Here are three must follow rules in order to break your weight loss plateau. Now, some fitness and health experts say that it’s really unnecessary to create any type of rule or restriction needlessly because people will rebel, and they’ll binge, or they’ll fall off the wagon, and go in the opposite direction. To some extent, I think that’s true, but I also know that we crave having a little bit of structure. We want rules. We want something to live by that guides our day. Think about it. There are so many things that we do because we’ve made it a rule on our head.
Today, I want to give you three that are really important for you to follow. Now, if you are on a health and fitness journey, you know that 80% of the result that you want to get for your body comes not from your exercise but from what you eat, when you eat it, and how much you’re eating. Your nutrition is 80% of it, so if you’re really serious, keep listening. I want to give you three rules that if you’ll follow them, I promise you will break your weight loss plateau.
Number one is to stop eating three hours before you go to bed, so set a time three hours before you go to sleep at which you will no longer be consuming food. I promise you’re not going to die of starvation. Create a sign that says, “The kitchen is close at 7:00 pm or 8:00 pm,” or whatever time is three hours before you go to sleep. Get everybody in your house to know that you need their help to keep you accountable. That’s really important because one of the number one reasons why most people eat at night is because everybody else is. There’s food around, and we’ve made food the centerpiece of our conversation, watching TV and unwinding, but if you get everybody in the household into this one very important habit, not only will you improve the health and fitness of everyone in your house, but you too will have greater success because everybody is there to help and support you.
Rule number two, plan your meals the day before. In order to do that, you need to know how many calories you can consume tomorrow in order to create a deficit of at least 500 calories up to 1000 calories. Now, if you create a daily deficit of 500 calories per day, you’re going to lose a minimum of a pound per week. If you create a deficit of 1000 calories per day, you will lose a minimum of two pounds per week. Now the only way to create that deficit is to know truly how many calories you burn. There are a bazillion websites that will help you calculate that number, but they are an estimate. I can enter my height, my weight, that I’m a female, how much I exercise… a few more other details, and it will give me an estimate of how many calories I’m burning per day, but remember it’s an estimate
Let’s just say hypothetically speaking that you burn 2000 calories per day, so in order to create a 500 deficit, you can only consumer 1500. To plan my meals in advance, I start by saying, “This is what I want to have for breakfast. I have these ingredients on hand. I know this is what I’m going to consume for breakfast. I know that that’s going to be 300 calories. This is what I’m going to consume at 10:00 am. I know that’s 150 calories. This is what I’m going to consume for lunch. I know that’s 400 calories.” You just go throughout your day. You list everything that you’re going to eat, how many calories it is, what time you’re going to eat it. Then you stop at your 1500-calorie mark.
Rule number three, write everything down. Hey! Guess what? Great news! Rule number two kind of takes care of rule number three, doesn’t it? Yes it does, but I want you to write down every little thing that wasn’t on your list; maybe you gabbed a handful of pretzels, or you drank an extra Gatorade, or you had a glass of wine that you hadn’t intended to. You’re going to write down every possible thing that goes in your mouth. Anything that you consume, you’re going to write it down. Now, the easiest way for you to this in my opinion is on your phone. It’s with you all the time. You don’t have to pull in great detail.
You don’t even have to open up an app even though there are fantastic ones out there, but if taking those extra steps is what’s prohibiting you from doing it every day, create your own system. Just write down the numbers. Just get it done so that you know approximately … I shouldn’t say approximately, exactly how many calories you’re consuming, what you’re eating, when you’re eating, and why you’re eating it because this gives you some great insights to why and when you’re eating. Those emotional triggers, eating because you’re bored, eating because it’s a habit, eating because everyone else is eating, are not a part of your plan, but are a part of life. So if you have a bad day, don’t worry about it. We’re all human and we can’t be perfect all of the time. But make sure you right it down. Don’t avoid the reality of the situation, be honest with yourself and say “it’s okay, I KNOW I will be better tomorrow! This one slip up doesn’t define my entire journey.”
These are three simple rules that can pull you out of that plateau. You can do it! I know you can break through this plateau!!! I mean, if you set your mind and you commit to this, you can and you will do it. You can do anything, anything you set your mind to, and then create a plan.
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