Shecky’s

We are Tone It Up’s Karena and Katrina. We’re fitness coaches and video bloggers based in Southern California! As certified personal trainers, we receive thousands of emails and posts per week asking about how to break the dreaded plateau. We look at plateaus as a good thing! It means your body has adapted to what you have worked so hard for and needs another push.

Remember how hard it was when you first tried to ride a bike? Eventually it was easy once you adapted. Our bodies are just the same and they’re a working system. It’s all science. First let’s think, “Why am I plateauing? Have I been consistent with my healthy nutrition or workouts?” To tone up by one pound of fat in one week, you must create a deficit in calories by 3,500. 3,500 divided by 7 days is 500 calories per day that you will need to create a deficit in with diet and exercise. You can do this by burning 200-300 calories with a 30-minute cardio session. We also really like high intensity interval training to increase your post-exercise recovery too, causing your metabolism to burn even more calories at rest!

By combining this with eating natural, you will tone up! Let it happen! Not to mention you’ll have more energy and all the other benefits that go along healthy eating…cancer prevention, longevity, less stress, etc. Don’t forget to have your rewards here and there—dark chocolate, yogurt with cocoa, an oatmeal cookie—anything less than 250 calories. We do this 1-2 times a week.

*** If you’re at a plateau and you’ve been doing all of these steps correctly, let your body catch up! It’s just a process. The trick is to push through it. If you let it go every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, that’s half the month, so you’ll just be at a standstill.  Your challenge is to break through it: hydrate, include HIIT cardio, do your workouts, include your pyramid training and show your stubborn fat cells who’s BOSS!!

Have fun with it. Speaking from experience, I toned up more than 23 pounds (this is Katrina)…. The scale went up and down like crazy…but one day I decided to push through it, knowing that something had to come from all the hard work. My biggest battle was giving up fake sugar—I was a fake sugar junkie! As soon as I started eating what the earth gave me, my body transformed. We hope this helps. We know it can be frustrating. Just hang tight!

Love you guys,

Your trainers,

Karena & Katrina from Tone It Up.com

Mastin Kipp is the founder of The Daily Love, a website, daily email and Twitter account that’s merging pop culture with inspiration. He is also the co-founder of Self Approved Clothing, Ltd, a lifestyle apparel company that’s started a global self-esteem movement. The Daily Love has quickly become the fastest growing inspirational Twitter account and email list on the internet and reaches almost 400,000 people daily. Sign up for The Daily Love’s email to receive your daily dose of love>

GIRL TALK TIME: What do you think of this advice? Have you ever hit a fitness plateau? How did you overcome it?