A (Giant) Bump on the Road

I made a big mistake when I started the Dukan Diet: I did not weigh myself. I had just started reading the book and jumped right in, so I didn't know you could track your progress daily - I've always known that to be a bad move. 

I know that, roughly, I weighed 125lb around that time. So when I first weighed myself on Monday, 122lb didn't feel like a significant loss. Then 121 on Tuesday which, again, was blah but about 1lb a day on PP is not bad. 

I skipped the gym (and weighing in) on Wednesday, so Thursday weigh in was... 123lb! What?! Not cool, PP. It sucks not only because of the face value of not losing weight, but mostly because I've been so dedicated and so on point with this diet - I really should be seeing results! 

Instead, I see lots of bloating, although I can tell I'm losing fat - you can tell by limbs and face, whereas bloating usually shows up on the tummy and sometimes hands and feet. 

So of course I did some googling on Dukan weight stagnation, and it looks like the culprit was... My own skimming of the rules. Here is a mea culpa:

1) Cheese: but it's protein, right? Well, apparently if it's not fat free cottage/ricotta, I shouldn't be eating it. And I doused cheddar, jarlsberg, and asiago on so many of my meals... 

2) Oils: I noticed this earlier, and corrected it, but a lot of my meals were made with oil - healthy evoo and coconut oil, but I had completely overlooked the part where no oil is allowed. 

3) Fat-free everything: I'm not big on fatty stuff anyway, but I just tried my best with cuts of beef - the butcher seriously suggested filet mignon as the leanest cut, but I went with a more modestly priced (and more marbled = fatty) cut. I also got low sodium ham, but didn't ask for low fat. I may have had some chicken skin, I may have bought full-fat ricotta, I wasn't paying that much attention. This wasn't as bad as the cheese - I really overdid the cheese! - but it must have piled some calories I don't need, and hindered my weight loss. 

After all my "research", I came up with the following fixes:

1) More oat bran: I upped my intake to 2.5 tbsp a day, making it a meal for dinner, because I need...

2) Fiber supplement: Skip to #3 if you're squeamish or don't need the TMI. Constipation is a problem in the Dukan diet, and it's been especially problematic for me. None of the usual fixes has worked, including a mild laxative. I drink all the water I should, religiously, so I know that's not it either. So I got a fiber supplement - one of them said "made with real sugar!" so I checked the label before buying it. 

3) White Protein Day: when I realized I had made so many mistakes, my first impulse was to go back to the attack phase and start it all again. Then I realized it was a bit silly, and that giving up and restarting from scratch might make me less enthusiastic. I'm looking forward to being done with the cruise phase at the end of the month, and there is a good chance my mind will be done with it, so I better get the most out of July. 

I read that some people go for a white protein day - chicken breast, white fish, and FF ricotta, cottage cheese and yogurt - which I'm not 100% sure I can endure, but I will try to have fish for lunch and chicken breast for dinner for the next 3 days. 

4) Green tea: This is from the horse's mouth: drink only green tea for 3 days. I don't know that I'm able to substitute all water for green tea, but I'm trying to drink as much of it as I can. 

 And bonus:

5) Shirataki noodles: I have been skeptical of those since I've heard of them. Once I asserted myself that they didn't taste completely gross, I kept thinking they were some weird, overly processed food akin to eating a zero-cal hot dog. But then I found out the konjac root is dubbed "the broom of the intestines". So I will stop seeing it as "weird American zero-calorie over-processed non-food" and start looking at it as "ancient Japanese root of well being." Lol

I also can't wait till Monday (when I'm done with PP and get to PV) so I can have some big salads and other fiber rich foods! 

Thermogenic Foods

I lost 3lb! Ok, that's nothing, and I should be losing a lot more, but I just realized today that I'm eating a lot more fat than it is allowed in the Dukan Diet. I'm not curbing my cheese intake, and I'm cooking with oil. I guess from now on I'll be bringing out that can of PAM...

I've been really interested in thermogenic foods. They (supposedly) accelerate your metabolism, making you spend more energy (calories!) to process the food you eat - which may kill you a little faster, but that's a subject for another post. Which means that if you normally spend 15 calories to digest a 100-calories slice of bread, if you have a thermogenic food with it you will spend, say, 20 calories instead. Sounds like a small change, but it's a total freebie!

