Do you find that there are times you eat super clean, train like an athlete, focus on managing stress, sleep and all the other factors of fat loss, and that weight simply just does not budge? You are not alone. This happens to everyone. There are times, for various reasons, your body will plateau. But this is not the time to quit; this is the time to keep checking all the boxes. If you quit at this point you are guaranteeing that you won’t succeed. If you keep pushing, your progress will kick off again, eventually. It’s like being stuck in a traffic jam.

When you are driving somewhere the road is not always clear of traffic and obstruction. Sometimes you get stuck in traffic. Do you get out of the car and walk home, or do you sit there and wait for the cars to start moving again? Sometimes there are road works. In fact, often there are road works. Do you get of the car and go home, or do you sit through all the ‘slow downs’, traffic, ‘stop’ etc? If you went home, you would never get to your destination. Sometimes there are even detours. So common with fat loss progress. Sometimes you must change courses. Again, it does not mean you turn around and go home. It means you follow the detour signs and take a new route to your destination. You follow the signs, you follow the instructions of lights, traffic management, sometimes police traffic controllers etc. Fat loss is the same. Sometimes you need to just keep doing what you are doing and wait it out (traffic jam), other times you need to trust in your coach and change strategies (detour signs).

Patience and consistency is what will get you there in the end. So, don’t give up when things get tough, or plateau. Slow down sure, but do not stop. If you get out and go home, you will never reach your destination.

Keep driving forward and no matter how slow, any detour you must take, progress will always occur sooner or later.

• Coach Terri Batsakis