SNG Loser. Help!

[AceRat138]

I play very close to the aleomagnus guidelines. Before I read the aleomagnus guide I was playing only AA, KK, QQ, and JJ in the first three levels and then loosening up to my normal ring game strategy after that. Using this strategy I was about 25% in the money with a negative ROI. Using aleomagnus, I improved to 30% in the money, but my ROI is still in the red.

My problem is that when it gets down to 4-5 people at the table I am always either the short stack or close to it and the blinds are so high at this point that I am forced to play cards that are way less than average. If I am called once in an attempt to steal the blinds, I usually lose. If I get lucky and double up at this point, I always make the money but this is only happening about 20% of the time (The other 10% of my wins come from doubling early on and using my big stack to bully smaller stacks at the table). What do you do to combat this situation? I have tried loosening up early on to build a big stack, but that seems to be just as risky if not more risky than the strategy I am imploying now. Suggestions?