Week 20 Summary

Diet & Fitness

This week has been about reducing my meal sizes. Though I have to say that I am not succeeding at all. It seems that since I’ve made that decision, my brain has flicked a switch that has sent signals of “eat more” to my stomach. I have been indulging in some of my old favourites like hot chips, Hungry Jacks Whooper burger and chocolate.

A friend of mine has been trying to convince me to try a the latest meal replacement shake on the market that she’s using but funny enough I feel like I would be cheating on my Dukan diet by doing that which is quite ironic seeing as I had already cheated on my diet with eating junk. After being told that it was on sale at the supermarket, I decided to go investigate and see the ingredients that were in there. I was shocked by the amount of carbs and sugars that were in there. I seriously don’t understand how people are losing weight with it. I ended up putting it back on the shelf and went to the outer perimeters to the store to look at getting some protein (real food not a shake) that were on special.

Career

I seem to have hit my slump of not wanting to apply for jobs yet again. I have open so many windows within my browser with all these positions that I could apply for. But each time I go to look at them, I open up my resume and covering letter then I freeze. I don’t know if it is due to me not wanting this chillaxed state to end or if I can’t be bothered to tailor my covering to address the criteria they have set only to be told that I am not eligible for the position. I guess I am having some issues with rejection that I need to work through.

How do you turn a negative into a positive?

Week 19 Summary

Trying to get back on tracks has been very hard seeing as the weather is getting colder and colder here.

Diet & Fitness

I’ve had a great start to the week. Re-started doing P90X this week. Feels good to be working daily again. Though I still dread the day that I have to do Plyometrics. I was planning on getting back on the Dukan Diet band wagon again but due to very dire funds in my bank account I haven’t been able to buy my ration of proteins like I usually do. So I’ve been eating my rice and breads with the foods that mum would cook.

Even though I haven’t been keeping to my Dukan Diet, my weigh in at the doctor’s was the lowest ever recorded. My scales at home showed that I weighed 90.9 kg and the scales at the doctors showed that it was 92.2 kg. Seriously wished that he could weigh me completed naked instead of with my bra and clothes (these scales always add an extra 2kg even if I wear the lightest clothes i.e. legging and just a top).

The doctor really wants me to get down to the 80’s but the thing is for me to reflect 89 kg on his scales, I will have to be 87 kg on my scales. Which is a big feat as that’s would be a loss of almost 4kg. But I a trying to keep positive and reach this 89 kg target (which at this stage feeling like I’m trying to find the holy grail lol).

Career

I’ve gotten back into the zone and decided to apply for a few roles online. Seeing as this University job isn’t working out I thought I should get back out there and apply again.

Doctor's blood test result

This is a bit of delayed post as I found out my blood test results a few weeks ago. 


My doctor has been doing routine blood work on me to monitor this sudden laziness with my insulin production. He has also been testing my thyroid as my weight loss has somewhat stalled a bit and he wanted to know whether or not it may be related to my thyroid. 


I went to the medical centre and the doctor told me my results were good. My insulin is now back to normal which is great news and has been achieved thanks to the Dukan Diet. 


The bad news is that my cholesterol seems to be increasing each time I've seen him. It is not considered as high but it is not as low as it originally was (4.6) it is now 5.8. I've been slowing down on my egg consumption the past few weeks as I will be getting a blood test in the next 2 to 3 weeks to keep abreast on both the cholesterol and diabetes issue. Other bad news is that my vitamin D is abysmal. It should be in the high 80's and mine is 24. I have been prescribed some vitamin D tablets to take. I guess all those years of avoiding the sun so that I wouldn't get more freckles have caught up with me. 


Have to keep working on my health. 


What do you do to stay healthy?


Technorati Tags: The Dukan Diet, Diabetes, Blood Test, Routine Check Up

Four week review of the Dukan Diet

Over four weeks have passed and I am still loving the Dukan Diet. I have to admit that I have not been completely true to the Dukan Diet (in other words, I haven’t followed it to the letter) but I have seen some good results.

For weeks, I was stuck in a rut of being between 94 to 96 kg and by undertaking the Dukan Diet I was able to break through that barrier and made it to my lowest weight this year of 90.4 kg, which is a loss of almost 4 kilos. Not bad for over four weeks of just eating certain foods and also cheating.

The Dukan Diet was easy to follow as it was just eating the right foods. During the Attack phase (a protein only phase), I ate to my cravings. At that moment I had a big salmon craving so I ate it in different ways. Grilled, as sashimi with soy sauce and wasabi, with cracked pepper and lemon, poached, etc.

