everything I need for various recipes is on hand in my kitchen.

Adobo Pork

I’m also trying to talk to my daughter about food, explaining why I think certain veggies and fruits are so good for her, and why certain other things (like chips and cookies) are not. I’m not making these things off-limits by any means, but by having more healthy snacks around I hope to change all of our eating for the better.

Chicken and Apple Salad with Cherry Tomatoes

Chicken and Apple Salad with Cherry Tomatoes

So the plan for now is — even if I back off the full throttle cooking machine — to continue making healthy, delicious mostly-Paleo dinners and breakfasts for my family.  We won’t be 100% perfect, but we’ll hit for that magical 80% and hopefully improve our health!

 

Portobello Mushroom Stuffed with Lean Turkey/Veggie Mixture

Portobello Mushroom Stuffed with Lean Turkey/Veggie Mixture (and some Provolone Cheese – don’t hate me!)

If you’re interested, some of these recipes come from these two Paleo cookbooks that I bought on Amazon (brownies, stuffed peppers, pad thai, adobo pork, moo shoo wraps).  Now they’re not compensating me in any way for touting their books, although if someone called me up and was all,  “Hey! I see you wrote about our cookbook in a positive way! Do you want lots of money?” I’d be “Sure!”  ( It hasn’t happened YET, but I can still dream. Yes?)

Paleo Cookbooks that I LOVE:

Primal Cravings: Your favorite foods made Paleo by Brandon and Megan Keatley

Paleo Comfort Foods: Homestyle Cooking for a Gluten-Free Kitchen by Julie and Charles Mayfield

If you get these cookbooks, I think you’ll enjoy the recipes as much as I do. They’re easy to prepare and SO delicious. You won’t miss the gluten or dairy (although sometimes I put a bit of cheese on top of things – I don’t mind a bit of dairy here and there.)

And one more tip: If you’re planning to photograph your Paleo meals, don’t call your family to the table and THEN say, “Oh wait just a minute! I forgot I  have to take a picture of this!” and then spend 15 minutes arranging and shooting, while they sit there, shooting you more and more unhappy looks and banging on the table with their spoons, and eventually gnawing on their napkins in hunger. It does not make for a pleasant meal time.

But wherever you get your recipes, from books or from your own imagination, and whether or not you photograph your food,  I  hope you too are enjoying healthy, delicious meals! Be well.