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Breaking a woman's plateau

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Hi Everyone,

I'm hoping to pull on the experience of the group.

My girlfriend and I started our twelve weeks on January 2nd. We're

using the BFL Success Journals to track our progress and I think

we're really doing great. Each of us has dropped at least a full

pants size in the first six weeks and we definitely have more energy.

We eat six meals a day, which I prepare the night before. My

girlfriend doesn't care for shakes, so we're sticking to whole food.

Each day we change things up, but a salad always makes up one meal,

as does yogurt (for calcium) with fruit. The rest include meals made

from the Eating-For-Life book or more basic options like fruit with

soy nuts. We have a free day once a week, but that's slowly evolving

into more of a free meal. We only drink water or skim milk, no

coffee, tea, or soda. We take multivitamins and an omega-3

supplement daily, so we are getting the essential nutrients. I even

work nuts or avocado into the salads or drizzle Udo's Choice Oils on

our steamed veggies or whole grain pasta.

We've both had excellent strength increases in the gym. Each week

we seem to move up a little on one exercise or another. She's left

the small dumbbells behind and is taking turns with the men on the

heavier ones (she's proud of that!). Trying to be proactive, I've

already started changing our lifting routines to make sure our bodies

aren't adjusting to any particular movement.

All in all, I'm very happy with our progress, although I think I am

not losing as much bodyfat as I had hoped. I'm just not on track to

look like one of the after pictures in the book in the five weeks

remaining. Nevertheless, I still believe this is the very best

program out there for me to lose weight and be healthy. So what if

my goal look takes 14 weeks instead of 12?

Unfortunately, my girlfriend feels she's hit a plateau in her fat

loss and it has her really questioning the program. To be honest,

all along I've had a hard time convincing her she was making any

progress at all. The scale weight and scale bodyfat have dropped a

bit, but she discounts that as mostly water. And despite the fact

that friends, family members, and co-workers are complimenting her

left and right she's refusing to see the obvious progress she's

already achieved. At week three, I had to buy her the next smaller

size jeans and insist she try them on (they slipped on without

effort). Only then would she admit some progress! She's now

convinced that using the double crunch machine (machine that combines

a floor crunch with a reverse crunch but with weights) for three

weeks has created a " pouch " on her lower stomach. I can understand

that we build up muscle underneath fat faster than we can lose that

fat, so we may temporary feel larger, but I can't accept a muscle

resistance exercise could add fat!!

I've tried to tell her that plateaus are a natural part of body

building, but I don't think she's hearing me. I've suggested cutting

back or eliminating our late night, sixth meal. I've suggested

making her meals a little smaller, but they are already the right

portions (I know, I make them!). For confirmation, she's almost

always hungry right at hour three between meals; that's a dead give-

away.

Before I write an essay here, let me get to it. My question is this:

have other women experienced plateaus, and if so, how did they

overcome them?

I might get flamed by the women in the group, but I honestly think

it's all in her head. She has a laser-like focus on her hips. I

realize she has an image of what she wants them to look like. I can

see they are smaller, but she disagrees. Her old clothes are so

loose they are unwearable, but she makes excuses saying they

are " stretched-out " . Tell me how a pair of pants that have Lycra in

them can stretch out? Doesn't Lycra pull things back into shape?

Wouldn't a pair of pants with Lycra becoming loose signal a huge fat

loss, since they can no longer shrink to fit you?

I took measurements down to the millimeter before we started, as well

as some pretty scary (to me now) before pictures. I'll take follow-

up measurements over the weekend and try to convince her of her

progress.

Maybe what I'm looking for here is more of how to encourage her to

stay with the program, because I believe we are doing well. I tell

her all the time how great she's doing, how much slimmer she is, how

much stronger she is, but I think she doesn't hear me sometimes.

Maybe she just thinks I'm saying it strictly to be supportive, but

it's not really happening. How do I get her to see it is real and

get her to push through this minor plateau?

Any and all advice is appreciated.

-

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