The Cruise phase (a mixture of protein only days and protein plus vegetables days) was a bit more difficult for me as I was craving my vegetables. I found that on certain days I was skipping the protein only days and still eating vegetables. I mainly ate broccoli and spinach and my all time favourite, my mixed lettuce that I completely pounced onto.

The Dukan Diet made me feels very healthy. I felt less bloated after my meals, my stomach didn’t feel rock hard after eating like it previously was and wasn’t sticking out like I was pregnant either. I felt like my food was being digested instead of feeling like it was stuck underneath my chest and suffocating me.

Since the Dukan Diet is a low carb and high protein diet, it is said that you may experience constipation. I found that that wasn’t the case with me. I was fairly regular. I found that I became irregular when I reintroduced carb into my diet. Breaking my Dukan Diet has happened over the Easter period and I have found that I have not been regular since.

Though I have cheated plenty of times on this diet (the occasions that this happened have been while being out with friends at restaurants and I’ve had to choose the closest item of food that would be Dukan approved, when I’ve had cravings and gave in, when I’ve been too lazy to cook a Dukan meal and ate what ever had been cooked at home) I think that I’ve still had an amazing success with the diet.

Overall, this is diet that I would recommend to others as it didn’t feel invasive and harsh on my body and it was simple o follow. Success was still gained even though I didn’t stick to the diet 100%.

What has been your experience of the Dukan Diet?

Week 13 Summary

Not smoothly cruising through Dukan.

Diet & Exercise

The Cruise phase has really been playing with my mind this week as I was only losing 100 grams daily for the first few days of the week. I couldn’t understand why because I had increased my exercise this week. I have been walking 5km for most days but I persevered through.

Towards the end of the week, I do have to say that I had given into my cravings and had a chocolate croissant and also several fun sized chocolate bars (Twix and Snickers). Luckily they didn’t make a difference in my weight and actually stopped my continuous loss of 100 grams and moved to losing 200 grams. I am not quite sure how that works but I’m happy that it was a loss instead of a gain.

I think I spoke too soon as I had a gain of a 100 grams the following day due to eating at a restaurant the night before. I had Thai fried rice with some yummy Thai noodles. Luckily it was only a 100 gram gain.

This week, I decided to start to the C25K program. I downloaded it after seeing that a lot of my friends on Daily Mile had used it and since I wasn’t enjoying the running program that I had been undertaking the few weeks I thought I would try it out.

Week 1 down and I am loving this training app!

Career

Well good news (finally). I got accepted for a temp position, working 3 days a week for 3 weeks with a possibility of extending the timeframe.

I had a great interview at a University that I had applied to work in. I would absolutely love to work there.

How was your week?

Week 10 Summary

Perseverance has been my challenge this week.

Diet & Exercise

I have been working out hard and eating almost right but the scales just don’t seem to reflect it at all, which is VERY FRUSTRATING!!

I started the Cruise Phase of the Dukan diet this week. The Cruise phase consists of having a protein day followed by a protein combined with complex carbs in the form of vegetables day.

This has been a challenge for me as I love my salads and I am finding that I am not having a protein only day after eating vegetables or salads. Something that I have to work on I guess.

Good thing though, this morning’s weigh in has put a lovely smile on my face. 92.1 kg :D

Work

Since I am no longer employed, I have had to go and visit Centrelink this week. For non-Australian, Centrelink is a government-funded scheme that assists unemployed individuals like myself.

It was a pain to go there, as there is always a line. After waiting in line for over an hour, the consultant advised me that I should use their phone service to get more information on my situation. So off I went to the phone section and dialed the right number. After a 35 minute wait of listening to classical music, a human voice was heard and they gave me advice but as the reason for leaving my work was a bit complicated she advised that I should talk to another department to double check which scheme I should be on. So another 40 minute wait and the person I spoke confirmed the same information that the previous phone consultant told me.

So I spent over 2 hours at this place, only to be told that a person will be calling me the following week to get further information on my situation. After all that, to me it’s easier to go to work than having to wait around Centrelink for unemployment payments.

Love

Organised a date with a lovely Christian boy. We met up at a coffee shop at night and just had a lovely. He was very interesting and nice. On a previous phone conversation I had advised that I was available during the day and at the end of our lovely conversation he organised a second with me for the following day.

