My Best Me

152.8 lb

It's been a year since I last posted, and in that time my weight has very slowly crept up by10lbs. 

I first heard of the Dukan diet in January last year while in England. I read the book and decided to give it a try. I weighed 159 lbs then, and I had a goal of losing 15lb. I ended up losing 16, but gaining back 12 actually because truthfully I've been hovering around 155.

It could have been worse though, because the pattern with most diets is to gain back what you lose and more. I think the fact that I haven't done that so far is due to the fact that I start every day still with one of Dr. Dukan's galattes and a yogurt, and generally I aim for protein and fruits and vegetables. 

But...and it's a big "but"(in more ways than one!) I have been lax with snacking and "over celebrating" daily.

I walked down a city street this week in the hot summer sun, and thought of how much better I would feel if I wasn't just treading water with my weight, but trimming down forever to 147 lb--the best weight I can be realistic about maintaining.

The choices are all mine; one at a time they lead in one direction or another--up; down; or straight ahead. My rational decisions though--my wish to be trim and my preference for the way I look when on the other side of 150 lb,, is not enough to compete with the immediate gratification of fat and sugar and the carbohydrate laden food I reach for at a time of day when I am tired, and feeling "deserving," or at a special meal, the other time I overindulge.

Dr. Dukan's rule for special meals--"celebration meals" as he calls them, is to have whatever you wish--twice a week, but no second  helpings. Such a meal will not sabotage a week of healthy eating.

I have done this before and this simple rule of no second helpings and stopping at two celebration meals a week, epitomizes moderation as well as celebration and enjoyment.

The weak time of day for me; evening; is another minefield to navigate. Navigating it is probably tied in with being more aware of what I am really reaching for when I open the cupboard door--and finding it in a way that will help me reach and maintain my "best me."

I'm aiming for 147 again, and it is, after all, just 6 lb away.

What I want is simply to be my "best me."

By Belinda


142.8--and feeling grateful. A few people have told me that I'm looking fit lately. I feel like I have a whole new relationship with food.

It was January 30 when I checked in here at 159 pounds. I've lost 16 pounds since then. When I search for words to describe the way I feel physically, the word "calm" comes to mind. My body has calmed down and feels peaceful.


Thank you God and thank you Dr. Dukan

The Scoop So Far

By Belinda


143 lb at the start of this week. I'm just checking in quickly to say what is working.


My weight is the lowest it has been in a long time and I am so grateful to have found a way of eating where I can enjoy food, never feel hungry and have cracked the cravings I used to live with.


What is working is following the Dukan Diet in its main elements. I am in the Consolidation Phase.


The Dukan Galattes have been a key to my success. I make a big batch once a week, enough to last eight days. I toast one for breakfast every morning and have it usually with a 0 fat yogurt and sometimes with an egg.


Every day I have one Nitropro 32 protein bar. I get them from Costco where they cost just under $20.00 for 12 bars. Both the galattes and the protein bars are filling. 


Around these core food items I add lots of salad, with my favourite vinaigrette mayo dressing from the Dukan Diet book. I eat lots of salmon, sometimes an ounce and a half of cheese and sometimes 3 Ryvita or a couple of slices of bread. I'm not a big bread eater.


At the moment the only fruit I'm eating is an orange, apple or grapefruit--no bananas yet. No nuts yet.


I'm allowed a celebration meal each week--sometimes I've had two. I'm not rigid about it. But it's working. 


I am grateful. Did I already say that? It bears saying again. I am where I want to be and I could live like this forever.


The protein bars give me the taste of something sweet that breaks the monotony that could set in if I only ate vegetables and protein, but they don't set up a vicious cycle of blood sugar spikes and lows in the way that other sweet snacks do.


That's it for now. Just wanted to post an update!

Back into Cruise

145.6

I've been doing okay in Consolidation, holding the line around 146-ish, but as I looked in the mirror I still saw a little more blubber than I really want to hang around! I decided to hop out of Consolidation and keep working for a few more weeks on the last 3 pounds. I'm aiming for 143lb, which isn't too far off to be radical.

I am so close and the Cruise part of the Dukan Diet is not painful, hard or unpleasant at all. I am never 100% rigid, but just try to follow the principles in general--and I am getting there. I am so grateful that back in January, God led me to the book on the shelf in Sainsbury's. I keep it close and read parts of it over again regularly. I love the galattes, and I love the vinaigrette mayo and the salmon en papillae from the recipe section. I feel as though my eating patterns have permanently been re-educated. I hope they have. Time will tell, but so far, it's going so well.

In Consolidation!

