Onto consolidation!

I was feeling really light yesterday, so I looked forward to my weigh in!  I was delighted to see:

117.0!!!

That is after my first cheat meal (which I had last friday, a veggie panini and chips and queso!) and after my first day of consolidation.  So far I've had a piece of gluten free fiber bread and a cup of frozen strawberries each day.  And I haven't really gained any weight, yet... but it looks like I have quite the busy weekend with going out and brunches and stuff, so I'm kind of worried!  It will definitely be my first alcohol since 6/17, so I'm a bit nervous about getting really drunk really quick.

I've also been eating oat bran cookies, which are so much better than the galettes, especially with some sugar free strawberry jelly on them!  Plus I can make several ahead of time, which totally works for my schedule.

I'm looking forward to see if I can maintain 117 during this phase.  My jeans, which I haven't worn in years, look AMAZING now!

Under goal!!

I haven't weighed myself in almost a week because I haven't been at work (I've used my cheap home scale but I never trust it).  But I've been feeling skinny and my skinny clothes are fitting near perfect, and I tried on the jeans I've been wearing and was able to pull them down without unbuttoning!  So I was very much looking forward to returning to work today so I could weigh myself. 

118.9

Wow.  I'm soooo happy!  And I can't even have a cheat meal until this weekend, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the scale says on Friday.  I wish I could go shopping to celebrate, but I don't need to!  I have about 10 pairs of $150+ each jeans that haven't been worn in about 4 years.  Luckily they are still in style.  So my original goal was 120, and the Dukan website said I'd reach that on 07/15/2011.  I'm actually thinking that I can reach my ammended goal of 118 by that date! 

I have tried a few new things, like spaghetti squash alfredo (using the hungry girl alfredo sauce recipe), I've been making protein shakes with Syntrax Nectar powder, it has some amazing flavors, and unsweetened plain almond milk.  It makes for a 1 carb protein shake.  I've also learned that I can eat asparagus, a vegetable I previously despised, if I dip it in yellow mustard.  Which is far healthier than buttery sauce anyways! 

I'm off to do the happy dance!!

Oh no plateau...

Today the fancy work scale said 120.7... sigh.  But my body fat was down again, which is good!  I think I'm officially changing my goal from 120 to 117, as I'm now recalling that 120 was my panic weight back in my skinny days.  I was fine as long as I stayed under 120.  I just never even thought I'd see it again, which is why I didn't enter anything less into Dukan. 

Still no cheating, but I've added about half a cup of unsweetened plain almond milk.  It only has 3 grams of fat and 1 carb per cup, and my fat has been under 10 grams per day, so I figured I needed just a little bit more fat.  Plus milk has 12 grams of sugar per cup!  I've also had some days where I can't eat more than 800 calories.  And I can't force myself to eat veggies or yogurt when I'm not hungry.  Now I can eat an entire bag of tortilla chips when I'm not hungry - funny how that works. 

Let's see how this weekend goes.  T-8 days until my first cheat celebration meal!

Sweet victory... so close I can smell it!

Oh maybe that's not victory I smell, it's the sweet (sometimes) smell of ketosis!  The past few days my breath has rotated back and forth between smelling (and tasting) like maple syrup and acetone (nail polish remover).  I was actually worried about getting pulled over this weekend (4th of July in the US, and in Texas we have a "no refusal weekend", which requires anyone suspected of drinking and driving to submit to a breathalizer test) because my breath can totally be confused with the smell of alcohol.  Ketosis is a state that the body gets in when it is using stored fat for energy.  I believe the liver processes the fat then the kidneys process the byproduct and processing the byproduct creates the acetone smell.  But don't quote me on that description, I'm no doctor ;-)  Lots of people strive to stay in ketosis because it means their low carb diet is working and the fat is melting off.  Which could TOTALLY be true because this morning:

120.4!!!

Now, I will admit I got a hair cut and lost about 3 inches off my very thin hair, and I was wearing a skirt instead of lightweight pants.  But those combined shouldn't account for too much weight.  My original goal was 120 with an estimated completion date of 7/15/2011 but I think I'm still going to shoot for 118, much closer to my "skinny" weight.  I didn't eat anything new this weekend, but i did make a tofu scramble.  And I took one bite of it and spit it out and threw the rest out.  It tasted EXACTLY like scrambled eggs, which make me gag.  I think I'm officially done with tofu.  Actually, I did eat something new - artichokes!  I found some frozen ones at a fancy grocery store here and they are really good with some vinegar and garlic powder.  Today I had a "latte" for breakfast, I brought a salad, some grilled eggplant, some artichokes, a ff feta cheese and cherry tomato caprese style salad, and a slice of ff cheese.  I've been averaging 850-1000 calories and that is after forcing myself to eat sometimes.  And I am now fitting into ALL of my skinny jeans, and am now striving for another pair of jeans that I super shrunk.  They are a size 25 in 7FAMK - yikes!