I met him at his house and we went for a mid-morning coffee. The conversation started out normal but then he started talking about religion and contesting certain things that I believe in. I automatically felt turned off by him. He was someone that I was kind of looking for, cute, nice guy that’s into religion but even though I go to church everyday and I have my faith, I don’t like talking about religion or debating about it for hours. I have to say that was one of the most uncomfortable conversations I have been in. I was sitting there, hoping that it would stop.  I think he caught on after a while and changed the subject. At the end of that date, he organised to see me again the following day. I told him that I would play it by ear and confided in a friend for advice who told me not to dismiss so quickly.

So the following day, I went to his place to watch a movie. We just hung out and while I was on the couch I was hoping that he would make a move and he didn’t. So I automatically allocated him to being a friend. Once the movie ended and I had to go home, he grab me by my waist and held me. It was nice but all I could think of was “Oh my god, he’s making a move and he’s probably going to kiss me’. And he did. I went along with it and came out with sore lips. Not because we were kissing for a long but because my lips were literally vacuumed into his mouth. My lips were sore the whole drive home. After that performance and having doubts about whether we click or not, I decided that we would be better as friends and told so.

Week 9 Summary

Welcome autumn. I can see that my nose has noticed that you have moved in because my sinus is acting every morning. It’s so good to wake up and just start sneezing like the big bad wolf. I’m surprised that the roof hasn’t been blown off.

Diet & Exercise

Ok sarcasm aside, I am loving this cooler weather. It has been more enjoyable to continue my current love affair with Mr. Treadmill. I have also purchased some dumbbells to use while walking on the treadmill. 

Gotta love being able to multitask.

As mentioned, I recently restarted the Dukan Diet and so far the all protein attack phase is going well. I have been giving into my craving of eating sashimi and I am starting to quickly get over eating steak. Hope this seafood phase lasts.


While grocery shopping I came across these diet cordial drinks.

With no added sugar and having only 1.5 grams of carbs and 1.3 grams of sugar, thought it would be a good way to spice up my water intake.

Work

As of this week, I am officially unemployed. My work had sent a letter stating that they would be terminating my role as it seemed to them that I was not going to recover from my illness. It was fine by me because I didn’t want to return to that company but now comes the hard part updating my resume to state that I had finished my current role.

I wonder I am going to explain to people at future interviews that I left due to a worker’s compensation issue without freaking them out.

If anyone has any advice or pointers on this matter I’m all ears.

Love

I decided to go on a date with someone whose race I don’t normally go for because he seemed like a nice guy. The date went well and the conversation flowed nicely and was fluid. But unfortunately there was no spark at all.

We both made it clear that we were to be friends and I reinforced that I wasn’t ready for a relationship and only wanted to be friends. I don’t think that that sunk in quite well with him as I was still getting messages that stated differently. As someone who’s in the profession of listening to others problems he didn’t listen to what I was saying at all.

I’m really wondering whether I should continue this chase of finding love or just put it to rest.

Restarting the Dukan Diet

After a week of ups and downs, well more downs. I decided to restart the Dukan diet as I was starting to feel very sluggish and also started feeling bloated again, which was something I didn’t feel while being on the Dukan diet.

So Attack phase commences yet again. A week of no vegetables, salads and obviously carbs, but a welcome of steaks, fish and chicken. I seem to be a bit in love with salmon at the moment, so the fridge has been stacked with raw salmon, smoked salmon and flavoured salmon. Lots of yummy foods to eat.

Starting weight is 92.9 kg

This is approximately 2 kilos lower than when I first started the Dukan diet 2 weeks ago. So according to the Dukan website I should be down 2.7 kg after completing the Attack phase for 7 days. Then the Cruise phase will kick in and I should be down 27 kg after completing the Cruise phase for 187 days, which should be mid-September.

So here we go again.

Week 5 Summary

This summary has been quite delayed but I’ve been quite preoccupied this week. Apologies for such a long and picture intense post.

Diet & Exercise

This week was the beginning of my Dukan Diet. Attack phase for 7 days. For more information on how the Attack phase works click here.

30 January: Weight - 94.3 Kg, walked the dog for 30 minutes

31 January: 93.7 Kg, walked the dog for 30 minutes

1 February: 93 Kg, walked 10.35 Km on the treadmill

2 February: 92.7 Kg, walked the dog for 30 minutes

3 February: 93.2 Kg, walked 5 Km on the treadmill

4 February: 92.8 Kg, walked the dog for 30 minutes

5 February: 92.5 Kg, walked the dog for 30 minutes

Overall weight loss: 1.8 Kg

Not quite the anticipated 2.7 Kg weight loss as per the Dukan calculator but it's still a loss.

Foods eaten throughout he week have mainly been beef. Here are photos of a few meals eaten.