By Belinda


145.8


On Sunday, at 146.6 I decided to listen to Dr. Dukan's advice that my True Weight is 147 and begin Consolidation. Since I have lost 11 pounds since starting the Dukan Diet, and Consolidation is 5 days for every pound lost, this means 55 days in this two part phase. You break it into two parts (27 each in my case.) In the first half you can have one Celebration Meal a week, and in the second, two.


My first half will be reached May 10, and on June 7 I will begin Stabilization--which lasts for the rest of my life. I'm up for it. I can't quite believe I'm here but it feels so good.

By Belinda


149.4 1b


I haven't written for a while because I've been so busy since last I posted, but I want to check in to say that I am still pressing on with the Dukan Diet! I am not perfect in following it but it is working for me, slowly but surely!


I have also joined our local fitness and recreation complex with the rest of our household: Husband Paul, daughter Brenda and son-in-law Kevin. I work out several times a week now, often on my way home from work or on the weekend with Brenda or Paul.


People have commented that I'm looking good. This is very nice!


I am also wearing clothes that haven't fitted for a long time.


I still have between 4-7 pounds to go. I'm working on it--but meanwhile I am so happy to have got to this place.

By Belinda


Yesterday, the day I usually record my weight here at the start of a new week, I was 152.4. We had a big family dinner with prime rib, Yorkshire Pudding yesterday, but I also served roasted vegetables (onions, mushrooms, sweet peppers & zucchini,) which I was going to roast for myself the night before, but suddenly had the brainwave of roasting them just before our dinner and sharing them. The family LOVED them--and there was still some left for me! :)


Yesterday I pulled a dress from the depths of my closet that I haven't worn for a year--in fact I hardly wore it at all. It felt SO GOOD to put on something feminine and "new to me again." I haven't been motivated to go shopping really for a long time, because I didn't like  how I felt and looked and hoped I could reverse the trend at some time in the near future before buying more clothes.


Oh, and on Saturday I joined our beautiful, new recreation and fitness centre in Bradford and tonight I go for my orientation and health assessment!

Happy!

By Belinda
153.2 


I just had to share--I'm back into my jeans for the first time in a LONG time! I've been living in my stretchy yoga pants because wearing any of my pants with actual zippers in them felt like being in an all day Heimlich Maneuver! 


I've still got a way to go, but I have the hang of the Cruise Phase of the Dukan Diet now and it isn't hard. I'm doing two Attack Days a week, on Mondays and Fridays and for special meals, such as cell group or family dinners, I am making exceptions and eating normally--just obeying the rule not to have second helpings. 


This morning my work team and I had a breakfast meeting at an all day breakfast restaurant with a not especially healthy menu. Before leaving home I had a galette, and then at the restaurant I asked if I could order a la carte. I ordered two poached eggs and peameal bacon, as it is Friday, Attack Day. Two of my colleagues ordered the same thing! It was so filling I ended up with two slices left over to package up for lunch. 


On my way home from work, I stopped at our shiny new recreation centre to check out the gym memberships and discovered that being over 60 has a discount. Bonus!!! I took the information home to consider, but I think I'm signing up this weekend as I pass by it on the way home and it would be a perfect ending to my day to pop in and get in 25 minutes or so of walking on the track or treadmill. They have exercise classes too, and all included in the membership.


Happy? Yes! Hopeful? You bet!

Dukan Diet End of Week 4

By Belinda
154.8
Last week was a "celebratory week." I had a granddaughter's 14th birthday dinner out in a restaurant, and cooked an appreciation lunch for an Events Committee at work. The Events Committee are all people who love hospitality and they all insist on bringing food, even though I am trying to lavish appreciation on THEM! Long story short--it was a small miracle that on Sunday morning when I weighed in I was only a pound and a half more than the week before. 


It was disappointing though and I didn't want to post 154.8. I tried to convince myself it was (don't laugh) because I hadn't produced any waste products to speak of since last Thursday (trying to put it delicately!) Talk about rationalization. :)


I have been following the easiest path in Dr. Dukan's book (for those who have only a little weight to lose--two protein days, with eating normally (but not extremes) in between. Even at 154.8 I was down 7lb from my highest weight in January, but I could see that the progress this way was going to be slow. One pound a week is not bad at all, but a week with a few extras can thwart progress towards my goal.


What encouraged me was my friend Susan entering the fray as well. On Sunday I decided, after a protein day on Saturday, to do a vegetable and protein day (for the first time) in solidarity with her because we had a fundraising soup and sandwich lunch at church and I didn't want her to feel left out. It ended up that I did myself a big favour because this morning I weighed in at a respectable 153 1b. 


As a result I decided today to follow the plan where you do two protein days (mine will be Monday and Saturday) and vegetables and proteins for five days. I may make an exception for special meals, but still this form of the Cruise phase of the diet will get me to my goal weight more quickly.


