The 4 Week Freak Out

If I had a dollar for every woman who had hysterics at week 4, I would be a
bazillionaire. :-) I can't even tell you how totally normal it is.

EVERYBODY goes through this. There is tremendous doubt at week 4. People are
working so hard, and their expectations are so high. If there isn't some kind of
dramatic payoff they completely freak out. It happens again around week 9 or 10
when you start losing steam and wondering why you're even doing this. So, you
have that to look forward to. :-)

I have my challenge one stats in front of me again. At 4 weeks I had lost no
weight. Zip, zero, nada, none. I wrote down my weight every week in that
challenge and it went 137, 137, 138, 136, 137, 136, 137, 135, 136, 135, 134,
134. Six weeks in I still weighed the same as when I started. At week 3 I
weighed MORE than when I started. I was fully expecting to end up at around 125
pounds. So, I was more than a little befuddled at the scale thing.

***(In that challenge I lost 3/4 inch off each arm, 2 inches off each thigh,
1 3/4 inch off my hips, 2 inches off my waist, and 2 inches off my abdomen. My
body fat dropped from 20.3% to 15.1% even though I lost no real scale weight)***

On the 1,200 calorie a day thing. You have to ask yourself, did that ever work
as a long term solution? Or did you look really cute for about 10 seconds and
then gain everything back? If so, what was the point of it? Do you really want
to do that again? What makes you think low calorie dieting would work this time
when it's failed you so many times before?

If you're getting panicky, you could certainly cut your calories by several
hundred a day, make a bunch of unrealistic changes to your meals, give up free
day, exercise even more. I don't recommend it though, because it's not something
you can maintain. It's setting yourself up for another failure. This isn't about
being really strict for a few weeks, it's about changing your whole approach to
food and exercise for the rest of your life. That takes time, and patience, and
faith. You can't have it all straightened out in 4 short weeks. There's a
learning curve.

I have a huge advantage because I've been at this for years. I've already
tried absolutely everything regarding workouts, ratios, meal timing,
supplements. I know exactly what works for ME. I do it and it immediately works.
No guessing. You're going to have to experiment a little. It may take more than
one challenge to perfect your This Is How I Totally Kick Ass System.