Holy temptation!

Aside from my accidental dry roasted edamame cheat and a bowl of cabbage, I have stuck to this diet 100% for what has now been 16 days. Yesterday I tried out a new hair salon and while I was waiting for my stylist, I was offered a complimentary glass of wine.  I grudgingly turned that one down.  But today... it was a good friend's birthday brunch at my favorite buffet place that comes with unlimited champagne, my weakness.  So I ate a big Dukan approved diet breakfast prior to heading out and convinced myself that I would just drink coffee.  I even walked the buffet line trying to convince myself to have an early cheat meal.  Come on, enchiladas, sweet potato chips, unlimited guacamole, the most amazing desserts...  I'm not sure how but I stuck with coffee.  I am at 123 (at least last time I weighed) and I don't want to delay my goal of 120 longer than I have to.  Plus, my first celebration meal is scheduled for 7/15, less than two weeks away.  I am still debating what to do for my first celebration meal.  I'm thinking date night with the hubby.

I've been having a problem of not wanting to eat much of anything lately.  I don't really feel burned out, just not hungry!  Actually, I could pretty much live the rest of my life without eating any more tofu, but I've been that way long before this diet.  I keep having to force myself to have some yogurt or cottage cheese, or a big glass of milk.  One of my fav snacks lately has been a tub of 0% plain Greek yogurt with 2 tablespoons of sugar free jelly, and a packet of stevia.  Tastes just like sugary yogurt.  I'm going to try making a tofu scramble today or tomorrow.  And yesterday I made some "quesadillas" with the egg white/dry milk pancakes and fat free cheese.  Not bad, but definitely didn't fix my Mexican food cravings.  I've pretty much been living off those pancakes.  And I've just been eating oat bran dry.

I don't have any other social events planned in the next two weeks, so I shouldn't have to worry about any more temptation :)

Day 13

So it's been almost two weeks and I'm still at 123, BUT I've been incorporating some weight training and my body fat % has gone down, so I'm still losing fat and my jeans are looser, hooray!  I've heard some people say that this diet can make your breath stink and for the first time a few days ago, my husband told me my breath was funky.  So keep some gum handy!  The past two days I've been in a total funk from being sick of eating all these same things, but I've kept it up.  I also had an extremely dry mouth a couple days ago, even though I've been drinking a ton of water.  It seemed to go away later in the day though.  I've found a few new things to eat which have made me super happy. 

Powdered milk & eggwhite pancakes?  Yes!  A flour free pancake!
So I believe it was:

10 tbsp powdered milk
2 eggs
1/3 cup egg whites
2 tbsp stevia for baking
a little bit of vanilla extract
big dash of cinnamon

Mine was a little runny so next time I will add another tbsp of powdered milk.  It came out pretty good!  They were pretty thin, so more like a crepe but still it was a nearly carb free pancake.  I poured some Walden Farms pancake syrup on some of them, and the next day I smeared some of my "cheesecake" (heaping spoonful of ff cream cheese, heaping spoonful of ff greek yogurt, 1 stevia packet, a dab of vanilla extract, and a couple drops of lemon juice) on it and rolled it up and ate it. 

I'm still pretty sick at the thought of more tofu, so I made a big thing of fat free spinach dip:

Bunch of frozen spinach
Tub of ff cream cheese (Philadelphia brand only, the rest are too rubbery)
Half a can of rotel tomatoes

And I sliced some cucumbers with my mandolin and ate it like chips and dip.  Sort of.

I've also been making a yogurt drink with bulgarian yogurt, stevia, and milk.

It also seems like I'm never hungry.  When is my first celebration meal again?  I could go for a glass bottle of champagne right about now!

