[00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to another episode of the So Here For It podcast. I am your host, Amy Mingin, and thank you so much for joining me today. I have so many really cool mindset shifts to share with you. And it's mostly to do with your health, but I feel like you'll be able to utilize these strategies across different areas of your life, your relationships, your business, your money. So however this lands for you, please listen to it and apply it across your life because it is gold. All right. So let's get into it.
Today, I'm going to talk about what to do when you hit a plateau. Because a lot of people have this thing in their heads that if something isn't working, that something must be broken. But it doesn't necessarily mean that. And I'm going to talk about it first and foremost, in the context of health. So let's say that I have someone in my Catalyst Mind Body Release Program and she's a perimenopausal woman. And she gets through her first week and she's like [00:01:00] released three kilos.
She's like, yes, this is amazing! The next week she releases 600 grams and she's like, oh, that's a bit disappointing. The next week she releases a kilo. She's like, yes, this is amazing! The next week she releases 200 grams and she's like, oh my gosh, am I plateauing? And I'm like, No a release is a release. Like there's so many cool things about the way that our body works that we've got to listen to the subtleties.
So sometimes people are going to release weight. Sometimes people are going to release emotions. Sometimes people are going to end up having so many other changes in, in their world other than just the number on the scales. So I want you to start applying this concept of a plateau throughout your life, you know? Like, if you have this expectation that every single week, if you're in a weight release program, and you think that every single week you're going to release two kgs, that's actually really not doable.
Even if you were starving yourself, it's really not doable longterm. Of course your body's [00:02:00] going to say, hang on a minute. We need to stop this because we need to go into a preservation mode. So usually if somebody is starting to hit a plateau, let's say they've hit the same weight, the same, you know, they might be inside their 10th week and they're like, oh my gosh, I've been the same way now for a couple of weeks and I go, okay, well, this is cool, you're hitting a plateau. Either they're already at their goal weight or their body is saying, Hey, here's my safety mechanism going off.
And this is what I say to them. First of all, what are your stress levels like? Are you starting to cut some of the foods out, thinking that you need to eat less calories, because that's not the case. Pretty much never do you need to just like cut more calories when your body's gone into a plateau. Almost never. Unless, of course you've been bringing in some of the sneaky snacks, or sneaky fruits, sneaky desserts. Of course you could cut those extra foods out. But I'm talking about if you're following a plan, [00:03:00] and you had everything mapped out and you were doing it to a T. It's like, okay, If you've hit a plateau there, let's keep you on that plan because that's what your body wants. It's what your body is having a good result with. And it has up until this point, but there's something else that intuitively people want to do. They want to go and exercise more and exercise more hard. And guess what happens? I ask again, I'm like what's happening? Sounds like your body might be going into a stress mode because what happens when the stress hormones go up, the body goes into self-preservation. So hormones change. We secrete more adrenaline, noradrenaline, that gives us more focus, that gives us more motivation. But also in order to bring that down, cortisol goes up. Now, what does cortisol do? It actually wreaks a little bit of havoc when it's, when it's in really high amounts for long periods of time, it can wreak a little bit of havoc in our fluid balance levels.
And this is often what's happening in the background in [00:04:00] lots of women's bodies is the fluid balances out. And so this has to do with your sodium potassium pumps inside each of your cells. And there's more fluid sitting outside of the cell instead of being able to move easily and effortlessly inside and outside the cell.
So a lot of people are like, oh, you need to take magnesium. It's actually got to do with all of the 12 different minerals. And we can get into that in another podcast episode, but I want you to know that if you're having a good pinch of Celtic sea salt first thing in the morning and on each of your meals, that is enough. Okay. You don't need to be taking extra potassium. You don't need to be taking all these different mineral supplements and electrolyte drinks, you usually can get enough through your foods, as long as you're eating a balanced meal three times a day.
I stress, three times a day. There's a lot of people say, oh, should I start intermittent fasting? The studies on intermittent fasting have been done on men. And it does not have the same effect on female hormones as it does on male hormones. We are generally more [00:05:00] sensitive to stress. And what does intermittent fasting do? It's a stress on the body. So it's going to cause those stress hormones to go up, which in a lot of women over time, they are going to hold more fluid. So I bet you're saying, all right, Amy, all right! What do we do? So here's what you do. Cause the great thing about the body is, it will adapt and it's going to adapt to whatever level you are going in at.
