How frustrating is it when your progress has just stopped? You haven’t seen any weight or fat loss in weeks or months. What do you do to charge it up again? Well, there are a few ways you can do that I am going to share with you.
- Increase the intensity of your workouts
- Increase the duration of your workouts
- Reevaluate your eating plan
So, how exactly do you do this? Let’s break it down:
Increase the intensity of your workouts – you can increase the intensity of your workouts in a few ways. You can do this by either increasing your speed, the amount of weight, or your range of motion.
- Increasing speed – Increase speed throughout your entire workout or in intervals throughout your workout.If you are increasing your speed for the entire duration of your workout, then just pick up the pace from what you normally do. For example, If you use the treadmill and normally walk or jog at a pace of 3.5, then increase that pace to a 4.0 allowing your body to work a bit harder than its used to.If you are increasing the speed of your workout in intervals, pick up the pace for a certain amount of designated time or reps and then go back to your normal pace. For example, if you use the treadmill and normally do a pace of 3.5, then start at your normal pace for about 1 or 2 minutes and than pick up the pace to 4.0 or more for 30 seconds or more and then go back down to your normal pace and keep repeating those timed intervals throughout your workout. This will once again force your body to work at a harder pace than it is used to.
- Increasing the amount of weight – during your strength training workouts increase your weight by at least 1 lb for each exercise to encourage muscle growth. The more muscle in your body the more calories your body will burn at rest. If you can encourage your muscles to grow in size your body will start to burn more calories naturally throughout your day.
- Increasing your range of motion – another way that you can increase intensity is by range of motion in your exercises. Take big strides when you walk or run, try to get down lower when you squat or lunge, reach higher up on a shoulder press, etc. By increasing your range of motion you will make the body work just that little bit harder and therefore burn more calories throughout your workout.
Increase the duration of your workouts – to do this you can either increase the amount of times you workout throughout the week or you can increase the amount of time you exercise per workout.
If you are increasing the amount of times you workout per week add at least one more day to your workout plan. If you normally exercise 3 times a week, increase your days to 4 or more. This will give you at least 30 more minutes of active workout time a week.
If you are increasing the amount of time per workout then add at least 10 more minutes each time you workout during the week. If you normally workout 3 times a week at 60 minutes per workout, increase each of your 60 minute workouts to 70 or more minutes. This will give you at least 30 more minutes of active workout time a week.
Reevaluate your eating plan – to do this you need to look at the amount of calories you are taking in daily versus the amount of calories you are burning, look at your portion sizes per meals and snacks, make sure you are eating balanced, and look at the types of foods you are eating.
If you are looking at the amount of calories in versus calories out you are going to need to keep a log of the amount of food calories you eat per day or use an app that does this for you (I use and love the app – myfitnesspal). You will also need to know how much you burn throughout the day. If you have a fitbit or other calorie tracker it is easy because it does it for you. Or, you can use something like choosemyplate.gov. This website has a supertracker feature that will analyze your calorie intake and let you know approx. how many calories you should be eating a day. You can also use there online food log to keep track of the calories you eat throughout the day.
If you are looking at your portion sizes start by reading labels and measure out your portion sizes per meal. Try to keep whole grains to 1 or 2 servings, fruits to 1 or 2 servings, vegetables to 2 or more servings, fat to 1 serving, and lean proteins to between 3-5 oz per meal or snack. Doesn’t mean you eat each one of these in each meal or snack, but, when you do, keep to a maximum of these serving sizes and no more. Low-calorie vegetables would be the only thing you could eat more of.
If you are looking to see if your eating plan is balanced here is what you need to know: you should be eating all 3 macronutrients – carbohydrates, proteins and fat, and you should be eating from all major food groups – fruit, vegetables, dairy, whole grains, lean meats/proteins and healthy fats. Your carbohydrates are made up from 4 of the food groups – fruits, vegetables, dairy and whole grains – make sure you eat from all of those food groups and not to heavy on only one.
If you are looking at the types of foods you are eating start by going through your fridge and pantry by food group.
- Fruits – should be mostly fresh or frozen because they contain the most nutrients. If you must buy canned fruit or juice make sure it contains no added sugars.
- vegetables – should be mostly fresh or frozen because they contain the most nutrients. If you must buy canned vegetables opt for low-sodium versions. This group should also be your non-starchy vegetables. Your starchy vegetables such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, peas will be considered in your whole grain group. This is because they are high in carbohydrates and therefore higher in calories.
- dairy – should be low-fat varieties of milk, cheese, plain yogurt, cottage cheese etc. Do not consider ice cream your dairy as it does not contain enough calcium and has a lot of added sugar. Dairy items can also be included in your protein category as they contain a high amount of protein per serving.
- Whole Grains – This is the toughest category to get right and the one that causes the most weight gain. Whole grains should be whole wheat or other whole flour or grain (the ingredient must include the word whole), brown or wild rice, quinoa, and starchy vegetables such as corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes and peas. Beans, lentils and lima beans will also fall into this category along with your proteins because they are high in both carbohydrates and proteins. Baked goods such as cakes, cookies, chips, sugary cereals and other highly processed snacks are not a smart option here. This group should contain at least 2 or more grams of fiber per serving. Check your ingredient labels on breads, pasta, crackers and such and look for that word whole as well as the fiber amount.
- Meats/Proteins – should be lean meats such as chicken, turkey, lean red meat, and lean fish. Included in your proteins are also, eggs, beans, lentils, soybeans, tofu, nuts and dairy products. Watch serving sizes on nuts as they are high in fat.
- fats – This is another tough category and you really need to watch portion control here. This group should be used sparingly in cooking, as toppings, dressings, sauces etc. to add flavor to your other groups. Best options for fats are avocados, nuts. coconut and unsaturated oils such as extra virgin olive oil, grapeseed, avocado, coconut, peanut and sesame. Again use these sparingly in your meals and snacks because they are high in fat and calories.
As you can see there are many things that you can do to work on pushing passed your plateau and start seeing progress again. The more of these things you do the greater your chances are in seeing a drop in weight, fat and inches. These things are all ways you can burn more calories and increase your metabolism to charge up your body and help you in getting closer to reaching your goals.
Here is a wonderful natural hot oil treatment I just love to use on my hair. Lots of foods we eat are also great to use as treatments on the external parts of our body. What is great about that, is if you are using them in your meals, then you most likely already have them on hand.
For your larger meals such as lunch and dinner half of your plate should consist of vegetables and/or fruit, the other half of your plate should be split between LEAN protein and WHOLE grains.
