Hazel, my Belgian Malinois, found a tennis ball in the gutter near our little cabin in Jackson Hole on Day 2 of our recent trip.

So we took that ball over to a nearby park to throw…

Because throwing the ball for a while bought me some time to work.

What I mean is that Hazel, like any Belgian Malinois, does NOT have an off switch.

So if I want to get anything done, I have to wear her down with tons of exercise, throwing a ball, and detection work.

Otherwise, I won’t get ANY kind of break from her relentless demand to ALWAYS be doing something.

She’s a working dog breed, and they wanna work!

It’d be nice if, like Hazel, your weight loss didn’t have an “off switch” either, wouldn’t it? 😂

But even when you’re sure you’re doing everything right, weight loss stalls can, will, and do happen.

Lots of things can cause your weight loss to grind to a halt. The “calories in, calories out” brigade has you believing that you’re just eating too much…and if you eat less and move more, you’ll be fine.

Well, if it really was as simple as that, we wouldn’t have obese athletes who move all day long and are still fat.

Lack of sleep can stall your weight loss.

So can being dehydrated.

So can eating foods that REALLY don’t agree with your body.

So does eating too often (because your body can’t store fat and burn fat at the same time, and every time you eat, you put your body back in fat storage mode until the food is digested).

Also, some people cheat and call it a stall. Or they don’t sleep or eat too much and call it a stall. Some call it a stall if their weight doesn’t drop every single day.

But that stuff is NOT a stall. It’s you not following the program. BIG difference.

When an actual stall happens, it’s because you’re doing something wrong (even if you don’t know it or don’t mean to be).

Step one for avoiding ACTUAL weight loss stalls is to make sure you REALLY ARE doing everything right…because odds are, you’re not (even if you think you are).