The Five Stages of Plateaus
Wednesday, January 12, 2022
If I’m not seeing the progress I want to see, should I consider that a failure? A setback? Or just more motivation to keep at it?
I hate falling into the traps of catchphrases and buzzwords that go along with weight loss programs. I don’t like feeling that I’ve bought into the hype or that I’m drinking the Kook-Aid, as it were. But here’s the thing: there are certain words and phrases that are there for a reason.
One of those is “plateau.”
A plateau is when you hit a certain level in your weight loss journey where things seem to stop, and you can’t really get past it. In short, a plateau is stagnation. And stagnation is bad. Stagnant water breeds disease and death, just like stagnation in life. So, my job is to break through plateaus and stop the stagnation from happening. I think there are going to be several stages to dealing with this plateau situation, similar to dealing with a large loss, like the five stages of grief (or maybe the six stages if you believe Carrie in HBO’s new Sex and the City continuation And Just Like That….)
Denial
At first, I didn’t believe it was happening. For the first week or two that my weight fluctuated within a pound or two at this same level, I just assumed there was a temporary stall, it was part of my hormonal cycle, or that there was something else happening in my life to make things odd on the scale that day. After all, I was weighing in only once a week, so clearly, I wasn’t getting a super clear picture of what I was dealing with. I couldn’t possibly be really stuck here, right? It was just such an odd place to be stuck. I’d been trucking along, losing a pound or two a week consistently for several months, so this was just a blip on the radar, and I didn’t worry about it too much. Why worry overmuch about a thing that, after all, isn’t really real, right?
Anger
After I remained here for another couple of weeks, I started to get angry. I was mad that I was doing everything I could and that nothing seemed to be working. I was mad at myself, my body, my program, my genes, the world at large. I felt like I couldn’t do more. I fell out of touch with my coach, often literally rolling my eyes when she would text me. I didn’t respond well when my husband asked me how it was going. I was just so mad. I don’t think I even wanted to admit it to myself at that time. I didn’t want to admit that I could be so pissed off because I wanted to be successful still. This was also during the time that my world got busy, my home situation was in flux, and I stopped posting here as much. I just sort of shut down and checked out of everything but the most basic functions to do with my health. I ate little, and I took meds (most days), and I stewed in my own juices.
Bargaining
And then I began to notice some other things. Side effects, I told myself. I mean, they really were, but still. I shifted my anger and blame to the medication not doing what it should be. I decided it wasn’t working as it had originally and spoke with the doctors to request something new. This was not a here one day, gone the next kind of change, though. This was a gradual weaning off of one and onto another, so staying at this level for several weeks was okay, in my mind, because I was making some important other underlying changes. My hair had gotten thinner and started to lose volume and shine, but on the new meds, it’s bouncing back. On the new meds, I feel better, in general, each day. So, those several weeks that I languished at the same weight shouldn’t really bother me. I have also been making other changes in my routine that have worked to change my shape and my health levels in other ways, like adding in more physical activity and more routine self-care. I have done leg lifts and lifted weights. I’ve always heard that “muscle weighs more than fat,” so I should be happy that I haven’t gained anything with all of my new habits, right? I think this is where I am on this journey right now, today. You know, Weigh-in Wednesday. The day when I still, for the past ten weeks, am within a hair’s breadth of smashing through the 40-pounds-lost barrier, but have yet to do so…. Aaaaargh!!!!!
Depression
So, I guess, if all holds true to form, I should expect this next, right? I should just go into a deep depression and give up on all the progress I’ve made? I really don’t want that to be me. Am I sad that I’m still here? That I’m still not past 40 pounds down after all this time and effort? Yes. Of course I am. But I can’t be sad enough at that that I stop, that I let it consume e or constrain me or end what progress I have made. I have to keep this going. I have come too far to go back to that sad sack fat bitch I used to be. I do feel better. I am better able to do things, physical things, each and every day. That has to count for something. I have to be able to make that count for something. This hasn’t been a worthless endeavor, and if I give into depression because of perceived failure, then I treat it as though it were worthless, and I can’t allow that to happen.
Acceptance
Therefore, I suppose, I just need to accept this reality. This is where I am, right now, today. I am still not 40 pounds down from where I started. So what? Big whoop. I am down. A lot. Like, apparently visibly. I was sort of beginning to wonder, as very few people have mentioned that they could tell, that they’ve seen a visible change, but one of my co-workers told me yesterday that I look like a different person. That was quite gratifying because sometimes, since I see myself every day, it is just so hard to tell. The fact that I’m still wearing the same clothes I wore 40 pounds ago is not helping me, either. But I have to remember that they used to be super tight and uncomfortable, and now they’re loose and have to be constantly adjusted to stay on. That’s not nothing. I know I need to just face where I’m at and keep going. I know I need to just keep pushing forward and keep going and keep trying, and that I can and will break this plateau.
Stalking
This is the stage of grief added by Carrie on And Just Like That…. This is the part where, after you lose someone, you begin to go through their life with a fine-toothed comb and discover things you never knew about them when they still walked the earth. I imagine that this stage of plateau-breaking for me will be more of a deep-dive on the internet, and it will be more interspersed amongst the other stages now and ongoing. My coach already sent me some information on busting through this barrier, but to be honest, I gave it a cursory (at best) glance. I need to start by digging up that email and reading it carefully, then doing some more research to see what I can do to help me get through this (now, and then in the future if it ever happens again). This is knowledge I should have anyway, right?
So, here’s to the future. Here’s to looking forward and not back. Here’s to making positive choices and deciding each day to keep up the good and do away with the bad. I can do this. I don’t really need to mourn anything. I’ve got this! I will find a plateau-buster, and I will enact it, and I will move on. They say the only way out is through, so here I go….