So here is a list of my favorite thermogenic foods:

1. Coffee: it's also diuretic, and helps with digestion - have a little espresso after lunch and you'll see! I limit it to 2 cups a day, especially if I have a green tea.
2. Ginger: supposedly helps with, um, flatulence. Not that any of us fancy ladies have ever had a problem with that... I have green tea with ginger - mostly because the ginger gives it an interesting flavor - or if I'm home, I make ginger tea from fresh ginger root. Or... I mix ginger powder with water and a packet of Splenda and down it like medicine (not fun, but if I am feeling lazy, it only takes 30 seconds and I'm done!)
3. Apple Cider Vinegar: I'll try to hide it in any food that can handle a tablespoon of vinegar - as in, don't try to add it to your hot chocolate, unless you want curdled milk. I've been told to drink a tbsp diluted in water before lunch and dinner, but when I tried that, I almost cried. So gross. 
4. Green Tea: For the price of a latte, you can buy a month's worth of green tea - a box with 20 bags. Keep it in a drawer at work, and make yourself some green tea right after lunch, when your salty mouth is begging for dessert. There, you just saved some money and kept yourself out of trouble! (I am not a big fan of the taste of green tea, so I get it with peppermint or ginger.)
5. Red Pepper: Who among us didn't try the master cleanse when it was a thing, only to quit halfway through the first day because, well, that was just crazy?! So get that jar of cayenne pepper that has been sitting in the back of your pantry, and sprinkle cayenne pepper on everything you make! It doesn't have to be a lot, or even enough to make the dish hot if that's not your thing. Any other pepper - even black cracked pepper - will have the same effect.  
6. Cinnamon: Sprinkle on everything that's sweet. Enjoy. Cinnamon is maybe the only delicious food that actually makes you lose weight! It's God's way of saying "I love you." 

The only pure protein "dessert" I was able to come up with has a thermogenic in it!

Hel's Dukan-Friendly Cannoli Cream:

Because you might as well just have the best part of the cannoli!

• 1 container part skim ricotta cheese
• 6 packets Splenda 
• 1/2 tbsp cinnamon 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Mix all ingredients with a spoon, then whip with a beater - just so the cinnamon doesn't fly everywhere. Don't overmix - it will get to a sticky consistency. It tastes better after another hour in the fridge. 

Weekly planning

I like to plan my weekly menu and do my grocery shopping on Sundays. It has become a bit of a ritual, together with the cooking, and even though it means I'm eating Friday lunch that I cooked on Sunday, I manage to make delicious meals and always be satisfied. 

Marinating in snack size ziplock bags also helps with portion control

There are three main reasons this has helped me so much to stay on a diet. 

1) I don't get lazy and eat whatever is there. 

I always try not to keep cookies or other ready-to-eat junk in the house because I will have it for dinner, after a long day. So, by having my meals already cooked and ready to eat, I avoid the temptation.

Also, at work, it helps me eat something healthy - a meal I put thought into - as opposed to "I feel like having a..." Of the moment. 

2) it keeps me on a schedule. 

9:30am is breakfast, 12:30 is lunch. I start getting fidgety and have a yogurt or protein shake around 3:30, and that snack doubles as a way not to starve until dinner if I'm going to the gym after work. But none of this was prescribed to me, that's what came naturally with my needs - working 9-5, going to the gym after work, etc. Weekends are still a challenge...

3) it's the good kind of portion control. 

I know how much I'm supposed to eat. I can put it on my plate and be satiated by it. But if there is more, I might be tempted to go back for seconds... This way, when I buy exactly 2 portions of steak - one for lunch, one for dinner - I know I'm not supposed to go back for seconds. There is a delay between your stomach feeling full and your brain recognizing it, so only having a single portion available forces you to stop eating when you should stop, but still don't want to. Your brain catches up soon enough. 

So here is the menu for this week:

For breakfast, scrambled egg whites - I use 4 eggs and 100% egg whites from Organic Valley to make 5 servings - with ham and cheese, and whatever leftover herbs I have (chives, rosemary, parsley.) I drink a cup of green tea with ginger, and maybe a coffee as a midmorning snack - I have breakfast at 9:30 and lunch at 12:30, so no real reason for a mid-morning snack.

For lunch:

Monday: Grilled chipotle pork chops

Tuesday: Rosemary chicken skewers

Wednesday: Grilled hangar steak with onions

Thursday: Lemon chicken

Friday: Marinated hangar steak

Since I'm on the Dukan, the side has been shirataki noodles, but usually it would be grilled veggies. 

At around 4pm, I have fat-free greek yogurt with Splenda, and usually get to the gym by 5:30pm. By the time I'm done withe my workout, I'm ravenous! Which is not a good thing usually, but this diet makes me feel so full the entire time, it's good to feel an empty stomach for a little bit.

For dinner, some oat bran porridge - such a comfort food! - and a ham and cheese sandwich on a Dukan galette, and a glass of water with a tablespoon of ginger (I will have a post on thermogenic foods later, but basically it revs up your metabolism.) 

If I'm still hungry when I go to bed, a glass of skim milk with real cocoa and Splenda does wonders to quiet my stomach when it screams "I'm not letting you sleep until you feed me!"