Susan has enthusiastically improved on the galette recipe by adding baking soda to make them more fluffy, and adding spices and flavourings to zip them up. These are her recipes for 4 galattes:

       8 tablespoons oat bran

8 tablespoons plain yogurt

4 eggs (or equivalent in egg whites)

1 level teaspoon baking soda

For sweet:  2 tablespoons splenda, 1 level teaspoon cinnamon (more to taste if you like)

For savoury:  2 teaspoons onion powder (or cut up some fresh onions and throw them in), pepper, salt  (or any other kind of spices which suit your fancy - italian spice, roasted red peppers, garlic, etc, etc)

Cool on a baking rack.  

I continue to have so much hope that this way of eating; this plan; is something I can use to get where I long to be and stay there for life.

Dukan Diet End of Week 3

By Belinda


153.2 1b


I read a lot this week about the Dukan diet. I discovered that it's the diet Kate Middleton and Pippa, as well as their mother, used to get in shape for the wedding. 


I also read some success stories on the Dukan web site and watched a video clip on Dr. Oz, where one of the people whose blog address I have in the side bar here, ("How the Dukan Diet Works") was on the show. He had regained 25 of the 50 he lost on the diet but was back on track again, following the rules he had relaxed. He also said that now he knows how to lose it and he was still looking much better than he did at his original weight.


I read a diet review that raised a red flag about the lack of some essential nutrients at the beginning of the diet in the Attack Phase and Cruise Phase where only certain vegetables, and no fruit are allowed as well as no whole grains. 


The fact is that does seem worth paying attention to. Carrying excess weight and eating a typical high fat, high sugar diet is also not healthy and the Dukan diet does help to break that cycle.


The worries about nutritional balance are not an issue in the way I am choosing to follow the diet though since I am doing two Attack Days followed by five days of eating normally. If I lose weight more slowly this way that is okay. 


What I am finding is that the Attack Days, when you eat only protein and an oat bran gelatte, seem to have broken my craving for junk food and sweets. 


When you are eating only protein, you really only want to eat to satisfy your hunger and although you can eat as much protein as you want, you don't need much to feel full. I have become more in tune with when to eat and how much to eat.


I have also found that coming off the Attack Days, the increased sensitivity to true hunger carries over, and I am eating less.


I can eat anything I want to, but I don't want junk food snacks. I can see how having one Attack Day on the same day every week for life would have many benefits. 


Paul noticed a difference in my weight yesterday and commented on it! Encouraging!


Exercise is one part of the diet that I have to incorporate more of. Generating "heat" is an important part of heating up the metabolism andburning calories. Yesterday, for the first time in ages I put on a Lesley Sansome, Walk Away the Pounds DVD and did 21/2 miles,  (about half an hour,) which got my heart rate up to 120 beats and really gave my body an overdue shock! I bought one of her newer sets of DVDs to work in some variety and plan to use them in between regular outdoor walks. First though my calf muscles have to recover from the unaccustomed exercise they got yesterday!

Dukan Diet Progress

By Belinda
154.8 1b; less than I've weighed for a while.
Since coming home from England on January 28th, I've been gradually incorporating parts of the Dukan diet into my life. This is probably not the best way to go about the diet, ideally, but it is the way I have gone about it! Most things in my life are slow but steady (-ish.)


1) I started by making Dr. Dukan's Oatbran Galettes and finding them delicious and satisfying. I have ended up quadrupling the recipe and making them every few days.
2. Next I tried having an Attack Day on Saturday, February 4th. I really just wanted to see how it worked and if I could survive just eating low fat protein. I found it easier than I expected. I decided that Saturdays would be my weekly Attack Day.
3) This past weekend I had two Attack Days on both Saturday and Sunday. This is when I literally saw the scale go down quickly.
4) On Monday I have gone back to eating normally, but focusing mainly on the foods Dr. Dukan recommends overall.


I'm finding that I'm not craving junk food. The thing that is tantalizing to me is that I can live with this set of rules for life. If this truly works for me, even applying it less rigidly, I know I can get rid of my remaining 13 1b of blubber and live the rest of my life at a perfect weight for me!


Now that is a goal worth shooting for.

The Dukan Diet

By Belinda


Current weight 159 1b


While I was in England recently I read a book on a diet formulated by a French doctor: Dr Dukan. Its promise of lifelong weight control grabbed me in Sainsbury's when I flipped through the pages of the book and I bought it. It made a lot of sense and sounded so sensible that I was tempted to try it. If I did I knew I would have to really buy into it so I looked it up online and found a blog where someone tried it. You might like to check it out here: How Stuff Works and here is a link to another chronicle of the diet: My Dukan Diet.


I am getting organized to start and a friend is joining me. I know it means a commitment on several levels but the hope of getting rid of my excess baggage of approximately 15 pounds and keeping them off forever is exciting.