So for example, if you adapt to your exercise program, and you're at the gym, then your PT or yourself, you want to start increasing the weights because your strength has plateaued. You're like, oh, this is really easy, it used to be hard. And now it's easy. So you put extra weights on, right. Now with the food it's slightly different. And the reason why is you don't necessarily need to change calories. But what you could do is change up what you're eating. And at what time. So I usually say here, if you've hit a plateau, only [00:06:00] eat during daylight hours. Sounds interesting, right?
So you eat your breakfast quite early. You eat your lunch probably quite early. And you eat your dinner quite early. And the reason for this is if you go back and listen to the circadian biology podcasts that I've done in a previous season. This will give you so much more information, but this in particular to help you get over a plateau, you want to make sure that you're rebalancing your hormones.
You want to make sure that your body isn't in starvation mode and you want to make sure that your body feels safe. And the way to do this is to ensure that it's getting fed regularly throughout the day. And the reason why we want to finish before it is nighttime, is so that you are sleeping at nighttime.
And this is so that you can maximize your melatonin, which actually is a sleep hormone. But also it works as an anti-inflammatory in the body. And also it works alongside oestrogen. So you think about the perimenopausal woman who is starting to get [00:07:00] bloated, starting to have like irregular periods, starting to have irregular sleeping patterns and also feeling more stress sensitive. This style of eating is key for her. Okay?
So that is first and foremost, tangible, really easy for you to start to apply, regardless of whether you're in a plateau or not. Now the other thing is if you think that you have to exercise more in order to get results, then whoever told you that is telling you the wrong thing. It's about efficiency.
You want to make sure that you create a contrast in the body and that it's more about you doing the efficient style of exercise, which is going to be most suited to you and your lifestyle and stress levels. So you want to make sure that you are getting plenty of walking in at a leisurely pace. So just see walking, I see walking not as exercise it's as my daily lifestyle technique, it helps to calm my nervous system.
It's one of the best ways to bring cortisol levels down. So I will usually take a walk in the [00:08:00] morning and in the afternoon. That's what suits me. If you're a one walk a day person, then do it that way. But please make sure you get at least 45 minutes to an hour, then you're getting enough steps in. So for me, it's a half hour walk, twice a day. That works really, really well. Going after breakfast and either just before dinner or just after dinner. That works really well. So do what suits you and your lifestyle.
And the next thing. I want you to have a think about if you're, if you are allowing these extras in. Because that's a self-sabotage. You think about the extras being, you know, like saying yes to the piece of cake on the table at work or saying yes to a sweet drink alongside your meal when you've gone out as opposed to just having like a soda water, or a sparkling water. And it's saying yes to having extra milk in your coffee or tea or having sugar in them. You know, these extras all add up over the span of a week or a month, and this can sometimes be the hidden [00:09:00] space of where the plateau has come from.
So it's not necessarily that you're doing anything wrong. It's just, can you get really honest about what you're actually having. Where the extras are coming from, if any. And is this a self-sabotage technique that happens in your life? Because a lot of people, they talk to me about like, okay, well, when I start getting results and I start seeing that things are fitting nicer and I start noticing that I'm enjoying my body a bit more, then they start to sabotage. It's like, oh, well I can just have that now. Oh yeah well, I can go out and have that, I'll have the chips with my meal now.
But here's the problem with doing that. People haven't done it in a way where it's very conscious and aware and intentional. I'm not saying you can never have those foods. I want you to be intentional with when you bring the additions in, because it's very easy just to revert back to your our old habits.
And you think about how our body is like on a locomotive track. So we're like [00:10:00] a train on a track. And it goes to the pathway of least resistance. So if you enjoy those foods, if those foods are around you in abundance, if all the snacks are in the house again, if you've bought the Cadbury chocolate and you know, it's such and such's birthday and it never bloody ends does it.
So I want you to realize that if you go back into that track really, really easily that maybe you're one of those people that shouldn't be allowing all of the extras in too early. Like you really want to bring in this new metabolic set point. And stick to your plan, regardless of whether you feel like you're in a plateau or not.
