Stabilization CONSOSTAB (shared diary)

[robinhood]

Hope the ballet exam went well, Anja.

I'm sure you're all geared up for your run, too! Best of luck.

I'm still glorying on. Been computerless for the last wee while, trying to keep food on track, but had husband's birthday to contend with (and eldest son's too soon).

House still upside down, still camping (but more warmth outside gives us the luxury of additional space - the garden - and we have a temporary dining room set up, so almost palatial compared to a while back).

Foodwise - not too bad apart from birthdays. Still have limited prep space but the stove is back on, so better cooking facilities.

Weigh-in on 1st April, so PP day will be Saturday next week! The 'plough through a chicken' strategy is working for me on PP days - not bored of it yet!

Hope everyone's OK!

 

[anjuschka]

Hi Laura,

nice to hear from you!

thanks, the exam went well as far as I can tell, I'm sure everyone passed. They all looked so different with their hair up and fringes pinned back! We'll get actual results later though.

Yes the Sportrelief Mile run is on Sunday, I'm all excited - it's the first time I run with other people rather than alone, and I guess it will be pretty busy so I'll see how I cope. It's a nice scenic route round some lakes in a country park. I don't expect to set any records in those conditions though! I have also realised that running on grass especially and on woodland paths slows me down quite a bit - at the weekend I ran a pace of about 9 minute per mile on soft ground and nearer 8.10 m/m on the roads for the last mile of my run that day. As you can see I have (temporarily) switched to miles and Sunday is officially 3 Miles not 5k ;-) At least the weather should be good! And I have raised £168 to date (see my signature).

Your building works - is there an end in sight? I'm not sure I would have coped over such a long time, thankfully it was a *relatively* mild winter - compared to last year! Will you be planning a big party when it's over?

On the food front, I was really good for a while and settled in the region of 65 again, with a stable/downwards trend but the last few days have been harder, I cracked and bought some dried fruit and once I have that in the house it's hopeless... Not bingeing of heavy foods but I do have the odd biscuit with my tea, sneaked piece of fruit or a slice of home made bread with a scraping of jam at breakfast time. (I need to appraise the results of my new breadmaker of course!) Not weighted since the weekend when I had STS at 65.

In my mind I am carrying a ballooned tummy on my front after the day when I gave in - realistically I suspect nobody can see a difference!

PP days are no problem at all, though occasionally I have a minimal amount of veg in the evening just to make life easier for family cooking. Like on Monday they all had lean cottage pie which contained some onion and minimal scraps of cabbage I just had the meat filling in a separate container baked with an egg...
Otherwise to me PP day = fish day definitely.

Of course there is Easter coming up - a week at home with visitors, a weekend with a double helping of visitors. Am already planning lots of yummy foods with military precision, including which day to prep what so I don't have to spend all day in the kitchen etc. Easter eggs are already bought, not the Easter bunny just needs to hide them (hopefully in the garden on a sunny day).

And then I escape the chocolate on Tuesday after Easter by going on a 5-day tour of Belgium with my choir. Lots of eating out then - at least I can pledge poverty to eat frugal for some of the time at least and I'm not even lying!
The first day travelling I'll obviously take a packed lunch, and I can take muffins for day two but thereafter I'll have to rely on Oatbran crispbread as I have no idea if I'll have access to a fridge (most likely not!)

The rest of the time, life is really busy at the moment, so not much noise from me on here. Hope you're all well and keep up the good work!

 

[alottolose]

Best of luck on Sunday Anja hope you have a great time and enjoy the "atmosphere" should be good fun xx

 

[anjuschka]

Thanks everyone, I did it ;-) In fact I did 3.6 miles (4 laps of a course that turned out not to be quite 1 mile per lap), with a friend who then carried on to do a total of 6 miles. Even though we took up running quite independently of each other and she can go much further than me (we have never run together) we seem to share approach and philosophy and we were comfortably running at a same pace as well which made it a very enjoyable day!
And thank you to all my friends who helped me raise £168! (there is still time to donate...)
Sport Relief Anja's page | Sport Relief 2012

 

[alottolose]

Well done Anja great weather for it too! x

 

[robinhood]

Well done, Anja! Nice medal.

My weight is down a pound on last month. That's only thanks to the chicken PP day though, I'm sure - have been cooking with more cream/cheese/butter as the house renovations are still ongoing - and still a couple of months to go - and husband was getting rather thin from all the extra work! I'd rather not have to do 2 batches of cooking, it's hard enough doing one just now. If I can get a lb off each month from now until summer, I'll be back to where I was (if I can't, I'll address that after the summer). Exercise (outdoors) levels will be increasing too, naturally.

