The Last Pounds: Don’t Let Your Target Weight Slip When There Is Light At The End Of The Tunnel.
When you decide to lose weight, the first few pounds is often very easy. That’s good because it’s a great motivator when you see results right away. But as you lose more, the rate of loss, and the speed with which you see visible effects, slows down. It’s hard to keep going when you aren’t seeing the benefits.
Don’t worry, though. Remember that this is natural. The initial rush that takes off the pounds can get you, at most, only eighty percent of the way, and that taking on the next twenty percent can be the thing that really sets you back when it comes to will and determination. Once you get that twenty percent off, though keeping the full one hundred perecent off is much easier!
Remember that getting rid of those final ten or twenty pounds can be a matter of will and determination. Remember that good enough never is, and that if you are looking into settling, you may be letting yourself into a downward spiral.
But beware of long term effects when you are trying to lose weight
Remember that sticking with this goal can give you the stamina to stick with other goals. Don’t get into the habit of being a quitter. It is way too easy to say good enough, and at the end of the day, you are going to discover that achieving one goal makes achieving the others a lot easier.
The other possibility in giving up too easily and too soon can be a greater difficulty in keeping the weight off. The earlier you let go of your original goal without achieving it, the more likely you are to gain at least some of that weight back. Sticking with it helps keep those hard earned results permanently.
There are physiological reasons as well why that last 20% can be tough. Some bodies just reach a natural plateau. It can be just a stopping point on the way to a higher peak, however. It’s difficult to know for sure unless you keep climbing.
You may have slacked off of the length of exercises, or it may just require a longer period to get the same results. By analogy, it’s easy to scoop peanut butter out of a full jar, but getting those last bits is harder and takes longer.
What’s your regimen been like? If you have been doing something like a good cardio workout three times a week for a half an hour every session, try improving it to four or five times a week, or lengthening a session until it hits forty five minutes. Don’t hurt yourself, but keep in mind that an increasingly intense workout might be what you need.
When cardio seems to have come to a complete dead stop, up the intensity and try interval training. Do not overdo it; getting an injury can push you back even farther when it comes to getting to the goal that you have settlement.
Try some new exercises. If your body has become too used to what you are doing, you may find that that last twenty percent stays elusive. It might be the hardest part of your weight loss plan!
Keep working until you hit your goal, and remember that you will not see permanent change in your weight until you have a permanent change in your lifestyle!