Now there's another thing here, that will sound quite harsh to some people, but it's the truth. It's the way to get long-term results is to have the long-term habits. But I also want to say this. As we age, it's actually more and more important that we are supporting our liver function, which is why I always include apple cider vinegar with each main meal. Because it actually helps with our liver function, helps with our [00:11:00] digestion, helps with blood sugar and glucose regulation, insulin regulation. It is key to a lot of people's results. And I've just given you like the keys to the kingdom right there. If you start having apple cider vinegar, it's going to change your life.
Now I want to make sure that you get how important your liver is. And some people you're going to need to reach out to me to do a detox because you might be getting some pain in underneath the ribs, you might feel super angry. You might feel prickly, I say like there's a prickly day for most women each month. You might get fairly severe depression before your period, you might get lots of insomnia. And you might feel worse for having alcohol. All of these are big liver signs and most women need to do at least one really decent detox in our lifetime, if not yearly. So reach out to me if you need support with that. But generally speaking, anyone who comes through Catalyst they get a [00:12:00] very gentle detox, because we are giving them an anti-inflammatory eating plan and the way that I get them to move their lymphatics every day helps with the daily elimination. So it's perfect perfect perfect for that. Very rarely do they ever need supplementation in order to help the body to detox, so that's a really cool thing, too.
So the other thing that I want to give you is something tangible that you can start applying right now. Because if you hit a plateau, I know that can affect your mindset. So I want you to zoom out and have a look at how far you've come. Because if you're only zoomed in on the number on the scale or the number of your thigh, or the number of your waist, or the number on your pair of jeans, you're missing the point. That does not tell you your self worth.
The thing that tells you your self worth is already inside of you. And I want you to zoom out and I want you to have this recognition of yourself to see how far you've come. To see how much you have already [00:13:00] committed to something. To see the results that you've already created for yourself. Because when you can start celebrating the path that you've already been on and you celebrate your wins and then you learn to lock that into your nervous system and in a beautiful anchored way, i.e. Let yourself feel it. Don't just think about it. I want you to feel it and I want you to be proud of yourself. If I were doing this, I would look in the mirror and say, Hey you've come a really long way and I'm proud of you. And if you don't believe it, then say it again and keep saying it and keep riding it until you do believe it because you have come a long way, you have made lots of changes.
And celebration really hasn't been drummed into us enough. I think here in Australia, the tall poppy syndrome has been so rife that people are like, oh, you have to be humble, you can't show your wins, you can't show your victories. But I want you to. I want you to celebrate your wins. And I want you to feel really great about yourself because that's what's going to encourage you to keep going. And it also encourages your nervous system to feel [00:14:00] safe and stop sabotaging yourself.
So can you see the positive aspect of celebration? It also has a much higher vibration. You want to know more about the frequency of emotions you can go back through and listen to the different podcasts I have about that because it's super, super interesting.
So the other last thing is whenever something is perceived as going wrong, often our conscious mind really wants to fix it. So rather than go into fix it mode, what I want you to do is allow yourself to change 10%. And the 10% rule is something to do with, you could do diet, lifestyle, nervous system, you could do it in any which way, but 10%. Sometimes we think that we need to change everything when it usually comes back to the one thing. And I want you to recognize if it's stress-related then maybe you bring in a meditation. If you have gone off [00:15:00] track and not being intentional with things then bring your intention back in.
Can you see like this one thing, you're going to find the one key that's going to be the thing that's going to get you back on track. That's going to help you move through to the next level. And it's going to be the thing that you probably don't realize right now is the big thing, because it's so small. So start with the 10%.
So that is the biggest tangible takeaway that you can take from this episode. And I hope that it has really helped with a reframe with you. If you are hitting a plateau in any stage of your life or business apply these principles and get going with it. Get going with it. There's nothing wrong with being in the mud for a bit, feel it, but let yourself move through it as well. And take action.
So thank you again for being here. Thank you for having me in your ears once again, it is such a pleasure. I love, love, love this podcast and I love having you. And could you do me a favor by rating and reviewing this [00:16:00] podcast on whatever app you're on. It helps me reach more people just like you and I'm so, so grateful for all of your love and support. So until next week, I will see you then.