Work:

Didn’t do too well in this department this past week at all. Received quite a few disappointing phone calls from the places that I had interviewed at. I was also brought down slightly by receiving an email from my current employment stating that I would be terminated because I had yet to recover from my injury. This didn’t phase me as much as I thought because I suspected that that would have been the outcome. This did raise my stress level though because of the negative outcomes of my interviews.

So in a bit of a panic I hit the job sites with a fury and gained one interview for a part time role. Fingers crossed that I do get the job.

Love:

Oh what a rollercoaster.

Ended up chatting to the guy I was being set up with and we exchanged a few emails and photos. Everything was going well and we decided to go on a date. We had dinner at a Korean place and the conversation was good. As it is daylight savings here the sun does not set until at least 8pm, so it was quite bright at 7:30pm so we had a coffee and chatting some more. We were talking about the nationalities that we had dated previously and I found out that he had only gone out with Asian and I felt so awkward as the suburb we had agreed to have dinner was mainly Asian based. I asked him why he wanted to get to know and said that he was taken my how attractive I was, which was good enough for me.

As we finished out coffee and didn’t have anything else to do in that area and I thought we could go for a walk near a waterfront suburb that looked to the city. We walked around for a bit and then sat down on a bench where we discussed a few movies that we wanted to see. I could see that he was trying to lean into me at times but then pulled away. Out of the blue he blurted out that he had wanted to kiss me ever since we sat down but each time he tried someone walked past us. I thought that was so cute but then it kinda made things a bit awkward afterwards as all the sudden no one was there. Luckily it ended up being a good kiss.

The night kinda ended after that. He mentioned that he would have to look at getting a car as he wanted to see more of me and I thought that was a good sign and we had made plans to catch a movie throughout the week. The next day we didn’t quite text that much. Then Monday came around and I hadn’t heard from him at all. This really annoyed me and I felt like I had to chase him. I spoke to some of my friends and they told me not to message and see if he sends something. By Tuesday, I cracked and I sent him an email saying hello. After I had received a response, I asked him if he was still interested in meeting up during the week as I thought he had lost interest due to the lack of communication. He explained that he was busy at work and I understand that but it doesn’t take hours to write a text to see how someone is. Funny enough that day I also received a call from a friend who works nights and even he was annoyed at this guys behaviour.

This lack of contact had turned me off a bit and the responses that I was getting was just not good enough and I just started to care less and thought well if he writes back then good but if it doesn’t then it’s not skin off my nose. But it must be a really busy week for him as it’s been a few days since I’ve heard from him lol.

Anyways, I’ve been back on the dating website chatting to other guys in the mean time and looking for someone else who is willing to show a bit more interest.

The Dukan Diet

At beginning of January, I was invited to a friends place for dinner and during general chit chat he revealed that he had recently been undertaking the Dukan Diet and had had more success and it had also helped with food digestion as he is a lap bander.

He gave me a copy of the book to read and I do admit it took me a while to open it, but once I did I couldn’t put it down. It was very informative and opened me eyes to nutrition and the way that we currently live.

So I decided to undertake the diet.

The diet consists of four phases.

The Attack Phase

This phase is a low fat protein phase. Dairy such as Greek yoghurt or zero fat yoghurt can be eaten. 1.5 tablespoons of oat bran is to be eaten daily and spices can be incorporated onto your low fat choice of protein.

This phase is to last between 2 – 10 days. The book suggests to go to the Dukan Diet website to figure out the amount of time this phase should last by calculating your true weight.

It is recommended that at least 30 minutes of walking is done on a daily basis.

The Cruise Phase

This phase consists of incorporating complex carbohydrates back into your diet such as green vegetables and low in sugar vegetables. The Cruise phase works on an alternating pattern of having one day of protein and vegetables followed by a day of protein only foods. This is repeated until you reach your true weight.

Oat bran consumption is to be increased to 2 tablespoons and exercise in the form of walking is to be increased up to an hour.

The Consolidation Phase

This phase is all about maintain your true weight for a certain amount of time so that your body adapts to the weight loss you have undergone.

Here you can incorporate simple carbohydrates back into your diet by having it once a week. For example, pasta can be eaten once a week. One piece of fruit can also be eaten once a day. A celebration meal can also be had (this is an anything goes meal so knock yourself out) twice a week.

Oat bran is to be eaten daily and exercise in the form of walking to be kept up.

The Stabilisation Phase

This phase is similar to the consolidation phase but there is a mandatory all protein day to be eaten on Thursday as well as continuing eating your oat bran daily.

Below is the length of time that I would have to spend per stage as per the Dukan Diet calculator.