Update: I accidentally posted this without the progress stats! They’re in there now.

Here we are, on week seventeen, the week of my 8/15 milestone date!

Spoiler: I didn’t make it. But that’s okay!

Pounds lost: 34.1

% to super goal: 27%

Still doing the damn thing!

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This week I want to talk about plateaus. Well, mini-plateaus, as I guess a legitimate plateau lasts a couple of weeks.

Regardless, this is probably what I struggle with the most in this whole process.

This is a graph (go me and my chart-making skillz!) of my weight loss for August. I started the month at 218.9 and as of this morning I’m at 217.2, which means over the last two or so weeks I’ve gone down, then up, then back down again, ending up within 2 pounds of my starting weight.

You may be thinking, 2N, you crazy person, that’s not that bad! And you’d be right.

What was frustrating for me was the period between the 5th and the 14th where I was 218.6 on the 5th and 218.5 on the 14th. Nine days of hard work, only to end up in the same place I started. It was discouraging.

AND, as you can see, I didn’t meet my goal for 8/15.

So I can look at this and think, man, more than two weeks of effort down the drain. I’ll never meet my super goal. Maybe I’m just not cut out to be at a healthy weight. I can’t do this.

OR!

I can look at this and know that even plateaus end. Weight loss is not a nice smooth descent from current weight to target weight. It goes all over the place, up and down and back up and back down again, but overall, even if it takes longer than I expected, I’m still making progress.

If I just stick with my calorie budget, keep walking, keep moving, keep doing the damn thing, eventually the plateau will be over and I will continue making progress.

Here’s another thing I learned:

When this happens, if I just stick with my calorie budget, keep walking, keep moving, keep doing the damn thing, eventually the plateau will be over and I will continue making progress.

The last thing I learned is that my goal of 18 pounds every 2 months is probably a little aggressive. When you break it down, it is just over 2 pounds a week, which is a little more than might be reasonable. So I think I’m going to change my goal to 18 pounds every 90 days. That works out to 1.4 pounds a week, which I think is healthier and more realistic.

So all of that means I’m still doing the damn thing, it’s just going to take a little longer.

Next Milestone Date: 11/15/2019

New Super Goal Target Date: 11/17/2020

See you next week, peeps!