As you may have read, I was a bit frustrated with my last weigh in. The scale has barely budged in the past 3 weeks and it was getting to me. Well, instead of letting the scale beat me, I've used it as motivation to ratchet up my workouts.

I've posted before about getting complacent and how that can kill your efforts. As soon as you start slacking, doing the same workout without changing it up and just being lazy, your results will suffer.

It's a lesson I thought I had learned, but apparently not.

Now there are several reasons why I think I'm not losing weight right now, from too much sugar (thanks for the comment Mike) to my workout intensity. I'm addressing each of these this week and we'll see where that gets me.

I've stopped relying on peanut butter (all natural of course) and chocolate milk as diet staples. What I used to have as a treat snack turned into a regular snack. The sandwich was just a slice of bread and two measured tablespoons of PB, to start with. Over time, I think the peanut butter got to 3 tablespoons (I stopped measuring). And the chocolate milk, that I used to be so diligent with measuring went the same route. I'd pour in what I thought was 4 tablespoons (2 servings) into 16 ounces of milk and stir. Thinking back, I was probably pouring in 3-4 servings of chocolate into the milk (it was getting REAL chocolaty).

Counting the calories for this "snack", I was probably eating 450+ calories, a good portion of that was sugar, for my last meal of the day. Based on my calorie requirements, each meal should only be about 366 calories so I was overeating by quite a bit. I was getting lazy and thinking it was OK to splurge.

And it is, when that splurge is once a week, not every night. So, lesson learned. Let's see how long that stays with me before I start thinking I've got this all figured out again.

The other area I've been getting lazy in is with my intervals. From the start of Belly Off to the end, I had gone from running at 6 MPH to running 10.5 MPH for the work portion of the intervals. I think I reached 10.5 by the last week of Belly Off. Well, I've still been doing 10.5 MPH ever since, not changing my interval workout at all during the last 3 weeks.

That's too long so to kick the intervals up a notch, I've kept the MPH at 10.5 but am now sprinting for 45 seconds. It's hard, just like it should be. I feel just like I did when I was trying to run 6.5 for a full minute, like I'm going to die. But in a good way.
My workouts have always been good. I increase my reps or weight each workout, always trying to do more (but not too much of course). It's taken a bit to figure out what weight I can really work with in each exercise. Finding just the right weight that is heavy enough to make me work, but not too heavy that I can't do the work in good form. But I think I got there this past week.

I have high hopes that two simple tweaks to my routine helps get me over the hump and into the 180s next week. Between cutting back on my PB & chocolate milk snack, and increasing my interval intensity, I think I have the formula to get back on track.

So if you've reached a plateau, really look at your routine. Evaluate everything, and be honest with yourself. Are you working as hard as you can? Are you really pushing your body? Is your diet spot on or can you improve some area? Take a good honest look at what you are doing and you will probably find there's room to crank up the intensity somewhere.