I'm not bothered, we have a shiny new bedroom , just tiny tweaks needed to finish (one room down, 4 to go - one of which next year though!)

 

[robinhood]

Oops, not been here for ages. Forgot to weigh this morning but I'm sure I'd have seen a gain, will try and remember next week. Food OK, not strictly Dukan but as I'm on stab that should be OK (ha), not too bothered though - most of the gain seems to be in my face - less wrinkly and clothes still fit (but less roomy than they were!) so that's the main thing for now. House coming along nicely, another room done and dusted and by the end of the weekend we'll have the radiators plumbed in and a new kitchen sink (with hot water - the excitement is huge, no more trudging outside with the dishes!)

Hope everyone's OK. Will take the time to catch up on diaries next week - promise. Hope all have a great weekend!

 

[anjuschka]

Oh Laura now you put me to shame.

I've not been here for a long long long time, though am piping up occasionally in the forums in general.

Well.... EASTER. Chocolate Eggs were a lot harder to say no to than last year. I guess my resistance muscle needs a bit of retraining. We had lots of visitors over the break and I enjoyed cooking for everyone (home made pasta!), especially catering for 8 for a few days.

My trip to Belgium however was FAB and not problematic at all, I don't think I clocked up any massive gains there: Lots of walking, a restrained breakfast and picnic lunch, sometimes a coffee or a lunchtime soup and an evening meal where I only ever had a few chips, croquettes or whatever - except the time we went to for Pizza - and 'touristic menus' are not huge anyway... The fact the every second shop in Brugge sells chocolate was not a problem either, I'm quite a capable window-shopper. Then I came back home and there was still some nice chocolate to be eaten at home - so I did !!
Anyway, once I finally stepped on the scales they told me I had gained another kilo, however symptoms are a bit like Lauras: no noticeable gains except I can/could tell (in my bra cups of all places!). Anyway I have cut out all extras for two weeks now and am hovering back in the 65s... give it a couple more weeks and I'll be fine. Yesterday morning I had only 'lost' 100g on the previous week, cue huge frustration but I broke my rule and stepped on the scales again today that had adjusted itself to a 600g loss PHEW.

Ah yes -about the trip to Belgium - we stayed at an Ibis hotel - nice average chain etc etc but their continental breakfast buffet was good from my point of view: they had cold meats (including lean ham), cucumber and tomatoes, cheese, plain low-fat (and full fat) yoghurt, cold hard boiled eggs, fruit (apples etc). A vast selection of breads (and pastries), including wholemeal. The usual cereal but also a 'boil-your-own' set-up for eggs, I had never seen that before and it was GREAT! (plus some sausages and scrambled egg that I was able to avoid) So I was able to have my 1 slice of bread, a hot boiled 'dippy' egg (or two), and some ham and yoghurt for brekkie, and when everyone was making sandwiches for lunch (clearly tolerated / expected by the staff), I just packed two cold hard boiled eggs, and together with my stash of oatbran crackers and an apple and some tomatoes from the local supermarket they saw me through the day quite nicely. I only gave in on the last morning and had a 'Suikerbrood' sweet roll and some nice cheese too!

So here I am, plodding along, surfing the ups and downs of Maintenance! I have just been give a 'Herrman Friendship Cake' starter by my neighbour so I will be baking a cake at some point next week
Herman The German Friendship Cake
and I plan to turn it into a base for Sourdough bread in the future. I was never brave enough to start with Sourdough on my own but now I have been helped along...

 

[kirsty822001]

what a lovely diary! Its great to see how you can dukan when away from home, that terrifies me at the moment! fab weight losses too congratulations!

 

[jaqys]

Wow Anja sounds like you were pretty strict on hols.

Hows the renovations coming along robin?

 

[anjuschka]

Wow Anja sounds like you were pretty strict on hols.

thanks jaqys, you flatter me as usual: it really reads stricter than it was: when in Belgium, every coffee comes with *something* - a biscuit, a chocolate, a small Madeleine, even if you have ordered a waffle to go with it anyway, which we just had to do once ! Traipsing round cold and sometimes very wet Belgian towns and looking at architecture old masters wears you out so they were all part of the deal And then of course we had a concert to sing in some cathedral or church every afternoon, and some of those were COLD (colder inside than outside - the 'Spring Problem') Pics below are of Brussels Cathedral, I'm in the second row, first women next to the men. In Ghent I wore all my 5 layers, which was okay as long as the top layer is black and smart (so no 'coats' allowed)... but of course your hands and the rest do get cold anyway. But it was fun and the experience of singing with cathedral organs and acoustics made it all worth while



And anyway, my tendency to overindulge a bit at Easter was not while away but while at HOME. My cupboards are still stuffed with goodies ...