Stay tuned.

By Belinda

My average weight for this week was 156.3--down from 156.9 last week. Slow but sure.

I have been cutting back portion sizes, basically just eating healthily and avoiding the really sweet or fatty stuff that I don't need anyway. There is still a stash of Hallowe'en candy in the cupboard and I have not had one or even wanted one. One wouldn't do it for me--I know that--so it's best not to go there! :)

I have been abysmal at exercise of any sort and I rationalize that I am busy! But really in my heart of hearts that is an excuse. I will set a fitness goal for the next week of a minimum of 10 minutes a day of some sort of exercise. Let's see if that helps with boosting the weight loss.

Renewed Efforts

By Belinda
157 1b

Last Sunday Susan emailed me to ask if I'd like to join her in a one week pact to only eat food that was good for us. I told her I was in and that I thought I could do it for one week, one minute at a time!

I forgot that it was Hallowe'en the very next day! Actually though, the pact saved me from gorging on the left over candies of which we had a lot since not one child called at our house this year.

The week went well. I attended a couple of celebratory work functions that involved food and made good choices and it wasn't until Saturday evening when I went to a 50th birthday party that I had birthday cake and several things that tasted good but wouldn't qualify as "good for me."

I found my weight records in a computer folder. I was in the habit of charting my average weight for the week on an Excel spreadsheet. I recorded each week from 1998 to 2006, when for some reason I stopped doing it, although I still kept track daily in note books.

Yesterday I averaged the last three weeks weights and started recording again. For me this is more encouraging than just doing it daily. The ups and downs don't matter as much as the total average. As long as that goes down I'm happy. Last week I went down .9 of a pound, which I am so grateful for.

Today I asked Susan if she was up for another week. She was. We term "good for us" loosely. We can always decide that a dessert is good for us. It is up to us to decide.

I went for a 3 km walk with Molson this afternoon. The weather is still mild; the sun was shining and the air crisp. Underfoot the leaves were crispy crunchy. It felt good to fill my lungs with fresh air and be out moving around!

Getting Back on the Horse

By Belinda
157.2

I just inspired myself by rereading some  old posts here. I realize how much I have drifted in focus and drifted up in weight.

I feel so much better when I'm even 5 pounds less than I am now. Truly, nearly everything in my closet is too tight to wear and I refuse to buy a size bigger.

Seeing that I started where I am now, last year, and I did slowly but surely lose weight, is so encouraging. I did it then and can do it again. It just means caring for my body enough to nourish it with good things rather than junk, and reminding myself of both my addictions and what starts the cycle of craving and the connection between the kind of food eaten and how full I feel.

I don't want to be a frumpy old lady. I want to be my best me, no matter how old I am.

155.4 Saturday

By Belinda

155.4:

On the scale I made last week, any weight between 155.5 and 154 is a 2 on a scale of 1-10--10 being my ideal weight.

It has been an up and down week but it ended well. I went back up to just over 158 mid week and it was my birthday week so there was cake!!

But towards to the end of the week I started making lunches of salad and cottage cheese and having cottage cheese and fruit for breakfast. I do like cottage cheese (not the low fat variety) and find it filling.

It's Saturday--I'm off the the hair salon and into a new week. :)

156.2 Still a (1)

By Belinda

Update:
It was a good weekend. I walked each day with Molson our family dog--3.5 km each day, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

On Sunday after church I went for lunch at The Cedar Kitchen, but had a Greek salad--not the breakfast they are famous for.

156.8 On a Scale of 1-10

By Belinda

I made a scale of 1-10 which motivates me to work towards being a 10. I'm a 1 right now at 156.8. But I'm working on the 10!

1.  157-155.5
2.  154
3.  152.5
4.  151
5.  149.5
6.  148
7.  146.5
8   145
9.  143.5
10.142

158 Yikes!

By Belinda

I am returning to my confessional post.

I got on the scales this morning at a new high of 158 lb and I knew I needed help. I know that it helps to confide here.

What got me here? Sad to say it is pathetic but true--I used stuffing myself as a coping mechanism during four stressful months at work. Ridiculous to deal with a difficult time by creating another problem, but somehow I thought that rewarding and comforting myself with food was "helpful." Go figure.

Add to this the fact that I have been baking pies on an ongoing basis as a fundraiser and you get the picture. Pie is never far away--and pastry--flaky, tender pastry--is a weakness.

Anyway, friends, I feel like I've zipped myself into a fat suit. I am wearing flowing tops to cover my expanding middle and hips and my face is looking paunchy. I don't like it.

I will be 61 in a very few days, but I don't like helping along the ageing process.

So I plan to check in regularly and share the journey back to sanity and fitness.