New member

A couple of thoughts...

Are your clothes fitting differently? It's possible that you're replacing fat with muscle.

Also, it's amazing how many tiny little things sneak in to our eating plans and throw us off. The honey was a good example. Are there other add ons that could be contributing, like cream in your coffee, gum, mustard and catsup, veggie oil or other extras with eggs, etc? Are you weighing/measuring all of your foods? It's amazing how far off guesses can be.

Once upon a time I went through a quality diet program and when people stopped losing weight and hit a plateau, they recommended a diet with fish in it. They also recommended drinking water with real lemon juice (plus a sweetener) at night for a natural diuretic while stuck on a weight loss plateau.

Welcome!

Let me see.. There are a lot of things that could be behind your plateau: you could be gaining muscle and losing fat, causing the number on the scale to stay stagnant (as we all know, muscle weighs more than fat, blah blah blah), you could still be eating more calories than you think (most people under-report, even when they try to be accurate, and restaurant meals can have as much as 18% more calories than they list in their nutritional guides), you could be burning fewer calories than you think (assuming you eat your exercise calories - I try to err on the conservative side to make up for any underestimating on my intake), or you might be holding onto water weight. There could also be an underlying medical issue, so I do recommend that you go to a doctor and explain your situation. They will probably do some blood work to check out your thyroid. Based on what you've said it seems unlikely, but it's still worth investigating.

For starters, I recommend checking out this video about measuring portions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVjWPclrWVY - is that teaspoon of honey really a teaspoon, or is it two? When you're getting the results you want I advise against micromanaging your calories, but if you've hit a wall you should take a hard look at how you're counting your calories and exercise. I ran into a plateau when I started increasing the frequency and intensity of my workouts, and I busted it by watching my calories carefully and waiting it out. Don't get frustrated, it can take time!

You should also try measuring yourself (waist, bust, hips, etc.) once a week or so to see if you are losing inches - in which case, you're doing well! Try to eat balanced and nutritious meals, and avoid any sort of diet - I just wrote a blog post about dieting and proper nutrition that you might want to check out if you're interested. http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/Chicka_Boom

Honestly, sometimes it just takes awhile to start losing weight; you're making a big change and your body has to adjust. Try not to think about it in terms of "I have to weigh xxx by this date" and think about this as a lifestyle change that you are making for the rest of your life because you love your body and want to take better care of it. If you focus too much on the scale you can wind up getting frustrated if you don't meet your goals as quickly as you'd like, and you may lose sight of the big picture: what's important is your health and happiness! Good luck!