You have a GREAT week, you made great food choices,  got in some exercise, passed on dessert & even wore your favorite pair of skinny jeans. Naturally, you’re on cloud nine. So you decide to weigh yourself, but when you step on the scale,  it didn’t budge in the slightest, or worse…it’s up a little. Every ounce of you is deflated.  I say hands down it’s the most frustrating feeling in the world. And often times that can lead us to take our food choices in the opposite directions, essentially eat our feelings.

Here is the best way to deal with the frustration

Think, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, instead of letting the scale be a negative force in your life, look at it as positive information that will only help you get closer to your goal. Think, really think, what is not be working for me or where can I make a little tweak or two?

Here are some places I’ve found that may cause a plateau:

• Are you eating peanut butter right out of the jar?
• Are you over using olive oil on your salad?
• Can you finish half a container of hummus in one day?
• Are you drinking enough water?
• Are you eating enough fiber?
• Are you doing more late night snacking that you think?
• Are you retaining water from alcohol or carbs?
• Are you snacking on nuts but not looking at the serving size?

If you answered yes to any of the above, here are small tweaks that have helped me and may help you too.

• If you are eating peanut butter right our of the jar, switch to eating it with a fork, hopefully it will slow you down & prevent you from big scoops
• Try making homemade dressing with natural oils (1/4 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup blueberries & 1/4 cup pistachios)
• Try Engine 3 Hummus found at whole foods, the entire container is the same serving size as 2 tbsp of Sabra.
• Add lemon to your water to give you more flavor and more enjoyment when drinking
• Try GG Brancrisp fiber sprinkles in your yogurt, it will give you the same texture as eating yogurt with granola
• Grab a latte on the way home from work & make that your late night treat, it will take longer to drink and end up being less calories that if you were to snack while watching tv
• Try switching to an alcoholic drink you don’t love but you can tolerate, that way you sip it slower
• Eat nuts with a piece of cut up fruit to slow yourself down

At the end of the day, this whole health process is a trial and error. . . see your plateau as power!