Cathe - Question about breaking plateaus

[shopgirl]

Hi Cathe -

Quick question about breaking plateaus, other than changing around my workouts, what else can be done to break a plateau? I do one of your workouts every morning 5-6 days a week (lately, Boot Camp twice) and do 20 min of interval running on the treadmill 4 days a week at lunchtime. My eating has been pretty clean, and I'm drinking so much water I'm practically floating. But, I haven't lost an inch in weeks.

I am worried about overtraining, or even raising my workout threshold so high that if I workout less, I'll gain weight. Could you please offer any insight on changes I can make?

Thanks. Your workouts are awesome. I feel the strongest I've ever been.

- Shopgirl

 

[lorrayne]

Hi Shopgirl,

Here's what worked for me when I was stuck on a plateau. I cut out all breads and pastas out of my diet and cut back on my portion sizes for a few weeks. I only ate oatmeal in the mornings for my carbs. I ate lean proteins and veggies for the rest of the day (it is critical that you eat whole foods as much as possible). My metabolism is pretty slow so it took close to a month before I saw the benefits. I started to lose inches again and the scale started to reflect the change as well.

Each person is unique in terms of how their body responds to exercise. You may want to try to experiment with your workouts. I see you do quite a bit of intense cardio. Your body may be used to this right now. How about changing this to heavy weight training three times per week and moderate to intense cardio three to four days per week and see how your body responds to this.

I hope this helps and keep us posted on your progress.

Lorrayne