 

[anjuschka]

Phew I meant to post this on Friday but never got round to it! So I'll just paste it in anyway, even though we are two days later! Had a lovely sunny weekend - yesterday a 'perfect' Conso day despite the annual school fete, but today a glass of Pimms and a nibble of cake at a birthday party. Tomorrow PP as usual. But back to the start:

Dear Diary,

I have been awol for quite a while again. Time for an update. All is well and has been ticking over in a boring way so there really was nothing to report.

But I can finally report success! After really cruising for a few weeks after Easter, but most PP days except Monday still had small veg in the evening meal to fit in with Family meals, I returned to proper Conso two weeks ago – my best move ever. I have lost about 1lb each week, kind of the same / more that whilst cruising. So this morning I have seen the magic 64s for the first time in MONTHS: 64.7 YAY J very pleased...

As I said before, I had let things post-Christmas slide a bit, too much chocolate at Easter itself and too many little extras here and there so I really had to refocus and return to better habits. My weight had gone up a couple of kilos into the high 66s – argh!
Other motive to get back on track – I have a definite celebration coming up on Tuesday, attending a reception/dinner for a long-time ex-colleague who’s finally leaving the project that I left in 2002. Due to the nature of the work we were all very close at the time. And a number of old colleagues will be there who have not seen me in 10 years and only know me in my ‘Turkey working clothes’ ie baggy T-shirts or shirts and light wide-leg trousers or ankle-length skirts. I need to dig at home to see if I can find a picture to show you (update: found a pic). So I want to make a good impression ;-) though not too dressy as I’ll spend the day in London with a friend before we go on to the drinks reception. I do hope the weather stays like this and I can wear any summer dress I like – I was considering the flowery white one I have on my avatar here, it’s a bit ‘cocktail-dressy’ and above the knee, not sure if it’s a bit mutton dressed as lamb though!

On the running front I have been keeping it up as some of you may know if you read the couch25k thread. Taking a whole week off – missing 3 runs after Easter – made such a difference to my (perceived?) fitness . For a whole month I have only been running distances of 4-5k, 20-30 minutes max, at a marginally slower pace. Only last week did I feel much better about it, ran over 6k on Sat no problems and over 5 on Monday. Last night I made a mistake, went out without having eaten anything since midday (~5hrs) though I had drank plenty of water. Did not feel nice in the legs at all and also it was just too hot, so I ran a smaller loop again – 4K / 22 minutes. But I’ll go out early tomorrow, and have big plans for a nice long sunny run ;-)

(Update: Sat glorious morning long run before breakfast - 7k, 40 mins. Last 1k some enforced walking because I nearly had to do a 'Paula Radcliffe' by the wayside! The problem of early morning running runs for me, stimulates the bowels!)

Food wise I’m now doing normal conso, with one piece of fruit, occasionally two. And I am having ‘diet’ fruit yoghurts now, makes life more interesting. But I am being flexible with the bread and cheese: this week it was:
A crumpet with cheese on Sunday,
beans in the chilli on Tuesday, can’t remember the ‘cheese’ on Tue
a proper cheese & tomato sandwich on Wednesday,
a small portion of chilli left-overs including 2 TB of brown rice on Thursday. Cheese on my fish pie.
Today: Toast or Breadcrumb and Goats Cheese for stuffed Mushrooms tonight.
Other extras last week: somewhere at the weekend a chocolate crispy cake made by the kids. But no other treats. And on Sat we all had Boudins Blancs - a nice family ‘celebration’ meal yum yum, I even had a small glass of wine!
On two days the week before I had a piece of home made ‘Friendship cake’, on at home when we made it, and on the next day as I took the second loaf in to work. But no more than that. (For info what I’m talking about: http://www.hermanthegermanfriendshipcake.com/Herman The German Friendship Cake though I did not follow the recipe to the letter and halved all the sugar for starters – it was still too sweet - and reduced the oil too). The sourdough starter is just ready for its new baking today, and I plan to make bread with it this time, so I have been adding yet less sugar to the mix. (Made Bread on Friday night and it worked great!)

Another happening is that I will be going back on the pill after 8 years off. Let’s see what *that* does to my weight in general. The reason is purely medical because my hormone levels are very low and I’ve not had a period since starting on Dukan 2 years ago. I assumed they would return eventually once I had stabilised but they have not so the best way for now to ensure bone density is to go back ON the pill, and the see what’s going on in a year (I already have my consultant appointment for May 2013!) Everything has been checked to eliminate any more serious causes and the consultant agreed that the weight loss was the most likely trigger for this interruption to my cycles which were perfectly fine before. At least my family is complete so no worries on that front!
----------------------
So I found an old photo of me whilst working in Turkey - about 1999 I think! And the one in the yellow dress was taken this Saturday - I was walking along with the kids taking their first ever donkey ride at the school fair! Even my billowing maxi dress did not make me look too huge really.

