Dukanista's Diary: Part III!

[Dukanista]

Catching up on my reading! Very interesting info there Caro. I too am looking at reducing/cutting out Diet Coke and all sodas ... It does make things more complicated when out for the evening looking to avoid alcohol as, over here, diet coke is one thing you can find out. Otherwise it'll be water for me which would be a drag! So latest is to cut out drinking it at home which will be a great start! I'm interested to see you too are using MFP (I'd love to add you as a friend but haven't a clue how to do it! MP me your ID and tell me how?!!). As for logging activity and counting steps etc, it's very motivating (and even addictive in the right sense... I had to work late the other night - I always start early and cut lunch hour down but rarely work after my time - my first thought was "oh good I don't have to walk home" but did I feel good for forcing myself! YEAH! It'll soon be your holiday... I logged my food for the first 7 days of mine, only totally losing the plot on day 8 of 9...

Will PM you soon, Jo! Will be great to have an MFP buddy

You logged your meals on holiday?!! I'm impressed...

 

[Dukanista]

Ok, 1 pp day checked off, and weigh in today says that I'm only up 1.2kg from pre-holiday levels. Phew! Must have been a temporary holiday bloat.

But that still leaves a bit of work to be done... I'm back on my Pacts now - I've earned a massive $3.50 for sticking to my food and exercise goals so far - and I completed my 10,000 steps yesterday. Dinner out tonight, though, but the goal is to avoid bread and wine and stick to fish and veg.

Almost the weekend: woohoo!

Cx

 

[Maintainer]

Hey there Caro and well done for getting back in the saddle. I don't know how you're winning money (albeit dollars!) but please share!!!

I've added you to my MFP (ok I did sometimes cheat on holiday and add a 3,000 calorie day without specifying!!). How about fitbit. How do I add you there?

x

 

[Andi75]

Ok, 1 pp day checked off, and weigh in today says that I'm only up 1.2kg from pre-holiday levels. Phew! Must have been a temporary holiday bloat.

But that still leaves a bit of work to be done... I'm back on my Pacts now - I've earned a massive $3.50 for sticking to my food and exercise goals so far - and I completed my 10,000 steps yesterday. Dinner out tonight, though, but the goal is to avoid bread and wine and stick to fish and veg.

Almost the weekend: woohoo!

Cx

Well done!!!! Fab news it's coming down so quick already it's not what we do on hols it's what we do after....

xxx

 

[Bonkers]

Hi Caro

I had to come by and thank you. Your fasting journey inspired me to try something.

In a nutshell, got a wedding to go to in December (in Scotland) and need to buy a dress. But I also wanted to be in the 60s when I ended conso part 1. So, to try and lose some weight I have started 16:8 fasting every day. Stuck to it religiously last week and am down another 1.5 kgs. 2 more and I'll be in the 60s .

Thank you caro! xx

 

[Dukanista]

Bonkers! Sorry I've been AWOL, but I'm so happy to hear you're trying the fasting! I have to admit that I'm off it now - I stopped just before my holiday at the beginning of October, and have pretty much been back on dukan ever since I came back. But I fasted consistently twice a week for 3 or 4 months and It really taught me so much about hunger and eating habits and cravings. I did start to slip towards the end, like many people, and found myself overcompensating on off days. And not only that, I think my body eventually got used to the occasional fasts and so the weightloss was less effective. But I'll still do it again, just perhaps not as regularly, as it did feel like overall a very good approach to eating (if you can control the off days!)

Hope you're reaching your goals - I'll pop over to your diary now and see what you're up to.

Mmwah! Cx

 

[Dukanista]

So I'm still here, but haven't had much time for posting over the last few weeks. Got back from holidays and hit the dukan trail (well, 4 or 5 days a week...). But the weight has come off without much effort, even though I haven't been cycling or doing much exercise, just doing my fitness tracker's daily 10,000 step target. A good reminder of how good walking alone can be.

