Not so Dukan Diet - 6.7kg lost in 78 days!

I can't believe it is two weeks since my last blog! Currently 6.7kg lost in 78 days - 59 days to go and still 12.3kg to lose.

Why have I been so quiet? Is it because I have only lost 300g (.3kg) in the last two weeks? Perhaps. And work has been busy. And my personal life has been hectic.

Only 300g in two weeks ... I hear you mutter. Well .... during this time I gained almost 1kg - only to work hard to lose it again .... and a little more. I stopped following the Dukan Diet to the letter. I've developed my own diet that IS working for me. The weight gain was due to a couple of nights out where I even ate dessert (shock! horror!) However, I think I needed a break - I had been so strict that I felt I deserved a little relaxation on the diet. We shared a packet or red rock chips over two weekends of football AND I had some dark chocolate this week too. It was a treat and I am over it now, which is great!

Now, the good news. Getting the extra kg off, plus some, took only a week when I focussed on it. I am making great use of my mornings at Fenix gym in Nerang - now doing cardio 3 mornings and weights 2 mornings. John came with me yesterday (amazing!) because I organised a 'free' week for him to try the gym. He didn't come this morning but tells me he will come again tomorrow. There is no point pushing him - he shouldn't join if he is not motivated.

Now to the diet. Contrary to Dukan law - I DO have carbs in the morning. At the moment one serve of Uncle Toby's nutty oats with a tablespoon of bran and light milk, followed by one slice of grainy bread or muffin with honey or a smear of butter and vegemite. Alternate days I have two eggs and one piece of toast. It stops me feeling light headed in the mornings.

Then for a work snack I have been bringing in celery sticks - sometimes by themselves and some days with a small amount of hommus. Lunch is either tuna in springwater or a green salad with protein. John made a great meatloaf last night - so I have brought that in for lunch - plus the celery for a snack. My afternoon snack is generally a small no fat yoghurt. As John is starting to watch his diet and is moving towards starting his own weight loss journey, we have been having lighter dinners. Minestrone or tomato soup (home made). John has a bread roll with his. We have a cup of tea later (I usually have a herb tea at night). With the four small meals already during the day, I am finding it easy to eat a wholesome, nutritious but calorie light dinner. If I'm hungry after dinner I have another yoghurt. And water - I am drinking more water.

This seems to be working for me. If we do go out for dinner (apart from the two nights I ate a dessert) I generally have grilled fish or eye fillet steak with green salad. We don't have soup every night - but, like last night, we had the meatloaf John made with green vegetables. He also had some mashed potato but I noticed he had less on his plate than usual ... good for him!

My goal this week is to reach the 7kg LOST mark. By Saturday. Next stop 8kg.

Back to work now ...

Dukan Diet - is it just me, or is it getting easier?

Good morning - again, sorry no blog for a few days - I have been under the pump a bit at work and the weekend was super busy.

Weigh in results today : 64 days and 6.4kg loss - now 74 days and 12.6kg to go!

I actually hit this milestone on Saturday morning (6.4kg loss) and was REALLY excited! However the weekend was tricky - with a BBQ dinner on Saturday night. John barbecued steak (eye fillet for the girls) and I made two salads - one of them a pasta pesto with cherry tomatoes and pine nuts, a green salad with olives, semi dried tomatoes and avocado AND crunchy roast potatoes. While I did not have a dinner roll (like John and our guests), I DID have a small portion of potatoes and pasta salad as well as some of the green salad. After that the strawberries soaked in mead with creamy ice cream seemed OK, as well as a glass of red wine AND a Baileys on ice. VERY NAUGHTY, but delicious!

I should not have been surprised when my weight went back up 400g on Sunday morning. I made a lovely vegetable omelette and crispy bacon (for John) - but sneaked a piece of bacon myself. Then off to a Rotary lunch at the Marriott Hotel. One glass of wine, small portion of main course and a little fresh fruit for desert. I avoided the petite sweets ... just.

It gets worse - Sunday night John barbecued some lean beef sausages which we had with the left over salads (again with the pesto pasta ...). I had TWO sausages followed by a herb tea.