Day 10 (8 on Cruise)

So it's my tenth day of the Dukan Diet and I weighed in this morning at a straight 123.0.  Awesome!  And I think I'm a little bloated so who knows how much of that is water.  This weekend I had 2 PP days but I felt like I would gag at the idea of tofu so I just had a lot of dairy and protein powder.  Not the best I'm sure, but whatever.  I did cheat for the first time yesterday when making some PV day coleslaw for today.  I had never made coleslaw and wanted to try it.  I ended up eating about a cup of it, but that's only about 20 calories so I'm not too worried ;-)  I also accidentally ate some dry roasted edamame on Thursday (a LOT of it) because that's what tofu is made from, so I figured it would be ok.  Well, I guess it isn't???  Too high in carbs or something, even though almost all its carbs are fiber.  So that was a mistake, but it was AMAZING to eat something crunchy! 

And the best thing ever - about 2 years ago my husband shrunk my favorite pair of 7FAMK jeans and they haven't even come close to fitting since.  Until yesterday!!!  They still gave me an oh-so-mild muffin top, but I think after a few more days or maybe a week, they should be near perfect!  I just wish they hadn't shrunk in length too...

Today for lunch I brought a big salad and some broiled eggplant with tomato and ff cheese.  For some reason it didn't taste good when I took a bite of it this morning, but hopefully it will taste good when I warm it up.  Otherwise I'm going to be a cranky girl!

123.WHAT!?!

So when I got to work today I was kind of worried because the previous two days I was wearing very light weight dress pants and today I'm wearing some pretty thick jeans. Plus I'm pretty sure I drank 3 liters of liquid yesterday so I was sure the scale would be up.  But yesterday was my first return to a PP day after my first two PV days so there was hope.  And there I sat very still while it weighed me and much to my surprise, it said 123.5!!!!  I seriously haven't seen this since about June of 2007.  I'm not completely sure I feel or look skinnier in my body, but my face looks quite a bit thinner.  I just wish the love handles would go away!  Again, I'm sure it's a lot of water weight but I definitely love the scale lately!  Yesterday's meals were as follows:

Breakfast:
a vanilla "latte"

Lunch:
A huge glass of skim milk
A container of ff greek yogurt

Dinner:
Baked tofu squares (marinated in Briggs aminos, zero cal maple syrup, hot sauce, garlic powder, and white wine vinegar.

Snacks:
3 ff cheese slices
A huge cup of cottage cheese
Some ff feta with basalmic vinegar
A glass of milk
2 DRY tablespoons of oat bran (blech) but I was too lazy to cook
And I made a Dukan approved PP "cheesecake" with a heaping spoonful of ff cream cheese, heaping spoonful of ff greek yogurt, 1 stevia packet, a dab of vanilla extract, and a couple drops of lemon juice.  This tasted amazing until I added some sugar free jelly, and I didn't like it as much. 

I also went for my first official brisk walk yesterday.  The first few days my body was still adjusting and I didn't really feel up to doing much exercise.  I can definitely say that when I do get hungry, it's more of an "oh, I think my stomach just growled" rather than the "OMG I need to devour this bag of chips because I haven't eaten in 30 minutes" that I used to regularly experience.

So far, I <3 Dr. Dukan!

First two days of cruise

In the cruise phase, you can do 2 days PP then 2 days PV, or 1 and 1, or however you prefer to rotate.  Based on my current schedule, I'm going to deviate slightly and do PV on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, and PP Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday. 

As I said earlier, I woke up after the attack phase with a weight of 124.5 on the morning of my first day of cruise.  When I got to work I had an AMAZING salad for breakfast!  I know it sounds weird but I have never been more excited about eating my veggies!  I also made a tofu eggplant dish that was really good.  I cubed the eggplant (after "sweating" it with salt) and the tofu and let them marinate for about 20 minutes in a combination of Briggs Aminos (a wheat-free soysauce like liquid), ground up ginger, garlic, 2 stevia packets, and some Louisianna style hotsauce.  Then I baked in the oven at 350 for 30 mins, pulled out and sprinkled a bunch of white onions on it and put it back in for 15 minutes.  I must say I impressed myself!  That is one of the things that I ate a few times on these past two PV days, in addition to a spinach/ff feta/basalmic vinegar salad, ff cheese slices, ff cottage cheese, skim milk, and ff greek yogurt with stevia.  And of course my "lattes" and the lovely oat bran.  These past two days I've been too tired/busy to make the galette so I've just been dumping the 2 tablespoons in some cottage cheese.  It's definitely not amazing but it's not disgusting either. 