Got myself some new skinny jeans this weekend and hubby asked if I'd lost weight. Woohoo! #feelingskinny #lovingdukanagain

I would like to lose a kilogram or 2 before Christmas holidays - might as well go into the festive eating with a deficit! But pretty happy with where I am right now.

Hope all is well for the rest of you. I'll catch up on your stories as soon as I can Cxx

 

[Andi75]

Wey hey!!!! LOVING the hashtags!!! Hubby asked have you lost weight....music to my ears that one liner... Well well done!!! Happy feet

xxx

 

[Bonkers]

Hey Caro

Just posted an update on my diary - fasting went well.. still doing it 5 days a week now.

Great NSV with the skinny jeans and hubby! That's always better than the number on the scale - but who are we kidding, we still want the number to go down!

Good job maintaining and I am sure you will be able to knock off at least a kg before the holidays - cannot believe how time flies!

xx

 

[Dukanista]

Hello lovelies!

So work has been (even more) manic recently and I haven't been near minimins for ages :-( I was in Germany for a conference last week and had to give 3 presentations as soon as I got back, so I'm feeling a bit frazzled - good thing I'm on holiday from next Tuesday!

But the good news is that all is going well with my weight, although I haven't been what I would call 'exercising' for months, just walking a lot and trying to hit my daily step target. And amazingly, that seems to work just as well as more active gym, cycling, etc, and I've been maintaining a good weight without toooooo much effort.

A big factor has been the Pact app I signed up for (you set targets for food logging, exercise and eating fruit and vegetables each week, and you lose money if you don't meet your goals!). I tried it for a laugh, but it's turned out to be an incredible motivator: when it's a choice between jumping on the bus or walking home, I generally choose to walk, or I jump off the bus a few stops early to hit my target. I don't think it's the money itself, but more the fact that I'm really competitive! I've already scheduled a break over the holidays, though

Foodwise, I stopped fasting back in October and haven't picked that up again, but might do so in the new year from time to time. I follow dukan-style eating during the week (mostly pv with a pp day or 2 thrown in if I can manage it) and let my hair down a bit on the weekends. I could lose another kilogram, but my skinny clothes are all fitting well and I'm very happy where I am. All in all, a good place to be going into the holiday season!

I'm going home to sunny South Africa next week so probably won't be around much until next year, so I'd like to say thank you to everyone for another wonderful year of support and friendship in this forum. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday (if you manage to take one!) and a healthy, happy year ahead.



Hugs,

Cx

 

[Maintainer]

Lovely to read you Caro, and particularly that you're finding the walking just as productive as the more energetic forms of exercise we're not all up for! Like you, I'm very competitive and the fitbit has given me the extra boost to get out there and walk even when the weather would normally be a deterrent ("marcher plus pour manger plus" is my favourite slant on a French phrase used here).

I wish you a very Merry Christmas. Entering the season off Dukan is less scarey when on it somehow as I have more mechanisms in place now to handle excesses. And if all that fails, we know how to get it off again next year without necessarily heading back to full blown low carb 100%.

x

 

[Dukanista]

OK I'm back again... I know I should probably start another diary but I've had this once since I joined in June 2012, which means I'm approaching my 4th anniversary here!

All in all, my weight has been crappy for the last year. Looking back at my posts (and pictures) I was in a really good place at the beginning of 2015, and since then it's just been an upward spiral. This year I've reached pre-Dukan levels again (60-61kg), but since I was exercising before, at least some of that was muscle. Blob :-(

Foodwise I thought I was being healthy as I've explored (at different times, of course!) paleo, vegan / vegetarian eating, intermittent fasting, bought a Nutribullet and started making green smoothies until I had spinach coming out of my ears... and still the weight was creeping up. So I'm back on dukan again. I'm doing a more vegan friendly version this time and having mainly seafood, soy, quorn, etc. And of course getting back into the exercising. I work long hours and it's fairly easy to do pp during the week, so I'll probably end up doing 4 days pp (Mon-Thurs) and then pv over the weekends so it has less impact on my social life. We shall see.

