Most of us have at some point tried to lose weight only to find that within 2-3 weeks, your progress stops and in some cases, even starts to reverse. This is known as reaching a plateau. A place where the body is comfortable doing the same routine week in week out.

It could be as simple as having a bowl of fruit for breakfast everyday, instead of the fried eggs, bacon and toast. Initially your body goes into overdrive, recognising that it has an easy opportunity to get rid of some excess flab as it thinks you will soon return to the lifelong diet it has become conditioned to. Once it realises that you are serious about sticking to the fruit, it takes it easy and relaxes into the new regime as there is no longer a sense of urgency.

 I notice this happening with the majority of my weight loss clients. After the first initial period of weight loss, I realise the need to change the stimulus I am providing through training, or change the foods which are being consumed to keep on progressing down the weight loss path. I discovered that the body always wants to be challenged. It wants constantly to strive for improvement or it will plateau out.

 To get the body back to that sense of urgency, you need to treat the plateau as a checkpoint. Your body is telling you that it is ready for a new challenge. It could be as simple as changing the daily sandwich which you have for lunch, with sushi or rice paper rolls filled with salad and meat. Or maybe you will reach the point, if you have tried everything else, of shocking the whole food process with a week of only vegetable soup and fruit. The shake diets have proved a popular choice over the past couple of years and the reason why they succeed is that they are calorie controlled and restricted. You can only mix the contents of the sachet with water, and nothing else. No sugar, no fat, no side serve of chips, nothing!

Not only is the same “meat and 3 vege” dinner boring for you to cook and eat, the body also thinks the same way. Keep it thinking, keep it working and most of all keep your food balanced and interesting or you to will hit the inevitable plateau.