Pla.teau - noun: a land area having a relatively level surface considerably raised above adjoining land on at least one side, and often cut by deep canyons. From Old French patel: flat object. (From dictionary reference.com) I've always liked the word plateau, perhaps because it is French; maybe just the way it sounds when I say it.
The above picture is one I took in 2006 in eastern Nevada-western Utah. The area is part of the high desert Colorado Plateau.
Pla-teau - noun: a usually extensive land area having a relatively level surface raised sharply above adjacent land on at least one side: TABLELAND. From Middle French, platter, plat: flat. First known use 1796. (This from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary)
I took this photograph from Mount Hosmer Lookout and Park in Lansing, Iowa in 2009. This area of northeast Iowa, southeast Minnesota, southwest Wisconsin and northwest Illinois is part of the Paleozoic Plateau.
Ah, but there is another definition for plateau; one which is usually preceded by the word dreaded.
Pla-teau - noun: a period or state of little or no growth or decline.
Dreaded weight loss plateau: what I thought I might have hit when I weighed in last week and had not lost the pound I've been shooting for and losing the past several weeks. Instead of letting it get me down and saying "oh, to heck with the whole losing weight attempt", I kept at the calorie intake reduction and on Monday started increasing my walking distance at the Y. I weighed Tuesday morning and had lost almost two pounds! That happened once before so maybe it is just my body adjusting. Overall, I'm ahead of the game - I've lost a fraction under ten pounds in nine weeks.
Last week I walked an extra quarter mile each day. This week I will up that to walking a mile and a half each day. Next week, two miles a day? Mmmm, maybe. With each pound I lose I feel more like keeping it up. It may be my imagination, but I feel lighter when I walk. I'll know I'm accomplishing something when someone I know, who doesn't know I've been trying to lose weight, says to me: "Have you lost weight?"
This is the month of birthdays, anniversaries and Thanksgiving. It's going to be harder, I know. But one of the suggestions I read for what to do if you do reach a plateau is cheat. Which basically means one day a week go ahead and indulge in something you've been doing without. I've already planned to do that on my birthday - I will have my traditional coconut shrimp and champagne, but I plan to be another three pounds lighter by then, too. I want my plateaus to be the land form kind I take pictures of, not the dreaded kind.
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