Stabilization CONSOSTAB (shared diary)

[passionflower]

Cute little outfit Anja and you are right thin people rarely overeat. I have a few very good French friends whom i am lucky to see often enough. They have never dieted I have never seen them fat and in all my time spent with them I have never seen them not enjoy something when I was for the fear it will make them fat. But if we had a 3 course meal at lunch they would only eat one apple for dinner, or one fat free yoghurt for breakfast and if they ordered a very calorific dessert they might enjoy half of it rather than eat the whole lot. I think is about juggling all the time and being one step ahead and making the right choices. as humans we are creatures of habits and I know if you exercise something for a long time it becomes ingrained so I am hoping Dr. Dukan will help me achieve this, I already see and think differently about what food I eat. My problem was not so much bad food but the amount of it.

 

[anjuschka]

Glorious Jubilee Food!

Hi all,

just a quick update, I wanted to show off my not-so-killer cupcakes. I was so pleased with the result of my first proper looking ‘cupcakes’ ever, as opposed to Muffins or Iced fairy cakes or whatever. These at least looked the part, they call themselves 'Black Forest Cupcakes'.
I used a normal recipe but substituted half-fat spread for the butter in the batter and instead of piping butter-cream I whipped up 100ml whipping cream, 1tb icing sugar and mixed with some vanilla and a tub fat-free quark. And the result was really tasty, the topping much nicer than butter-cream in summer, and my guests enjoyed them too. I did use sugar and everything else but sometimes the little things also make a difference.

Of course the rest of that rained off BBQ on Sunday was spent watching the River Pageant on the TV (well it was on in the background at a guest’s request!) eating german sausages, potato salad, Eton Mess and drinking Pimms

Monday and Tuesday were spent eating up the leftovers

Back to PP on Weds, and normal strict conso-style now. I’ve not weighed myself since last week ahem, but from a 'feeling' point of view it should be okay. Lots of exercise too though: I did my usual running on Sat and Mon, plus a 5km Family walk when the weather improved on Monday. And a 5k run this morning before work, and before the rain kicked in.

Robin - nice to 'see you' - Re Kitten and Vets - I used to have a cat and he was an absolute expert at not being put into the travel basket. It's hilarious now but it wasn't at the time! Hope yours got through it okay.

 

[ellie1969]

those look yum

 

[passionflower]

Oh My God Anja these look absolutely amazing!!!

 

[robinhood]

Hello to anyone who remembers me! Hope all are doing well!

I have been very lax both with this forum and the diet over the past few months (6 months or so). However, work on house is just about finished and I need to lose a bit of weight before I haul out my winter clothes! My summer clothes are tighter than I remember and I can't remember what my last weigh-in was (months ago) but it's now 10 st 10 lb. Oops. So, I am starting today (again) to lose the extra. I was 10 stone at the end of conso but I'll allow myself an extra pound or two as I'm now older!

The lovely Jo will be married by now. The weather was good here, hope it was for her too.

 

[alottolose]

Laura!! GREAT to see you again

And how wonderful that the works are nearly finished least this year will be better than last year with the winter cold is it all done how you want it now?

Lovely to have you back, Jo has been busy with the wedding, Vicky disappeared, Anja still gives regular updates and words of much needed conso wisdom , Manda posted recently and Tania pops by now and then

nice to see how folks are getting on I'm still here as per....got a wee way to go at the moment

10lbs will be off in no time are you cruising or consoing? xx

 

[anjuschka]

I'm still around - an update for July!

Hello Diary! Hi Laura, nice to see you looks like we’re both on the same part of our ‘journey’ ;-)

When starting to write this, I just found this diary entry for mid-July which I managed not to post at the time - so here it is, it’ll put the current one in a new message after:

------------------------------

July 13th (about 5 pounds over TW)

Yes I am still around, and still coasting round and round the same issues. Which is “slipping back to my old habits” and “too many treats”. Real life in fact

I did get back to strict Conso, with partial success, and after a good 5 days including a perfect weekend caved in on weds. By ‘cave in’ I mean a small new potato with dinner and a chocolate dessert with the family. that led to a couple more relaxed days one of which was planned as it involved the annual garden party at work. It’s sort of okay, while I am definitely still way over TW, but at least I am ‘stationary’. So since Saturday I have been good on strict conso again. Today I have saved my bread and cheese allowance to have a sliver of quiche with the family meal... So I am still taking liberties, but controlled liberties.
I moved my PP day a while ago because Monday is normally my day at home when temptation is much harder to resist and it’s been working well really. So my Mondays stay ‘clean’, even in a ‘bad’ week....

