Plateau

   "For forty years I (Moses) led you through the wilderness, yet your clothes and sandals did not wear out. You ate no bread and drank no wine or other alcoholic drink, but He provided for you so you would know that He is the Lord your God." Deuteronomy 29:5

  For four days my weight was exactly the same. Gina had warned us about plateaus. It's one thing to know about something but it sure changes your understanding when you actually experience it!

  It stirred up a whack of unpleasant emotions even though I know plateaus are an integral part of weight loss. That's when the body is adjusting to significant weight change. It needs time to reconfigure hormones, heart size, blood flow, and a whack of other body functions. It needs time to adjust for there being less of a body to keep functioning at an optimal level.

  I know this is why they happen!

  By the third day the toxic inner critic was clamoring to be heard. It took great joy in beating me up about the scale not moving. It accused me of not getting the program right, not doing enough, yada yada yada...It's all a bunch of hooey but, still, the inner voice had some teeth.

  I think back to the people I've known who have dieted for years; how they complain about the scale not moving as fast as they would like. I've heard people say day in and day out, "If only I could loose that two pounds or five pounds..."

  Their voices are what the inner critic sounded like.

  "You're fat and you're going to stay fat!"

  I know this is a complete and utter lie coming from the father of lies. But here's the thing, stress can cause weight gain or a weight plateau. If the father of lies can keep us stressing about it, we are fighting an uphill battle. 

  I brushed the lies off, knowing they were utterly irrelevant to being on a plateau because Gina has explained time and again why they have to happen. 

  he came at me with the big guns..."You are a failure! Your life has been nothing but failure! What makes you think this stupid diet will succeed?" (FYI, I refuse to capitalize the devil's name or pronouns even when they come at the start of a sentence.)

  Nevertheless, "Ouch!" his words hurt.

  So today, after a 2.8 lb. loss over the last three days, I have truth to bind and silence the enemy of my soul. My body needed the four days of stability. It was ramping up to shed the fat it doesn't want either. That's the other part of a plateau...house cleaning! 

  This growing partnership with my body is an amazing thing. The body I've hated, insulted, abused, refused to look at, and neglected is responding to the love and care I am giving it. Love does that, you know, brings out the best in everything and everyone.

  The four day plateau also happened during a few days of not sleeping very well which also creates stress which also can contribute to the scale not moving. I've discovered I need more sleep to feel healthy. Eight and a half to nine hours has me functioning at an optimal level. I needn't feel guilty or lazy for spending that much time in bed. My body needs me to give it the time to do what it needs to do.

  I came across this quote the other day, "Self care is giving the world the best of you instead of what's left of you." Katie Reed

  I want to give the world my best. I want to be able to serve the Lord at my best. I want the body He designed to be running at optimum levels for as long as possible. 

  As for the devil's words? I hate to break the news but he's already lost.

  There will be other plateaus because the goal is to lose a significant amount of weight no matter how long it might take. Even though the scale is being used as a barometer of what that might be, it's also being used as a tool to understand my body's needs and how it works.

  The program is worth sticking to until my body is happy with where it is at. There will be an ongoing and positive inner dialogue throughout the process. I will listen to it and continually assess if my goal weight is really where I need to be.

  As for those Body Mass Indicator graphs? They are a cruel weapon that only take into account age, height and weight. There's no room for skeletal size or muscle mass or fitness level. It slams the gavel down on an arbitrary number based on three points of our fearfully and wonderfully made bodies.

  My end weight will be based on what my body says, not on some standardized weight requirement mandated by someone who created the cruelest, shame building, condemning "ideal" ever.