The mother of all plateaus?

When I stepped on the scale this morning the elusive 149 showed up again.

Of course, my heart skipped a beat. But I don't really have my hopes up. This is the third time I've entered the 140s only to have the number cruelly yanked from my grasp.

I am so very close to my goal that it's frustrating to have hit this silly 150 plateau (a true plateau like no other I hit before). Sure, I've read that the last 5-10 pounds are the hardest to lose, but how does my body know this is the last? I'm not even certain it is the last. I often find myself dreaming of weighing 135 for the first time since elementary school. But I digress ...

I eat about 1200 calories a day, give or take. And I go on runs 3 days a week. This has been my routine for the past four weeks and each time I step on the scale, I weight 150. Is this what it will take to maintain 150? Will I only be allowed 1200 calories a day for the rest of my life if I want to stay at 150 and don't want to spend 15 hours a week working out?

From what I've read and conversations I've had with others who are similarly obsessed with fascinated by nutrition, I think the solution is to chill out for a little while. The past 51 weeks have been pretty major to my body. Sure, I've lost the weight in a slow and healthy manner, but that doesn't mean my body isn't completely freaked out. Hell, when I pass a mirror I often find myself a bit freaked to see my new reflection.

The idea is to work on maintenance, keep myself from gaining, but let my body catch up.

My metabolism is significantly different these days and so is my lifestyle. Obviously, I am going to keep weighing myself because that is how I track things, but I am going to stop freaking out if I don't lose a pound each week. My deadline has passed and I didn't make it, but I can still reach my weight loss goal.

I have a few ideas and experiments to conduct.

1) Should I go back to 1300 calories a day? Maybe my body is mad and doing that "you're starving me, I need more fuel" thing. Does 100 calories really make that much of a difference? I know I blogged a couple of weeks ago that I was going back to 1300 calories a day, but I think the hunger I felt that week was PMS-related. Since then, things have been fine and once dinner is done my calorie count is at 1190 or so and I feel full. So, I skip the 100 calorie sweet thing that provides no nutritional anything other than potential plaque for my teeth.

2) Keep limiting foods to 1200. Perhaps this is just my body's way of catching up to everything that's happening and I shouldn't make any changes just yet.

3) According to my mom, Weight Watchers tells its members to spend a week eating more calories than normal as a way to shake up a plateau. Should I let myself eat 1500 calories a few days one week and see what happens? (Can you imagine the possibilities? And if I choose this, it should totally be the weekend Renee is here so we can REALLY enjoy Kansas City barbecue!) I consumed more than 2000 calories the day of Kevin's reunion, by the way. That could also be to blame for no weight loss last week (ha! But the pumpkin were freaking amazing! And maybe there was a little alcohol consumed ... just a bit).

Anyway, the point is I'm not going to freak out and get frustrated. I am going to relax, get used to my new body and see what happens. These last 5 pounds (and maybe more!) will be history, I have no doubt about that. One way or another ...