Last week, I was prepared to post a new blog about goal setting as I was confident I was going to hit a personal weight loss goal on Saturday. However, as I stepped on the scale for my official weigh-in last Saturday, I came face-to-face with the stark reality of the inevitable and dreaded weight loss plateau less than 1 pound from my established milestone. Yes, I could round down and declare a victory but that isn't in my Virgo nature. Did I have some self doubt and question my resolve on this journey? Of course I did; that's in most people's nature; but I also knew that I had stuck with all my fitness and nutrition guidelines for the week and there didn't appear to be any underlying self-sabotage. The bottom line is that I knew this plateau was coming. I've had steady and sustained success with my weight loss over the past 5 months without much of blip, and I knew at some point my body was going to say "Wait a minute while I readjust". I don't know if its coincidence that the plateau struck right before reaching my intermediate goal weight, but considering I'll still reach that goal 7 weeks early, I'm not letting it bother me too much. I'm powering through it with the same resolve and commitment to fitness and know that I will have success without need for any major adjustments.
The other thing that was so interesting about the plateau was that it came when I had probably more NSVs (non-scale victories) than at any time in the past few months. This is in part because I had a number of meetings and get-togethers with people I hadn't seen in a few weeks or few months. I'm very thankful that many of them were kind enough to comment on my transformation. I didn't think I would ever here words like "skinny", "slim", or even "svelte" used to describe me. My personal favorite, however, was "you look 10 years younger." That's something everyone approaching fifty wants to hear. Thanks again to all of you for your kind words and support.
I have also been in desperate need of some work clothes that didn't hang loose on my body. My favorite clothing store was having a great sale so it was a good opportunity to get a new suit and blazer (and maybe give me the ego boost that the scale wasn't giving me). The first, best realization was that my jacket size had gone down enough that I restricted to the big and tall section. Every suit in the store was now available to me; no limits on fabrics and designs. The second big NSV was that the jackets and shirts that now fit me best are the "tailored fit", "slim cut", or "European cut" designs. Again, those are not words that I expect to be associated with my body type (check that: old body type). The salesperson did the obligatory piling on of superlatives but that didn't change the way the clothes fit. I can't wait to get them back from tailoring. I even bought a shirt with horizontal stripes this week!
Update: As I finish this blog at the end of the week, I have reached the weight loss goal. Is one week a plateau? I guess that's all a matter of perspective. Regardless of the length of time without progress on the scale or the original goal I had set, the most critical thing was that it was not the weight loss that defined my success in this endeavor, but how I feel about myself and my commitment to living a healthy and fit life. To that end, my next post will be focused on setting new goals that aren't weight-related.
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