Personally, it is the worst part of it all. It often leads to quitting. But everyone faces it, especially if you've inherited the family trait of obesity. Quitting shouldn't be an option. Besides, let's face it, NOBODY likes a quitter.
Diets aren't meant to be one time deals, and OLMA isn't just a movement, it's a lifestyle. Eventually, the L can go from LOSE to LOST. The lifestyle change must be permanent...permanent...Permanent?...PERMANENT?!@?! What the #$%*?!
PERMANENT.
Now that is a scary word. You know as well as any other, the scariest thing that something can be is permanent. Permanently scarred...on your permanent record.
But seriously, the secret to changing the L to LOST is to make PERMANENT more flexible. You know, like using WordArt on a certain copyrighted program for word processing. Take that word, and make it flexible.
Vegetables are your friends. They go nicely with your good friend meat. But you've got to invite vegetables when having meat over, because meat slimmed down, and now they're a couple. This will all help in the beginning. Take it from somebody that ONCE lost a small nine year old from his butt, just by introducing vegetables (and her sister, fruit) to meat and potato. Roughly seventy pounds, and there were 2 distinct plateaus. One around 250, and another around 225. Plateaus bite. Worse, once you break past them, they sneak back into your world.
Flexibility is the key to overcoming the dreaded plateau. Flexibility is how you avoid quitting. Taking a day off is not going to kill you. However, taking a week off, often leads to a month, which leads to a year (much in the same way that an A- is close to a B, which is close to a C, which is practically failing, and will get you locked in the basement). Therefore, if one day you DO indulge, be sure to be smart about it the next day...make that the next few days. Taking a break every now and then allows for clarity. If you know you have to go to your parents, because it's time for your father's birthday, eat a light lunch. Mom will over-feed you, despite her own OLMA efforts. Then there will be cake, which you can ONLY hope will actually be an apple pie...but we all know better. Eat the light lunch. Trust me. If you feel the need to snack, a good suggestion is to ALWAYS have golden raisins on hand. Those little boxes make great snacks (HOWEVER, beware, grapes and raisins are as poisonous to dogs as if they drank a bottle of Drain-O).
Additionally, if your amazing Super Spy Wonder Dog eats your raisins before you can, and then you have a harrowing adventure of inducing vomiting, and digging through it all, then spending $285 so poison control and the vet can take care of what YOU ALREADY DID, do NOT use it as an excuse to sit on the couch for 3 afternoons, as you "monitor the dog's health," even if the vet TOLD you to do so for the next 48-72 hours, in case of kidney failure.
This is a mistake...Take it from me my friend, you will ONLY feel bad about it by the 3rd day, and end up sitting there on the couch for the 3rd consecutive afternoon. Only on day 3, you'll feel bad about doing so for the past two days, get into a funk, and find yourself eating half a bag of kettle cooked, buffalo sauce flavored chips.
The monitoring was supposed to be to see if the dog was lethargic. HELLO, take the dog for a walk...c'mon Fat-ass! Ooops, sorry...I recently fell off the wagon, due to a family crisis, involving a brush with death for the dog.
But really, if you do plateau OR find yourself inactive for a few days...take a rest from dieting, and regroup on the following day. It'll help, and it's OKAY.