So yesterday I went to the gym at my usual early hour and did a big weights session - came back to a 100g loss (yay!) Had a great day yesterday, food wise. Stuck to the attack menu - including Dukan meatloaf last night (which I have for lunch today) - and after a big cardio session at the gym this morning I am back to Saturday morning's record breaking weight loss!

Despite all that - it isn't actually that hard. I don't beat myself up if I have a little slip up or treat once a week or so - and seem to be able to shift the weight a bit easier too. I am hoping that I will increase my weight loss ratio, per week, over the next few weeks. Logic tells me that the diet and gym should be helping to kick-start my metabolism, so in theory it should get easier/faster for a while. I know that when I get closer to my ideal weight it may get hard again.

I read another interesting thing the other day - if you have been at a consistent weight for a few years - which I have - initially your body wants to keep taking you back to that weight. But after a while it gets re-programmed to accept the lesser weight as 'normal' .... I love this theory - lets see how it works!

Feeling pumped - planning to hit the 7kg loss mark by the weekend. I have to be careful - as I am taking my daughter Jasmine to dinner tonight (seafood, which is always a good choice) AND I am catching up with gal pals Susie and Irene to see a play at the Arts Centre on Thursday night titled "Often I find that I am naked" and we are having dinner first.

Dukan Diet - just broke 6kg weight loss! Woo hoo!

A great start to the day - headed off to the gym at my usual early hour - did a cardio session and took some good advice (thank you John) and did 12 minutes at each station instead of 10. This pushed my heart rate up over 170, which really seemed to make a difference. I was sweaty and smelly on my return, but triumphant!

So ... wait for it ... 6.2kg lost in 59 days, 12.8kg to go in 79 days! That's right ... OVER 6kg! To be honest, this is now officially the lightest I have been in 20 years! Next goal - 10kg!

I ate well yesterday - had cajun grilled salmon for dinner with about 6 calamari pieces. John had crumbed snapper with calamari and chips ... followed by a cup of tea and sao biscuits with tomato and cheese on top ... which he ate in front of me.

So it really does come down to Energy In, Energy Out. Getting the balance right.

So I had porridge for breakfast and a toasted split muffin. I seem to need some carbs in the morning after gym. I have brought celery sticks in for a snack and have tuna in springwater for lunch - as I am meeting my pal Susie and my daughter Emily for dinner and a movie at the Arts Centre tonight. I am not sure what is on the Cafe menu, so I have to make sure I choose well and make tomorrow a total protein day.

Note to self: I must not let Susie lure me with chocolate or ice cream, I must not let Susie lure me with chocolate or ice cream, I must not ....

Have a great day!

Dukan Diet - it works if you stick with it!

Another sunny Gold Coast day, another early start at the gym - weights today - and another small weight loss! Total loss = 5.6kg in 58 days, 79 days and 13.4kg to go!

I enjoyed my lean chicken last night - but feel I overate a little. I was hungry. I had two small pieces with steamed carrots and zuchini AND a very small amount of baked potato. My bad.

I got home from work a little late and cut three small potatoes up into teeny, tiny pieces so they would cook quickly, which I baked. John had the lion's share, but it looked and smelt too good to pass up. Had I NOT had it - my loss overnight may have been more substantial!

Then, after my weights session this morning I was (again) hungry. John cooked two fried eggs (non stick pan, no oil) but I was still hungry after that .... so I cooked a piece of multigrain toast and had a scraping of butter on it.

I brought some celery sticks to work for a morning snack and the rest of the Dukan meatloaf for lunch. I have yoghurt for afternoon snack. Not sure about dinner tonight - may get some fish to grill.

Still hoping to reach 6kg lost by the weekend - so I have to stop the naughty stuff. Also, I am going to dinner and movie with a friend tomorrow night - I have to make sure I make VERY HEALTHY choices.

Dukan Diet - back on track!

It's been a week since my last blog. What happened? I hear you asking. It just got hard. It's been eight weeks of strict dieting with very little deviation and the last month at the gym as well. Yet I seemed to reach a plateau in the last two weeks that saw very little downward movement in weight and even a little upward movement after a dinner out and a naughty crumpet the next day.

Frustrating.

