Plateau...Or Getting Lazy?

This Monday marked the start of the next Boot Camp session. I weighed 330 pounds, which means my actual weight loss for the April camp was 6 pounds and well shy of my 10 pound goal. Losing weight is better than gaining, but it’s a little bit of a reality check that reaching my long term goals are going to be hard work filled with ups, downs, struggles and successes.

Why didn’t I make my goal last month? It’s probably a combination of the two choices in the title. I hear you saying, “C’mon Paul, getting lazy? You’re busting your ass 4 times a week!” While true, most of my laziness last month is properly attributed to my diet. Grocery shopping trips became infrequent so I wound up eating fast food more than I did the past 3 months. And that chicken breast will be delicious if its smothered in BBQ sauce! And it’s 75 and sunny all weekend, how about a round of golf washed down with more beers on the 19^th Hole? All of these little things (and some big!) really added up in April.

How about the exercise goals? Let’s go to the chart!

Exercise	April 8	May 9	May 27 Goal
Weight	336	330	320
Mile Run	12:15	13:12	11:30
Regular Pushups	47	53	60
Assisted Pushups	0	0	0
Regular Dips	--	34	40
Assisted Dips	--	0	0
Sit Ups (in 1 minute)	21	24	30
Planks to failure	2:01	1:51	2:20

This is probably where the plateau diagnosis comes into play. Everything stood pat for the last month. I’m not worried about the large increase in the mile time. On Saturday, I went for a jog and took a little detour. I jogged the mile to Piedmont Park and instead of turning back for home, I decided to go around the park exploring. My best guess is that I ran/walked at least 3 miles by the time I returned home. By Monday, my legs felt so lead-heavy the Mob may have been getting ready to send me swimming with the fishes.

Even though this camp is only 3 weeks long, I’m going to try to play some catch-up on my weight goal by really hunkering down on the diet. My hope is the 5 days/week X 3 weeks schedule shocks my system enough to overcome the small fitness plateau I’ve run up to. We shall see!