{PLATEAU}
to reach a state of little or no change after a time of activity or progress
When E and I started on this fitness journey, we had no idea where we would go but we knew that we would be better than we were. I remember back in 2013, I had just started fertility treatment, we were eating horrible fast foods every night (just about), and sodas were the number one in our house. I don't think we even thought about water.
I remember stepping on the scale and seeing that digital scale read "198."
At the time, I didn't think I was that bad. I kept telling myself things like, "you're taking fertility supplements you're going to gain a few pounds," "you don't look that bad," "who cares? I'm married, I'm not trying to look good for anyone but E." And while it really didn't matter if I looked good for others because E would love me no matter what, it wasn't about fitting into size six Miss Me Jeans, it was about health. I remember when E stepped on the scale in 2013 and his mouth dropped when it said "299." For about a year, we pretended it wasn't important. Always using the excuse that "we didn't need to look good," and I think a lot of people think that gaining weight is okay because we're married. The bottom line is, it's not about looking sexy for others, its about health for each other. Towards the end of 2013, I decided to stop drinking sodas. I figured it was a start and was bound to take me somewhere, I just never expected to be where I am today.
After six months of completely cutting out sodas, I managed to encourage E to stop as well. It was at this time that we started talking about the possibility of losing weight. By November 2014, after our trip to Florida, we looked at photos of ourselves and decided right then and there that we would work together to get back to our fit bodies. After all, I had always been fit from Cheerleading, Volleyball, Track, and Swimming and E was always fit from Football. December 2014 we hit the gym hard. But we didn't really make huge changes to our eating. We thought as long as we were putting the work in at the gym, that would be good enough. Granted, we did lose 10 pounds by the end of 2014 just from working out and cutting out sodas, but it wasn't good enough.
January 2015 we decided we were going to get in the gym and make huge changes to our diet. We both formulated a healthy eating plan for ourselves and went on about our business in the gym. By March 2015, we had managed to drop 25 pounds each! Still we knew we needed to push harder. We hadn't completely cut out fast food and would eat it on several occasions. So, we set out to find another way to get ourselves to cut out fast food entirely. We found several eating plans that required you to eat certain amounts of food for weeks at a time. This made a big difference in the way we started looking at food. By July 2015, we both lost a grand total of 30 pounds each. We were just pounds away from our goal but needed something to get us there. We were stuck in a plateau. E was stuck at 260-265 and I was stuck at 165-170.
At this point, we thought about looking outside for meal planning assistance. That's when we walked into My Fit Foods. That, by far, has been the best decision we ever made. In addition to eating My Fit Foods, we also started doing more than just cardio and the occasional lifting. We set out to find a new and improved/strict workout plan. We found this amazing plan on BodyBuilding.com. Was it hard? YES! But, it was rewarding.
Currently, we have been on a My Fit Foods diet for about a month and have also been using the BodyBuilding.com plan in conjunction with the diet. We do allow ourselves two "cheat" days on Saturday and Sunday but this doesn't mean go out and eat hamburgers and french fries, this means making smart decisions because we know that those hamburgers and french fries will eventually come back and haunt us.
Today, I can officially say that I have left my plateau behind me. I am now at 163! Which is a major accomplishment. Keep in mind that I was stuck at 165 for about 2 months! This morning I weighed in at 163.0. What a wonderful and overwhelming feeling to finally be less than 20 pounds away from my final goal. E and I always say we aren't done yet, we aren't where we want to be but we are so much further away from where we used to be and we are never going back.
I hope that you can find the motivation inside of you to not get fit to look good for others, but to be healthy for your loved ones. It's so important to stay healthy for each other. I couldn't imagine life without E and a lot of times I blame myself for just sitting back and allowing us to get the way we did. There are so many things that could have happened just from being overweight; heart attacks, diabetes, the list is long. No matter what you decide, just remember that you can do anything you put your mind to. Will it be easy? NO. Will working out be fun? NO. Will it be rewarding? ABSOLUTELY!
*see our workout plan here*