What are my weaknesses: fruit, especially dried fruit and bread/crackers. Buying ‘health’ bars while out shopping. So there are no more dried fruit in the house (again), I have resisted the treat shopping when running several errands in town this week, and AM limiting myself to the one slice of bread and one piece of fruit (topped up by Rhubarb though!). It is hard because I am still playing with that Sourdough, nurturing it week on week and baking a (totally different) loaf of bread every week which of course MUST be sampled, usually tastes yummy and is hard to resist...
And on a bad day I sometimes get the munchies before bedtime (or any other time). Plain Oatcakes, dried Apricots, wholemeal bread with jam (!) a handful of sunflower or pumpkin seeds. And on a worse day a biscuit or two or three. Never a whole packet and generally though they’re ‘just’ carbs, not particularly indulgent foods like chocolate or cakes.

Excuses excuses (as this happens every year and I managed fine last time!): At work there’s been loads of end-of-term stuff going on, celebrations I need to attend, meetings that then have nice catered finger food left over for everyone at work to share. So I’ve had lots of temptation in that department and I must admit that I have given in. No excessively so, but I’ve said yes too many times... At the moment there are two bowls of premium crisps and a plate of to-die-for brownies in smelling distance ;-) but I am learning to say no again!

More excuses - I am back to experiencing normal cycles. Artificially induced but nevertheless... We’ll if my system has not been jolted back to making enough of its own hormones after 9 months or so they will send me for an Scan to check my pituitary (??) gland. Anyway I do notice the PMT water retention effect, only very slight but I had completely forgotten what it was like after 2 years without. Not been weighing myself often enough to see what it does to the scales though. And maybe that’s what makes carbs more irresistible recently too - I know, what a weak excuse!

But what I found with the running - I run better when I am strictly controlling the carbs though. I just feel better.

So now comes the end-of-year sprint, lots of things happening in school etc and culminating in DD1s birthday party in a week and a half. This week we’re going to ‘travel the world’. So more cooking and baking for that, plus I need to supply cupcakes for DD2 to hand out at nursery, and two batches for biscuits for both schools’ staff rooms - that’s my way of getting round the teachers’ present dilemma (we don’t usually give presents), as both kids have two class teachers and several other helpers and people on the sidelines that we really ought to include, but whom even they can’t always name reliably...

 

[anjuschka]

September 21st

Hi Laura and everyone,

Yes I am cruising again - much to Maintainer’s chagrin (sorry Jo - only just found your message in my spam folder - separate reply will be forthcoming).
Summer holidays in various places (all UK) were relaxed to say the least, I did not always say no to icecream or wine or whatever but I stuck with the oatbran and the general rules, they are a way of life for me now... I still avoid grapes and bananas, peas and sweetcorn most of the time which is quite sad really! A week at my MIL who’s a good cook (including morning coffee and afternoon tea) meant I started September with some excess baggage, probably on your scale Laura. I’ve done two weeks cruise (no attack though! Never!) and then had 5 days with lots of baking, cakes, birthday meals last week. In fact I just posted this below on another thread last week that was asking about Stab whether the forum keeps me on the straight and narrow (it doesn’t), but I’ve edited it a bit:

I found that Stab is really like an continuation of Conso, you settle into a way of life. I was doing fine on that for about 2 years but since this spring I've found it harder to resist the extras (and more), so the weight has crept up slowly. at some point this summer I sort of gave up altogether and joined in with the rest of my family at snack times etc. I am still running and eating healthily but when I crack it's the bread (wholemeal, rye, home made, stoneground) or oats (porridge, oatcakes) that get me, plus fruit, especially dried. I'm not particularly drawn to 'junk', though the jar of nutella which my MIL helpfully 'donated' to our household did not help (I normally buy another spread that I don't like and the kid's don't mind the difference)!
Anyway, I've now done 2 weeks of cruise (I never redo attack though, maybe 2PPs in a row) up to last week and it was going well, but then I had Tue and Weds with 'excuses' (bake & decorate a super-chocolate birthday cake. next day have a birthday dinner for DD2), and at that moment my willpower now just fails and the bread in the cupboard and the strawberry jam in the fridge become fair game! If I could just stick to having the nice meal and a slice of cake it would be fine! Then Thu and Fri I muddled through quite badly, and Sat was the proper birthday party (and another bakeathon on Fri and lots of Party food I had to sample, honest! on Sat). Sunday was better, but relaxed, it was also my Chariots of Fire Charity race so I ate a healthy dukan-friendly breakfast (with egg) and had a banana just before my run. I managed the fastest 1.7miles I have every run in my life (just under 14 minutes). After cycling home I was famished and found my last 'nakd' bar (another weakness) that I just had to demolish before returning to cruise...

