Okay, so here’s the deal.
Not all plateaus are created equal. We normally say we’ve hit a plateau when things start to stagnate. You’re doing the work, sticking to a caloric goal, and still, no progress. This can happen for many reasons, like your digestion, cycle, or general soreness. Sometimes, the number on the scale can remain the same, but you’re gaining muscle and losing fat — that may look like a plateau but is still progress.
The BEST solution for this is just patience. Because these things DO work themselves out. These things are VERY normal in the first month or so as you are learning your body. I notice that once people do that, they stop calling it a plateau in the first place because they understand the roll call and what different things could be causing this.
A true plateau looks like going down, down, down, same, same, same, down, down, down. You make steady progress for a few weeks then stop altogether. The weight stays the same, you’re not seeing real results despite sticking to your plan. That’s when adjusting your macros or workouts makes a difference.
A lot of times, I see people doing something ELSE and calling it a plateau. If you look at their numbers, they are all over the place; but they are staying WITHIN the same 2-5 lb range. Typically falling during the week, up on Monday, or something similar. This usually happens later on in the process, where things are more honed in and smaller changes make a big difference.
When this happens, you are not at a weight loss plateau. You’re in maintenance, and not the intentional kind. That is the most FRUSTRATING maintenance to be in.
You WANT to lose weight, so you are working your tail off to do that MOST of the time. It is so frustrating when you aren’t really going anywhere but on the same roller coaster ride again and again. Your personal groundhog day.
You are putting in JUST ENOUGH effort to hold the line — but you haven’t had enough GROWTH to move forward from here. You can pull those levers hard, but until you realize that it’s your MINDSET that needs to evolve, you will keep working REALLY hard for the SAME number.
Why you’re not moving, even though you’re still working
This is where people get FRUSTRATED. They’re still logging. In most cases, the logs look perfect on our end. Moving their body. Trying. But there’s no forward progress.
I’ve seen some people lose 10 lbs on willpower, only to begin the 2-3 lbs cycle. There’s a lot of effort. But in my opinion, it doesn’t have to feel this hard — this is the fast track to burnout, and staying in this cycle. Changing all of the external things will only get you so far. The way out of this cycle is changing the way you think. Evolving your mindset to support FORWARD motion again.
If you are still trying to lose weight and you look back over the last 2 weeks and see that you are BASICALLY in the same 2-3 lb range, you aren’t hitting a weight loss plateau. It’s a mindset one.
That’s your cue. Not to go push harder and pull another level. But to go inward.
If the inside doesn’t change, your body will shift for a while. But it always returns to match the mindset that’s running the show. Habits will always win out because they are deep patterns. If you don’t work on your HABITUAL MINDSET, it will eventually win out because the inside drives the outside.
You changed your habits on the outside but not your IDENTITY. So you don’t identify with these new habits. They don’t feel like YOURS.
You’ve got 42 years under your belt with these old thought processes surrounding food. Those are some pretty strong neuro pathways that have been fired and wired together. It’s going to be hard to override those with willpower. You need to figure that stuff out if you want this to be MUCH MUCH MUCH easier for you. More importantly, if you want the results to last.
THE CRAZY PART IS that everyone thinks that work is SO hard. I think it’s so much harder to live your entire life in a state of frustration because you refuse to do it. It’s the most simple and root-cause focused approach — but the one almost everyone avoids.
You don’t need to change the whole world. You just have to change what you believe, what you think, and how you respond.
The world gets better when your mindset does.
WEIGHT LOSS gets easier when you change the way you think about it
When you adopt a growing mindset and realize why you’re making the choices you’re making, everything else gets lighter. The tracking doesn’t feel as exhausting, and the planning doesn’t feel like a burden.
You don’t feel sorry for yourself for HAVING to do this or for being in this situation or for HAVING to change. This is what unlocks sustainability. Not doing the work harder or doubling down on willpower Monday-Friday. The real change is doing the SAME work from a different mental place.
So the question becomes… how do you even get to that different place??
It’s not just about waking up one day and thinking new thoughts. This process doesn’t work like a light switch you can just flip on once.
You have to start by understanding that your current mindset might not be qualified to lead this next chapter. That voice in your head is you — but it’s also all your old patterns, experiences, judgments, failures, and coping mechanisms.
That’s why it’s so easy to fall back into old thoughts, old beliefs, old stories. They’re familiar and rehearsed. They’ve been narrating your life for decades. If you want to change them, you can’t rely on your current thinking to do it. You have to bring in new voices, ideas, and ways of seeing things.
Sometimes it’s hard to listen to those voices. They disrupt us. It’s not always fun to be challenged like that. But that is EXACTLY what growth looks like. ADMITTING that the current situation does not need to be defended for a second longer. You don’t need to be RIGHT.
Train the mindset, not just the muscle
The real long-term impact of weight loss and management is getting into the mindset of a person who makes choices that align with how you want to feel and live. Going from deprivation to nourishment, to health-conscious, informed choices that feed your body for fuel and function.
And over time, that narrator in your head gets better. Wiser. She starts guiding, and you can listen to her confidently.
From that point on, you grow EXPONENTIALLY more every single day, honestly.
Where this is all headed
It’s one thing to hear “work on your mindset,” which admittedly doesn’t really tell you much.
What’s the point of all this mindset work? Why are we doing this? Why do we keep talking about your thoughts, your beliefs, your identity?
Because this is the only way you’re ever going to find peace with whatever process you are on.
Grieving a loved one or the loss of the life you FEEL like you SHOULD have. Grieving the loss of the way you FEEL like you SHOULD be able to eat and look the way that you WANT. I say grieving on purpose. Because the final stage of grief is acceptance. You don’t get there unless you grieve the thing or the idea that you loved.
But when you grieve something fully, you end up at peace with what is now. And the only way that peace comes is when you hit three things:
Self-awareness means that you can see YOURSELF clearly. The good AND the not so good. But you are ok with it because you know that we all have flaws and the only way to improve upon them is by having the willingness to admit them and bring them to the light.
Acceptance says, “This is where I am, and I’m done pretending it should look different. It doesn’t look different. This is how my life has worked out this far. I accept that. What I do not accept is staying STUCK in this place of pity. I will not settle in here, just because I am here right now.”
Personal responsibility means that you finally accept that you can choose to stay where you are or MOVE to a different place. But it is solely on YOU.
Are you ready to stop fighting the process and start owning your results?
Apply to work with us and let’s turn the lights on together.
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