My target is to reach 56kg by end of June, when I'm maid of honour at a friend's wedding. So here we go! I'll be posting here mainly for myself, but would love to hear from anyone, old and new


Cx

 

[sididd]

OK I'm back again... I know I should probably start another diary but I've had this once since I joined in June 2012, which means I'm approaching my 4th anniversary here!

All in all, my weight has been crappy for the last year. Looking back at my posts (and pictures) I was in a really good place at the beginning of 2015, and since then it's just been an upward spiral. This year I've reached pre-Dukan levels again (60-61kg), but since I was exercising before, at least some of that was muscle. Blob :-(

Foodwise I thought I was being healthy as I've explored (at different times, of course!) paleo, vegan / vegetarian eating, intermittent fasting, bought a Nutribullet and started making green smoothies until I had spinach coming out of my ears... and still the weight was creeping up. So I'm back on dukan again. I'm doing a more vegan friendly version this time and having mainly seafood, soy, quorn, etc. And of course getting back into the exercising. I work long hours and it's fairly easy to do pp during the week, so I'll probably end up doing 4 days pp (Mon-Thurs) and then pv over the weekends so it has less impact on my social life. We shall see.

My target is to reach 56kg by end of June, when I'm maid of honour at a friend's wedding. So here we go! I'll be posting here mainly for myself, but would love to hear from anyone, old and new


Cx

Hiya Caro, good luck girl you know you can do it xxx

 

[Dukanista]

Thanks for the encouragement Sid!

Feeling great this morning. I was dreading the scale as I had a pretty relaxed weekend (as planned). Hubby cooked a delicious rib-eye steak with flambeed mushrooms and spinach - with generous amounts of cream and brandy - and a glass or 2 of red on the side.

And surprise surprise, I lost another 0.5kg this morning!! Which brings me to about 1.5kg lost in my first 8 days. woohoo!! 10 days until I have to display myself in a bikini, and although I won't have reached target, it's not nearly as scary as it was 2 weeks ago.

hope everyone is having a great start to the week,


Cx

 

[Dukanista]

No weigh-in today - don't think I should be obsessing about doing this daily. I baked pumpkin muffins this morning - yumm!! I used a tin of pumpkin puree - surprising low in calories and carbs, and it really bulks up the mixture. I also spent the weekend trawling online for some new flavourings and spreads (can't live without a bit of chocolate in my life...!) and have found the following:
- Sweet freedom chocolate syrup (for my coffee)
- Prutella chocolate hazelnut spread (for my muffins)
anyone tasted these, or have any other suggestions to share?
I am also finding some great new veggie / vegan protein snack alternatives:
- Fry's vegetarian polony / slicing sausage (I am not a huge fan of quorn, but I found this on Ocado and it's delicious - and really convenient as it doesn't need cooking.
- taifun tofu: smoked / basilico flavors (unfortunately the fat content is around 11-12% but carbs are really low, and it's another great pp veggie snack)
- Alpro soya yoghurt (with almond / coconut) - far fewer carbs than regular yoghurt, and I really prefer the taste by now

any other veggie finds out there?

I am back into my cycling and loving my commute again. Aiming to do 3-4 rides a week (it's 21km there and back, with a bit of a climb on the return).

Happy Tuesday peeps Cxx

 

[Dukanista]

mixed results so far in week 2 although that is always to be expected. w/i yesterday was up 0.5kg! i did have smoked salmon the day before... but back down 0.3kg again today, and as long as I can stay under the 58kg mark all week I'll be happy, to be honest.

we have a friend staying over Friday and a dinner on Saturday but I luckily one of them is not drinking and so I'll probably have a small glass of wine of Saturday like last week. And skip dessert

happy Thursday - long weekend approaching!

Cx

 

[Triniprinc3ss]

Hey Ladies,

Long time!!!

Nice to see you're doing so well still...nice to see the motivation is coming back