For me it was a gradual slow down in my weight loss at first. I made it through the holidays just fine and managed to lose 4 pounds between Thanksgiving and Christmas...so I was pretty happy about that. When the New Year hit and everyone was making their resolutions to get healthy, I was already well on my way. I hit the 50 pound mark right after the start of 2012. That was HUGE for me because the most I have ever been able to lose on any of the other diets I've tried was 30 pounds.
In February, I was shocked to discover that I was pregnant. I used that as an excuse to get off track with my program quite a bit, but actually didn't gain any weight. Unfortunately, the pregnancy ended in miscarriage in early March. I was obviously devastated, but recovered emotionally much quicker than I expected I would. The physical recovery was longer and way more painful than I expected it would be. By the middle of March, I was going up and down between the 55 and 60 pound mark...and that is where I have been stuck! I gain five, lose five....the same five over and over and it's frustrating and discouraging...but I am determined and refuse to be defeated!
At the beginning of April, I decided to get more serious about keeping track of my food intake to hopefully break the plateau. I started using a calorie tracker on my phone. I stuck within my calories for the most part for a whole month (minus a couple of "cheat" days). After a month of using the program I was down a whopping 1.2 pounds. Plus, I was hungry the whole time! Obviously, something wasn't right.
The best part about Herbalife is the support system. Everyone who starts a program has a personal wellness coach. Their job is to help you get started and to support you in any way that you need. My coach is amazing...she is always very encouraging and pushes me when I need to be pushed. However, coaches are not mind readers! :) Sometimes I forget that all I have to do is ask for a little help! I spend quite a bit of time with my coach since we work at the Nutrition Club together. She noticed that something was off with me and called me out...so I told her about how I was struggling. We went through my numbers, and while I was sticking within my calorie range, I wasn't getting near enough protein. So, she took my weight and measurements then wrote out a plan for me to get the protein that I need. For my body composition, I need to consume about 125 grams of protein a day.
Protein is a HUGE component in weight loss because first of all it keeps you satisfied, but it also provides fuel for your body. I was eating a lot of calories, but they were packed with empty nutrition and not the things my body needs. Most fad diets concentrate on getting pounds off as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, the pounds you take off are usually water and muscle which increases your body fat percentage and decreases your lean body mass. Because Herbalife focuses on nutrition, we learn to feed our bodies the things that it needs and weight loss is almost like a side effect of that. Its a difficult thing for a lot of people to do (including myself) but we need to learn to stop focusing so much on the number on the scale and more on the important numbers like body fat percentage, lean body mass, and resting metabolic rate. The truth is, we often lose inches before we lose pounds. (I even managed to lose another pants size in the midst of my plateau) We keep a close eye on our important numbers through a scan machine that we use which I love because even when I'm not losing pounds, I can keep track of whether or not my other numbers are improving.
So, long story short, (this post ended up being WAY longer than I planned) that was last Friday. I have been instructed to stay away from the scale for a week. I am sticking to counting my protein intake and not focusing as much on calories. On Friday of this week I will be measured and weighed and I WILL have something good to report. How do I know? Because I feel SO much better, I haven't been hungry, and I am having a positive attitude about it. So, check back and I'll report my progress for the week!
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