Sooo… It is safe to say that I have hit a plateau…I have been hovering around 129 lbs for the past 20 days which brings my weight loss to around 6.4 lbs in the past month. It is a bit hard not to get discouraged after seeing a consistent weight loss.  After doing the detox last March, I got down to around 123/124 lbs. However, I was slightly lighter at the beginning when compared to this time around.  Moving forward, I need to record my body measurements to see how my body is changing as time passes.

It is so easy for me to focus on the negative (weight staying the same).  What am I doing wrong? Am I eating too much? Exercising too little? Is stress contributing? Not enough sleep? Is my new medication making it harder from me to drop the last 5/10 pounds?  Etc Etc. It takes effort, however, for me to focus on the positive and I have to remind myself of my accomplishments.  It truly is quite amazing how good I feel from eating this way and I rarely have cravings. Jillian Michaels has a post on breaking through weight loss plateaus which offered me some reassurance that plateaus do exist and I need to just keep on my healthy life style. Please refer to the link below.  I plan on sticking to eating this way but I will allow myself some alcohol and added sugar on occasion.  My main fear for me is that the introduction of sugar will bring back those cravings I had.  The best I can do is to remain conscious of how my body is feeling after eating certain foods.  I will keep you posted on that!

This week I also introduced working out at home for those days I do not want to trek through snow and ice to the gym.  I picked up a couple light weight dumbbells from the drug store and follow the “Sparticus” circuit based workout by watching a youtube video that takes you through each exercise. Link Below. This work out is one of my favorites because it is challenging and does not require a lot of machines or weights.  There are ten exercises you perform for 60 seconds each, 15 seconds of rest in between.  In total there are three rounds with two minutes of recovery between each round.  The entire workout takes 41 minutes.  I am working up to completing all three rounds.  So far, I can tell you that two rounds left me glutes sore for days. The ten exercises are as follows:

• 1. Goblet Squats- 60 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery
• 2. Mountain Climbers-60 seconds, 15 seconds of recover
• 3. Single Arm Dumbbell Swings-60 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery
• 4. T Pushups with Weights-60 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery
• 5. Split Jumps- 60 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery
• 6. Dumbbell Rows-60 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery
• 7. Dumbbell Side Lounges and Touch- 60 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery
• 8. Push-Up Position Row-60 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery
• 9. Dumbbell Lunge and Rotation-60 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery
• 10. Dumbbell Push Press-60 seconds, 15 seconds of recovery

This completes 1 round! Rest for 2 minutes and repeat for three rounds total

Jillian Michaels On Weight Loss Plateaus:

http://www.jillianmichaels.com/fit/lose-weight/break-through-weight-loss-plateau

Sparticus Workout: