Dukanista's Diary: Part III!

Well, that is one of the things I will miss when I leave Asia, is being able to jump on a quick flight to a tropical island... But the flights from London are probably cheaper, even if they are longer.

I'm on my ownsome tonight as OH is off doing factory visits this week. Planning an early night as I ended up staying up very late watching the closing ceremony on iplayer. But I've spotted that eat, fast, live longer show up there too, so i want to have a peek. Hope it doesn't put me off dukan... I've noticed quite a lot of the group are either switching diets or doing modified dukaneering, and I've been guilty of that too. I'm back on track this week with a couple of strict pp days to get to my tw for once and for all. I have been frustrated to stay the same weight for a while, but the results definitely come when you start following the plan strictly again. The kilo I apparently gained this weekend is already gone after 2 days, so I could be under 55 this week for the first time ever! Well, not counting that 54.95 I got so excited about a few weeks back!

Hugs all around and hope you're having a great dukan week.

Cx
 
Wow, 6 days since I posted? Oh dear... I wish I could clone myself at the moment and have time to fit everything in. Work is mad, there are a million things to do before the Big Move (including finding a job!), the sailing club committee I am on is a big mess of male egos... and even planning holidays takes time although it is fun and i love doing it. we got our cats micro-chipped this week and they need meds for a few days, and so they are hiding under the bed right now. and OH is away again this week. i think this is what they call burning the candle at both ends :)

dukan-wise i am in a bit of a rut. seem to be hovering around the 55 mark and nothing i do can shift me from there. i had a good week last week with some extra pp days, but then by the weekend i was up around 56 again. i've been staying out at our sailing club for the last few weekends and there are really few dukan options out there - it's in the middle of nowhere with just a small cafe and some chinese restaurants, and i know i consume way more salt and oil than i should, even when i make good menu choices.

but i am still keeping up the exercise, and I took some more bikini pics this morning and do see some reductions in the waist and stomach area since the last ones, which was reassuring. i should start taking measurements too, for real 'proof'.

the good news is that i'm off on holiday on friday!! i haven't quite decided what eating plan i will follow once i'm there, but i'm going to be pretty relaxed about it. i haven't seen my mom for 2 years, believe it or not, so i really don't want to spoil the holiday by worrying about diets (especially since it's her birthday during the trip). ah, better add birthday present shopping to my to do list :)

if i don't post before then, have a great week y'all and keep up the good work lotto, becca and the rest (haven't managed to catch up on everyone's diaries!)
 
Last edited:
Enjoy Bali xxx
 
Oooh Bali :) I can't believe your holiday week has gotten here so fast :) time's flying by

well done for keeping up with the exercise, the last kilo is probably down to the salt - us women are devils for retaining water, I speak from experience :)

Have a lovely time Caro :) xx
 
if we dont read you before have a fantastic holiday :)
 
Thanks girls! Miss you already!
Cx
 
Now I'm blushing! Thanks for the housework, lotto. I know I am way behind and sneaking in updates on other people's diary pages... Very naughty!

I'm still here, survived the holiday with no weight gain, possibly even a loss if the scales are to be trusted. they are a bit up and down at the moment though, swinging backwards and forwards half a kg every day. Totm too...

I am still steady at 55k, technically one kg above my original target weight but I might just declare this my final (or provisional) tw. OH thinks I'm on the skinny side and I feel pretty good at this weight, so we'll see.

I am staying mostly pv at the moment, but starting to branch out a bit, not necessarily according to conso rules. E.g i put some dried fruit and nuts in my muffins this morning. And i allowed myself chocolate, ice cream, dessert, fruit, cocktails etc on holiday, but never binged. most days I had a big breakfast of eggs, bacon or sausage and yoghurt, then skipped lunch and just had a fresh coconut juice, and then dinner of grilled seafood and veg plus 1 or 2 piña coladas. Basically just trying to relax and eat well, but also have the occasional treat. I was expecting disaster when I got back but I seemed to have reached stabilization. Plus I walked on the beach and swam a lot.

So I have kind of skipped strict conso, and haven't really decided how to continue. I've started reading up on paleo and primal, as well as alternate day fasting. I'm pretty happy with my weight for now and I've started to pay more attention to the health benefits of certain food choices instead of just weightloss. If I can keep my weight stable where it is for a few months and maybe step up the exercise, then I'd like to experiment a bit more, maybe by trying fasting twice a week, and by introducing the healthy fats that paleo recommends.

Everything else in my life is pretty crazy, but I do hope I have time to stay here and keep everyone updated on my experiments, and of course read about all your journeys.

I just agreed with my boss that I will be moving to London at christmas and working on some independent projects until end of feb. hopefully by then I will have something permanent sorted out. OH is leaving for London in October for job interviews so i'll be on my own for a few months - and probably crying on your shoulders every day! And during that time I'll be packing up the house, prepping the cats for transit, sorting out my visa, etc etc. probably no time to think about food at all!

So maybe I'll be joining that dukanette Christmas shindig after all. Is trinimaria still organizing??

Hugs all around - I've missed you guys!

Cx
 
Exciting news about the big move to London, not long to go! I hope you had a lovely holiday, and it sounds like you got the right balance with food choices and still managed to enjoy some treats.

I've also had a look at the whole paleo/primal diet, and might consider some of their principles after I've stablised on Dukan. I don't think I could cope with fasting though.

Good to have you back! :)x
 
Hey ceri! It's great to be back. I have been sneaking in to read a few posts, just haven't managed to write much. Looking forward to catching up with the jeans progress!

Fasting sounds dramatic but really you are cutting back to 500 cals a day - i believe... Which works out to 3 x 80 cal soy protein shakes and 4 or 5 low cal cup of soups. Which is more than I've eaten on certain crash diets! But I don't think I could do it more than once or twice a week. We'll see - I'll have to see how mon and pauline have been doing!

Cx
 
Hi Caro. Your holiday eating and weight loss experience really mirrors mine, and I can't decide whether to do Dukan Conso or just stick with eating delicious food that seems healthy to me, either. Your bmi at 21.2 looks easily low enough for you to stop trying to lose. I'm really not convinced that 'fasting' can be good for you, though - the great thing about pp days is, you lose the weight without losing muscle mass (and you can eat loads, too!) But I have to confess I haven't actually read/heard the 'science' behind what happens to your body on fasting days so I could be talking rubbish.

Anyway, good luck sorting your life out in the meantime! (And the holiday sounds divine) x
 
Hey Sara,

So good to hear that you had the same experience! Its reassuring to know there are others in the same boat. Where did you spend your holidays, btw?

Thanks about the advice about stopping the weightloss. My bmi is good and I feel great, but like everyone I look in the mirror and still zoom in on the flabby bits.

At this point I am more interested in the health benefits of fasting, not as a way to lose more weight. I'm interested in the theory that when we fast, our bodies have a chance to go into 'repair mode' and start healing any damage or illness. Its a wonderful thought that we could use food instead of medication to fix our bodies in the future...

And I really love the idea behind primal and the whole caveman thing: that our bodies are still designed to cope with the lifestyle we had 10,000 years ago, when we were hunter gatherers instead of farmers. I don't know how solid the science is, but it seems to make a lot of sense to me that we should try and get back to our 'roots'. that we have been destroying bodies' natural mechanisms over the years by pushing ourselves so far away from how we're designed to live.

I still think the dukan principles are excellent, especially if you're really scared of losing control and need the structure of the rules, but i think it also teaches you good principles to live by and lets you experiment a little. More than 1 way to skin a cat!

Have a good week,

Cx
 
Well hello lady! I'm so pleased to see you're still here and happy with your weight (21.2 BMI is already low, good idea to stick with it!) and interested to hear your thoughts on fasting/paleo etc. I'm really misbehaving weight-wise at the moment and am less interested in weight loss, more interested in what I can do to get myself on a more even keel with regards to food.

The rest of your life sounds full on!! A big move, being apart from your hubby...thank goodness you just had a bit of a holiday otherwise you'd be a nervous wreck! Loving the thought that you could be here for Christmas and a meet up - keep us in the loop!

Jx
 
I'm interested to read what you say about the fasting, etc and definitely agree that having followed Dukan gives you the confidence to experiment. Just one thought, though: presumably when we were living the caveman existence our activity levels were fluctuating as well as our food supply, ie we weren't working 9-5, let alone burning the candle at both ends... But I really need to find out more about these plans before I challenge them. As one who has done all sorts of wacky things around food in the past I can't help being sceptical!
 
i can't answer properly as i'm only a few chapters into the book, but the author does have interesting theories about why we should change our exercise patterns as well as our eating habits. apparently, our caveman bodies were designed for less intensive, longer-lasting exercise (walking long distances, for example), with short bursts of speed when running away from bears and hunting 'fast food' :), and occasional lifting of rocks and other heavy objects . The lifestyles we lead today are mostly sedentary and then dashing to the gym for a super-intensive workout, and this is supposedly counter-productive as it triggers a stressful response (that damn bear has been chasing me for 2 hours!) followed by increased hunger as we're programmed to refuel, preferably with sugars and carbs.

obviously we're not going to go back to living in caves, but I do think it makes sense that our lifestyles have changed a whole lot faster than our genes and physiology has been able to adapt. but i'll keep reading and let you know if it really it just another wacky idea!

thanks for the healthy scepticism: you're right to take things with a pinch of salt with all the crazy fad diets that are out there!
 
Well hello lady! I'm so pleased to see you're still here and happy with your weight (21.2 BMI is already low, good idea to stick with it!) and interested to hear your thoughts on fasting/paleo etc. I'm really misbehaving weight-wise at the moment and am less interested in weight loss, more interested in what I can do to get myself on a more even keel with regards to food.

The rest of your life sounds full on!! A big move, being apart from your hubby...thank goodness you just had a bit of a holiday otherwise you'd be a nervous wreck! Loving the thought that you could be here for Christmas and a meet up - keep us in the loop!

Jx

joodlebob!! so good to hear from you. thanks for the words of encouragement, and i am so looking forward to the idea of meeting up with the London ladies! hang in there - i know you'll be fine, skinny minnie!

Cx
 
Phew, almost at the end of my first fasting day. I'm not switching diets completely, but I'm starting to experiment with some other eating plans, more for long term health benefits than weight loss at this point.

Was aiming for 400cals but went up to 500, and I'm still hungry! :-( not sure I'd be able to do this more than once a week to be honest, but they say it gets easier as you go. I really don't know how those Juddd ladies are doing it! Hoping to see a good result on the scales tomorrow morning... And hoping my stomach doesn't keep me away all night! I think I spent most of today staring at the mfp app trying to work out how to scrounge a few more calories out of nothing. So completely opposite to what I've been doing with dukan for the last 4 months.

The rest of the week i was mostly on pv, but starting to loosen up on the rules and see if I can maintain my current weight: cocktails Friday night, a piece of chocolate here and there, some nuts and (gasp) dried fruit, even a sandwich yesterday (mad open day at our sailing club with more than 70 visitors who needed to get taken out for a spin, so it was all I managed to eat all day). So far so good: the scales even showed a low of 54.7 a few times this week - but then showed me 55.5 on other days!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone, it's sleepy time on this side of the world!
Cx
 
Back
Top