The Plateau Effect

Your progress slows because your brain becomes more efficient, not because you failed.

Every 20 to 25 pounds I lose, my progress stalls.
I used to think I was failing.
Now I know I was evolving.

Your glow up is not stuck. It is stabilizing.

Last week I talked about identity fatigue, the exhaustion that hits when your old self and new self overlap.
The plateau is what happens next.

Identity fatigue drains you.
The plateau confuses you.
But both are required for transformation.

In 2025 alone, I have hit two plateaus. Both happened around the 20 to 25 pound mark in my weight loss journey. The first time, I just pushed harder without connecting the pattern. The second time, I saw it clearly. And now, approaching cycle three, nothing has changed.

Irritating? A little.
But eventually I realized something:
This was not a setback.
This was an unlocked level.

Once I saw the plateau as a level-up moment, I started treating my transformation like a game of strategy instead of a punishment cycle. I tapped into my childlike curiosity, even using a game-plan prompt with AI to help me design the next level. I named my character. I chose her world. I upgraded how she presents herself.

No more looking like a washed-up mom.
I give myself the same care I give my children.
I matter. How I look and how I feel matter.
And I set the standard.
So why not be the best?

I am embodying Fit, Fine, and (en)RICH(ed) now, not someday far away.

Do I get stuck on levels? Absolutely.
The formula changes. The combinations evolve.
But only because I have evolved.
What I gained from level one trains me for level two.

It is like mountain climbing.
The first mountain has obvious rocks to grab onto.
You learn the rhythm.
Then you hit a plateau.

But the second mountain uses everything you learned on the first, plus a stretch of challenge.

That is when I finally understood it:

Plateaus are not punishment. They are biological recalibration.

And they happen everywhere.
In weight loss.
In business.
In parenting.
In identity.

For example:
In December 2024 I published my daughter’s book. In July 2025, I published my son’s. The excitement, the pride, the first wave of sales lasted one or two months. Then came the quiet.

“What’s next?”
That was the plateau.

Then I realized:
Sustainability is greater than novelty.

Instead of doing everything myself, I collaborated with the authors.
My kids.
The ones with the ideas.
The vision.
The imagination.

Giving them agency changed everything.
The plateau wasn’t a failure.
It was a recalibration.
It forced us to build a brand, not a moment.

I share that because:

You are not stuck.
You are stabilizing.

THE SCIENCE OF WHY YOUR PLATEAU HAPPENED
In behavioral psychology, when novelty drops, boredom rises. This is dopamine normalization, explained by Reward Prediction Error (RPE).

RPE is the brain mechanism that spikes dopamine when something feels new, exciting, or unpredictable…
and drops dopamine when the reward becomes predictable.

This is why:
• Week 1 feels fun
• Week 3 feels boring
• Week 6 feels pointless
• Week 10 feels automatic (if you keep going)

Now let me take you deeper.

Have you heard the saying:
“Neurons that fire together, wire together.”

That is Hebbian Learning.

When you repeat a behavior, your brain strengthens the pathway that carries it.
And when a pathway strengthens, your brain can do it with less energy.

That is the plateau.
Your brain is upgrading the wiring, so the habit becomes permanent.

Through neuroplasticity, your brain adapts and rewires.
The plateau effect is your brain applying Hebbian Learning.
It is strengthening the neural circuits that carry your new behavior
until it becomes who you are instead of what you do.

A plateau is a reminder that you are stabilizing.
Stabilization is how identity becomes permanent.

INVISIBLE WINS
I was annoyed at the scale, but my energy was steady.
I did not regress to old coping.
No emotional binge eating.
Huge win.

My daughter’s book sat in my files for 13 months.
Now it exists.
Then it existed again for my son.
Now people pay me to help them publish theirs.

My weight loss hit two plateaus.
Now I know how to read the cues.
When my body changes, I adjust my strategy.

At first, I expected to be further by now.
But my approach was habit stacking.
I did not change my eating until month five.

Why?

Because I built the foundation first.
My biology loved that approach because it was not a threat.

Slow progress is sticky progress.

Culture taught us otherwise.
It trains us to expect weekly transformation because we consume transformation content weekly.
But biology disagrees.

One thing I know for sure is that I will never quit on myself again.

Someone might have told you never to say never.
But if I am the author of my life, I choose the language.

I know I will succeed.
I see no other option.

There was a time when I was doing nothing but dreaming.
Now I am doing.

Any progress, even small progress, is success.

Think about when a phone updates.
It looks frozen.
It looks paused.
It looks stuck.

But the system is rewriting itself.

Just like you.
Your breakthrough happens after integration, not during excitement.

Science Square: THE CONSOLIDATION PHASE
Hypothesis: I thought I was stuck
Observation: My progress was happening quietly, not visibly
Data Point: Neural pathways strengthen during consolidation, not excitement
Insight: The plateau is not resistance. It is recalibration
Application: Stability triggers breakthrough, not novelty

THE HABIT ARCHITECTURE
You do not break a plateau by forcing yourself harder.
You break it by stabilizing your identity and reinforcing the habits that hold it up.

That is exactly why I built 100 Days, One You.

It is a habit architecture system designed to help you move through plateaus without quitting on yourself.
If you want structure that works with your biology instead of against it, this is your pathway. Grab 100 Days, One You today and begin your long-awaited transformation.

Next Saturday I am breaking down your inner environment and why it must shift before your habits ever will.

Until then, Peace Out, Peace In.

-Spivey J.