I have not stepped on the scales since last weekend but I suspect as sizeable water gain. Today (that was Monday) is back to PP and cruise and that should be no problem. I might be brave and weigh next weekend. There are a few social occasion obstacles in the next month and then we're staying with my sister in Germany for a week.

What I need to achieve right now is a proper span of cruise with no 5-day interruptions! I'll probably even find it hard to do conso while visiting my sis but I'll have to work that one out nearer the time (end of Oct). My aim is to stick it out till I'm back at 64k/10st.

So there we are. Overall I had gained over 10 pounds too but that has been cumulative since Christmas, I never properly recovered from that, nor Easter. I’m not particularly bothered about the ‘water weight’ since that fluctuates, but I can feel a bit of extra fat deposits returning on my tummy (which was never flat or skinny). All ‘new’ clothes still fit comfortably though, but bra cups are now properly filled rather than “sadly empty” so there has been some padding gained somewhere....

This week has been fine, I’m even managing PPs without too much hardship. As I’ve said before I can do it, and strict conso should get me there in the longer term but I have just found it harder to stick to conso without caving in so it had to be cruise. I’ve not done attack nor 2 PPs in a row so I wonder if I’m not in Ketosis anyway, which should be a good thing.
I have a day out in London coming up on the 29th but I can/will stick with cruise for that, it’ much safer than be tempted. Our trip to Germany is not until the end of October so I should be in a position to properly return to strict cruise before that point. Fingers crossed ;-)

The only exception yesterday was I had half a cob of sweetcorn (on a PV day), fresh from our garden, we only get a few of those every year (and the yield has been particularly meagre this time round) and it is an experience no diet can make me miss! Just steamed of course and accompanied by a mushroom and turkey breast stir-fry, and followed by a sweetened yoghurt, blah blah....

Hope everyone is doing okay, and we all look forwards to hearing from Jo!

 

[anjuschka]

October

Hello here I am, and in a good place! I feel I need to share because I am very happy with my loss, and weighing only once a week is definitely a good idea. My few weeks of Cruise are paying off, I am a kilo down on last week, I’m in the 67s now, a new low for months. TOTM may have helped a bit though

I’m just doing normal cruise, allowing myself the odd Muller as a treat, occasional cornflour in thickening family stews, a couple of low-fat sausages to join in with family meals once in a while... And the occasional Dukan-friendly hot chocolate in the evening. But overall I've been good without straying. Last week I had another bite of Sweetcorn from the garden, but that’s the end of that now. Next week I have promised myself that I will be allowed to have ONE small poppy seed swirl from the big batch in am making for a food event at school (which I am intentionally not attending!). Maybe I’ll just throw a few in the freezer instead though.

But I am eating mainly fish, salmon smoked, fresh, tinned, and tinned mackerel, prawns... Tonight we’re having Thai fish stew, I might cook that in light coconut milk and just not have any of the broth. It’s a question of balancing diet and real life for those around me. I am sticking to 1/1 as far as possible, occasionally a PP will be a pp DAY with some small amount of veg in the evening to join in with family meals. And right now I’m on second PP to allow for two PV this weekend.
But as before I am probably overdoing the Milk...

Last Saturday in London was a success food-wise: I went prepared, had a supply of muffins, roasted beef and turkey strips, eggs, peppers and cucumber. And strolled happily through all the tempting street food offerings of Portobello Road market. I did buy a dress though I was so happy when I managed to find a treat to eat, from a japanese restaurant (Itsu) that had a takeaway section, a salmon tartare (with about a ts of sesame seeds and a tiny pot of dressing) with rocket & carrot salad interspersed with the tiniest amount of rice noodles that I was able to pick out easily. It was delicious, I even had some of the dressing and it’s all fine in the bigger picture.
In the evening I met my friends in a pub and stuck to sparkling water (we used to drink lots of G&Ts so with a slice of lemon it looks about the same). Then had the last of my food stash on the train home - success

I have also discovered Xylitol as a sweetener. All I can say I love it and it works for me, none of the side-effects that I get from stevia derivatives and most general maltitol based sweets (stomach rumbling and whoosh fairy etc...). Taste and feel-wise it so close to sugar I am using it to sprinkle over things like joghurt. I am monitoring my losses though and if anything stalls it will have to go. On the other hand I have a couple of projects planned this weekend: Rhubarb jam with Xylitol (or maybe Rhubarb and carrot!!), and also pickled Pumpkin (I’ve rediscovered a recipe from my childhood!), but I think I’ll stick to splenda for those. It’s also a question of cost..