 

[CHRISR]

Great to read your posts Anja and to see your photos - what a remarkable difference, love the maxi dress too. Thank you Anja for all your posts - reading them has definately helped me get this far

 

[Paulinegin]

Fabulous post Anja, good luck with the pill, hope it works.

Love your photos

P x

 

[ellie1969]

great post

 

[Maintainer]

Lovely to read you Anja. I am so grateful that you stick around, offering your so very wise words of wisdom, even to those of us who really have lost the (Dukan) plot
x

 

[passionflower]

You look fabulous Anja and I am loving your thread I am half way through it. Thank you for sharing and thank you for the inspiration, I need it xx

 

[robinhood]

---

Hi everyone.

Anja, you are so strict, a real inspiration. I've been plodding along ignoring the extra weight but will need to sort that out as I'm in my summer clothes (they are tighter than last year!) so I need to get a couple of weeks of Conso under my belt too! Tomorrow PP - so chicken, fromage blanc and galette in whatever order. Think I'll ignore the scales and just get to where I was clothes-wise last year!

I have to take kittens to vet tomorrow, poor things are being castrated, so they need to fast overnight. Husband at work, so I'll need to go myself and not looking forward to the journey - don't think they'll be happy. Anyway fingers crossed for them - can imagine I'll have no appetite until they're home and safe.

Hope everyone's OK!

 

[sarafvrm]

Anja, it's great to read your update. I'm really impressed that you can return to Dukan as and when you feel you need to. I wondered whether I'd reach the stage where I could never contemplate it again! Best of luck. Sara

 

[anjuschka]

Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your nice comments.

You say I return to Dukan - well that’s not strictly true, I have never really left. After you follow this diet your lifestyle subtly changes, if you want or let it.

As this diary says in the title, I have worked out that Stab **for me** is really a slightly relaxed version of Conso. But only slightly, and as time goes on I relax more so I need to keep an eye on that (read more below). You’re not going to ‘the way you were before’ (I’ve done enough ranting on that subject at the beginning of this diary!). For me that means that I can have one treat / biscuit per day and two carb meals per week. Of course there are full-food days or weeks such as Easter, Family visits, Birthdays etc, but then you will have to make up for it, just the same as people who never diet do (but then they probably hardly overeat either!). Ok, in time after completing Conso you can be more relaxed and have more fruit or two slices of bread without getting into trouble with the scales but in essence the limits apply if you want to stay where you are.

I’ve taken another photo - this is me today (ignore the untidy spare room!!), and it’s what I wore to London on Tuesday. I had a lovely day, with lots of walking (grand total for the day about 9km at a brisk pace because I was on my own) and a nice leisurely afternoon lunch (Mackerel salad 100% dukan followed by chocolate and almond cake 0% Dukan! And so worth it!). And then in the evening met up with my old friends we had drinks (2 glasses of Prosecco) and nibbles (cheese and grapes, a few hot canapes later) but I had to rush off before we got round to eating proper food, hopping back on the train at about 9.30pm. Was a bit too hungry by then and all my Dukan friendly food stash (muffins...) had of course been eaten so I did buy a sandwich and a tiny dessert from M&S *blush*

Continued a bit in that vein yesterday - a perfect day, no extras, the bread and cheese covered by a carefully measured potion of Quinoa and home made cheese sauce a dinner time (with steamed salmon and broccoli), but then in the evening I had lots of accounting work to do for a committee meeting tonight so eventually I succumbed to a jam sandwich (home made wholemeal and rye bread though) and some biccies at about midnight. In bed by 2am yawn. Up again by 6. So no decaf today (see Jo’s diary) because I need to keep going. And that's going to be my excuse for not refusing a piece of cake at the committee meeting tonight - these meetings have a tendency to go on and on LATE, I’ll probably be home by 11pm at the earliest.

Friday back to normal I hope but I’ll have to fit in a run somewhere because I won’t have time for one today. And then the weekend is planned with jubilee cup cake making and a Germano-British BBQ (maybe including Bratwurst, Potato Salad, Eton Mess or Trifle and Beer or Pimms?) on Sunday.

And THEN I ‘return’ to strict Dukan next week. A reflection of real life, you celebrate a little and then you have to get back to reality.