Tuesday when I got to work I weighed myself on the same scale that told me 124.5 Monday and it blessed me with a 124.4!  I can live with that!  I'm not at work today but I will weigh myself tomorrow when I get to work after this PP day. 

Attack phase is complete!

So I survived my two day attack phase!  I weighed myself this morning on this fancy scale we have at work and let me just say it's been 4 years since I've been under 127 and I started this diet hovering around 128.  Even with doing P90X for 90 days I did not lose a SINGLE POUND.  This morning it said 124.5!!!  I vaguely remember being 124ish a few years ago but I don't remember what I looked like.  I don't know where it came off though, but my dress pants are noticably looser today :)  A lot of it could be water weight, but I've been drinking a TON of water, carbonated flavored (no cal) water, coffee, and tea.  I had a salad for breakfast, which is kind of odd but I couldn't have been more excited to have veggies!  I actually brought 2 salads today, one for breakfast and one for lunch.  And two plain greek yogurts and I had a "latte" for breakfast.  I'm definitely going to be doing the happy dance all day!  Now here's what I ate yesterday:

Breakfast - A protein powder "latte"
I went shopping and went about 4 hours after I had this before I had any more food.  I was starting to get pretty hungry/weak feeling.  I definitely don't recommend going 4 hours without food on this diet.

Lunch - I went to the grocery store because I couldn't stand the thought of more tofu.  I bought some fat free feta cheese, fat free cottage cheese, and some fat free cheese slices.  I had 2 of the cheese slices while I microwaved the tofu from the day before.  Luckily I kind of filled up on the cheese so I didn't have to eat too much of the tofu.  For a snack I had some fat free feta with balsalmic vinegar, so it ALMOST tasted like a caprese salad.  Today I can add tomatoes to that! 

Dinner - I'm not sure I had an official dinner yesterday, but later in the day I had a huge cup of ff cottage cheese and a galette/pancake.  I also had a lot of skim milk throughout the day.

This morning, I wasn't about to die of starvation, which was awesome!  And I saw 124.5.  That means I lost an estimated 3.5 pounds in my attack phase, even though the chart estimated I'd only lose 1.6 pounds.  So some of that may have been water, but I'm happy either way :)

Day 1

My first day on the Dukan diet was not as difficult as I expected!  I started my day with a latte-ish drink made by brewing fresh coffee and pouring about 12 ounces into the blender, then adding 2 scoops of EAS vanilla protein powder and 2 stevia packets.  Blend for a minute or so (but lift the lid once it gets going so it doesn't explode from the heat!) and you have a delicious, foamy treat that tastes just like a vanilla latte!  That kept me full for abouty 3 hours and it was time for lunch.  I made a cubed tofu/shiritaki noodle dish seasoned with garlic powder, Briggs amino acids (it's a wheat free version of soy sauce), and some hot chili sauce.  It was reasonably good and those shiritaki noodles (sold as Miracle Noodles) filled me up FAST and I could only eat about 1/4 of what I made.  A couple hours later I made one of the oat bran galettes/pancakes.  I think it was 1.5 tbsp oat bran, 2 tbsp egg whites, 2 tbsp greek yogurt, and some vanilla extract and a stevia packet.  It was kind of like the crepes in France.  I also found some zero calorie pancake syrup (made by Walden Farms, they have an entire line of zero cal condiments!) that made the pancake much more bearable.  For the rest of the day, I had a little bit more tofu/shiritaki noodle mix and another "latte".  I didn't really find myself as hungry or carb crazy as I would have imagined! 

Starting weight:  128

Oh... to be Kate Middleton skinny!

Earlier this week I was looking at some pictures of the fashionable Kate Middleton.  I just love her style!  I somehow stumbled upon the diet that many are claiming that she used to get wedding skinny, which is called the Dukan Diet.  I've never tried anything low carb because I'm a 15 year vegetarian and have lived on mac & cheese and chips and queso for my entire life.  But I went to the website http://www.dukandiet.com/ and it told me that because I only have about 10 pounds to lose, I really only had to have a two day attack phase, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I'm pretty much limited to fat free dairy (milk, cheese, cottage cheese, and yogurt), egg whites (which I've eaten before but always in baked goods, never alone), and tofu.  Plus 48 oz. of water a day, and 1.5 tbsp of oat bran per day.  And coffee, tea, and diet sodas.  And calorie free spices and vinegars. 

Here goes!