So here you have it - after months of silence another update inside a fortnight, mainly because I am back to dieting rather than maintaining so there's more to talk about..

 

[alottolose]

Oooh Anja your jam projects sound very interesting indeed keep us posted and perhaps pop a few recipes up?

I love how organised and in control you are while making dukan fit your lifestyle it shows why you got to goal !

hope you're having a great weekend x

 

[sididd]

How did the Jam turn out???? And same as lotto your so organised and lover the slight changes to fit in with family meals.

 

[anjuschka]

Ah thanks everyone.

Jam turned out great - too great in fact but I am managing to stick to about 1 TB per (PV) day. I started with 2 packets of xylitol (=450g) and the same amount of rhubarb but added much more Rhubarb as I went along so I ended up with a ratio of about 1:2 sugar to fruit. Added a small dose (1/4 bottle) of Certo pectin as per their recipe (wasn't sure whether to match the fruit or the sugar quantities), also added a couple of TB of lemon juice and a teaspoon of cinnamon. It's not exactly set but I did not boil it for long, and I have never made jam with Certo so I had no idea how to do it. End result is far too tasty....I got thee jars and one is already finished... I have it on dukan bread spread with quark, or a couple of teaspoons on my joghurt. Still not suffering from any bad side effect from Xylitol.

The pickled pumpkin is still maturing but I might have to open the first jar later this week I used a "normal" German recipe, and substituted Splenda, but only about half of the sugar equivalent (you know, they say on their packet 8 Tb splenda = 100gr sugar) seemed to be quite sufficient.

thanks for your comments I think you give me more credit than is due though... Last week was okay, apart from the one self-permitted pastry (I made a large batch for a school event), and today several licks of proper chutney - after last weeks apple-picking extravaganza (I had two nibbles of Apple to test ripeness and a new blackberries picked by the kids) I've made some 'proper' chutney to give away at Christmas. (Apple and Cranberry, Christmas chutney and rich Fruit Chutney)

Made a really nice 'fish parcel' last week: take a fish fillet (I had sole), put on a square of foil, sprinkle over some shredded fresh ginger and spring onions (had none used leek greens in stead), sprinkle with a mix of 2ts soy sauce and 2ts lemon juice, wrap and seal in aluminium foil and bake at 180 for 20 mins. YUM YUM
Inspired by this: but left out most of the Veg as it was a PP day! Obviously left out the oil as it is unnecessary. Added some sliced red pepper for DH.
Steamed fish & pak choi parcels recipe - Recipes - BBC Good Food

the kids had Fish Fingers !

Weight-wise yesterday I was down 1 lb on last week but actually right back up today - I MUST not weigh more than once week!! Something is working though, my belt has gone down a hole and apart from the minor diversion I have been true to plan and running as usual, 6k yesterday.

My Sainsbury seems to have stopped stocking the biltong in favour of a huge selection of Christmas nuts they still have the Jerky but that's just got too much sugar...

 

[Supertonic]

Hi Anja,

Following your battles with interest as currently creeping up the scales again myself and need to get a grip before it gets out of hand! Its just so easy to let things slide... I swear this weekend I didn't do anything outlandishly naughty (well apart from the apple and pear crumble - but I did make it with oatbran and xylitol and only used a tiny bit of butter) and I'm now nudging 11 stone again. And I am keeping up the exercise (swiming mostly), although I know i need to step that up a bit to get any real benefits. I wonder if its because our bodies get so clever at recovering energy from less carbohydrates, just mega efficient now?

I like xylitol as well I find it is the best sweetener for me, and the closest to real sugar, so your jam recipe was interesting. I've not used it for jam but I've tried in in most things where I would use sugar and its comparable for sweetness and no bitterness or 'whoosh fairy'!

Autumn makes me want to feed up though, thats the trouble!

 

[robinhood]

Ah thanks everyone.