I felt I had nothing positive to blog and didn't want to admit how much I was struggling with it all. It's just been such a long journey so far, and I really thought I would be at around 7-8kg loss by now. But here I am, 57 days gone, 80 days to go and just 5.5kg weight loss.

That leaves 13.5kg to go.

On this ratio I will only lose another 8kg by my goal date. Can I live with that? Can I continue the diet through the christmas period to reach my goal, a little later, but still reached? I will have to still diet over the holidays or I will put the weight back on. Dinner out and crumpet chaser proved that.

Just suck it up Susan.

Having said all that - I do feel much better physically and emotionally, having lost 5.5kg. My clothes are a little looser. Another 3kg and I will allow myself a shopping expedition - something to look forward to!

I am doing well at the gym - have changed from 3 x cardio and 2 x weights sessions to the reverse. Weights Mon/Wed/Fri and cardio Tues/Thurs. I am adding ten minutes to the cardio program on Thursday - does it really make any difference if I get up at 5.10am or 5.20am? And I am adding the ten minutes to the weights session, by ending with a little cardio. Common sense (and Ryan) tell me to mix it up a little so my body gets shocked/surprised.

So cardio this morning - followed by a shower then a breakfast of : 1 x barocca and vitamins, 1 x protein shake with banana - which once mixed with water and crushed ice made about 3 glasses of shake. John ate crumpets with butter and vegemite in front of me. I was a little jealous but made lots of "yummm" noises while drinking my shake - just to keep myself smiling. He declined my offer of a glass of shake ...

I cooked the Dukan meatloaf last night with celery, onion, carrot, tomato, mushroom and bran in it. (John doesn't know about the bran - he had two helpings last night and I put some in a sandwich today for him to take to work). Interesting! (He had mashed potato and silverbeet with his).

Emily came home from the gym - looked in the fridge - looked at me and said "I'm not eating the brown stuff". I had sushi hiding behind it for her. Huge relief on her face.

I have celery sticks for my mid-morning snack and meatloaf for lunch plus a yoghurt for afternoon snack. I am planning lean chicken and salad for dinner.

Fingers crossed - this week I want to break the 6kg mark.

Dukan Diet - I now have a gym buddy

Daughter Emily (17) came to Fenix gym with me last night to organise a free trial - she really liked the place and now has a 7 day trial. She was so motivated that she asked me to wake her when I got up at 5.20am, so that she could come with me. It was fun having her there - although she wore a torn "Frankie says relax" t-shirt which copped lots of looks and a few smiles....

We did cardio this morning - although I had to get Emi started on each machine ... she loved it and is coming again in themorning to do weights.

No change with weight the last couple of days - the plateaus really cheese me off - as I stick to the diet and go to the gym ... and then with no warning whatsoever I will drop 400g. Weird.

Dukan Diet - finding my inner goddess, at last!

It was a little hard to get up at 5.20am this morning - part of me just wanted to snuggle in to my permanent blokey hot water bottle for a little longer, but I thought,"if I get up and go to the gym, it may mean another small loss, so just do it!"

So I got up and went to the gym - did a weights workout with a little treadmill at the start and bike at the end. Fenix has a few bikes upstairs in the weights area that have a 'virtual reality' program. First time for me and it is really motivating to be 'racing' the clock and other riders. Fun! I am a competitor, by nature!

Then home to the scales and woo! hoo! - another small loss of just 100g (.1kg) - but now I am 5.4kg down with only 13.6kg to go in 87 days. I had a small porridge with oatbran this morning and half a toasted muffin with vegemite. It seems I need the carbs after the gym. I had left-over Dukan recipe meatloaf for lunch (made John a meatloaf sandwich to take to work) and will have just protein tonight. And maybe a green tea while I watch Packed to the Rafters ...

Oh - I started this blog with "finding my inner goddess" - and guess what? It seems that losing 5kg makes a difference. My work pants are all a little loose - my favourite pair are dragging on the ground slightly, even with my high heel boots on - as I guess my ass/hips are slightly smaller so they hang a little lower. My upper body shape seems to have changed too - it's, er, more shapely. And the tops of my legs now look more like legs than tree stumps .... how will I feel after another 5kg?????