Jam turned out great - too great in fact but I am managing to stick to about 1 TB per (PV) day. I started with 2 packets of xylitol (=450g) and the same amount of rhubarb but added much more Rhubarb as I went along so I ended up with a ratio of about 1:2 sugar to fruit. Added a small dose (1/4 bottle) of Certo pectin as per their recipe (wasn't sure whether to match the fruit or the sugar quantities), also added a couple of TB of lemon juice and a teaspoon of cinnamon. It's not exactly set but I did not boil it for long, and I have never made jam with Certo so I had no idea how to do it. End result is far too tasty....I got thee jars and one is already finished... I have it on dukan bread spread with quark, or a couple of teaspoons on my joghurt. Still not suffering from any bad side effect from Xylitol.

The pickled pumpkin is still maturing but I might have to open the first jar later this week I used a "normal" German recipe, and substituted Splenda, but only about half of the sugar equivalent (you know, they say on their packet 8 Tb splenda = 100gr sugar) seemed to be quite sufficient.

thanks for your comments I think you give me more credit than is due though... Last week was okay, apart from the one self-permitted pastry (I made a large batch for a school event), and today several licks of proper chutney - after last weeks apple-picking extravaganza (I had two nibbles of Apple to test ripeness and a new blackberries picked by the kids) I've made some 'proper' chutney to give away at Christmas. (Apple and Cranberry, Christmas chutney and rich Fruit Chutney)

Made a really nice 'fish parcel' last week: take a fish fillet (I had sole), put on a square of foil, sprinkle over some shredded fresh ginger and spring onions (had none used leek greens in stead), sprinkle with a mix of 2ts soy sauce and 2ts lemon juice, wrap and seal in aluminium foil and bake at 180 for 20 mins. YUM YUM
Inspired by this: but left out most of the Veg as it was a PP day! Obviously left out the oil as it is unnecessary. Added some sliced red pepper for DH.
Steamed fish & pak choi parcels recipe - Recipes - BBC Good Food

the kids had Fish Fingers !

Weight-wise yesterday I was down 1 lb on last week but actually right back up today - I MUST not weigh more than once week!! Something is working though, my belt has gone down a hole and apart from the minor diversion I have been true to plan and running as usual, 6k yesterday.

My Sainsbury seems to have stopped stocking the biltong in favour of a huge selection of Christmas nuts they still have the Jerky but that's just got too much sugar...

Wow Anja, well done. Wish I was as focused as you!

Hello all! After a fortnight's holiday (down south and in UK where I indulged a lot but had great weather, so did walk a fair bit - amazing, no snow or rain while we were away and here got a couple of cm of snow and lots of rain!) I'm back to healthier eating. The good news is that I'm sick of eating rich food, so it's no effort at all (ha!)

So, 7 lbs to go conso-style, but with small portions of lentils, etc rather than bread most days. Luckily it's soup season, so should be easy! DIY-wise, heating system getting an overhaul next week then it's just cosmetic to finish the last room. Hopefully all work done before the end of the year and aiming for 3 lb off by then. Christmas food not in shops here yet (although I noticed the UK supermarkets were well-stocked!) so no temptation there. Not doing Christmas baking this year - husband's parents need to cut down on sugar, so we all will - don't need it anyway!

Hope everyone is well!

 

[alottolose]

Nice to see you back Laura I am avoiding the supermarkets like the plague for exactly the reason that they're too well stocked...it's temptation city...and I'm of weak will at the moment keep posting xx

 

[sididd]

Hi, I'm bumping your diary and hoping you still read the forum as Sara is now on stabilisation and a few of us will be following shortly and could really do with your help and advice xxx

 

[sarafvrm]

Thank you so much, Sid! I really do need some company in this new territory! xx

 

[anjuschka]

Hi yes still around but not at all reading or interacting with minimins. I have actually gone way beyond stab now. Two years down the line and 'only' 2kg over target... So I really don't think you'd want my advice as I am completely off dukan now but I still stand by everything I have posted in these pages.

But congratulations everyone for making it this far! Stick with it, it does work. I can also report from my mum who lost loads just after me and is still near her target after resuming a more Normal way of eating but with oatbran and the odd PP thrown in.

 

[sarafvrm]

Great to hear! Thanks, Anjuschka, and very well done to you and your mum x

 

[sididd]

What a fantastic review and congratulations to yourself and your mam xxxxx

Sara just look at that success story xxx I do hope that's you and me in two years time xxxx Hey PMA..............

We WILL join this success journey and help pave the way for everyone else.