• Day 233: Dukan Diet 1-Week Weight Loss!

    Date: 2010.10.12 | Category: Uncategorized | Tags:

    Is this me after seven days on the Dukan Diet?

    Well, in my mind it is!

    I ended the seven-day “Attack Phase” yesterday.

    This morning’s weigh-in showed a loss of exactly two kilos – about four and a half pounds in those seven days.

    I’m happy!  It’s not the 6-8 pound weight loss that some people (especially guys) brag about after their first week but it’s okay by me, especially since my metabolism moved into first gear a few years ago and it takes a sledgehammer to chisel away an ounce of fat these days.

    Today I went to the market and loaded up on vegetables, since they are allowed on the so-called “Cruise” phase of the Dukan diet.  I bought cucumbers, celery, green peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, radishes and butter lettuce. Yum!

    The up side of this hard-core diet is suddenly a tomato becomes as alluring as Black Forest cake!

    Now the bad news…

    It’s been hard.  Not impossible, but a bit of a struggle.

    If you trawl the Dukan diet forums – which are almost exclusively French or U.K forums because the diet hasn’t made it to North America yet – you’d think this diet was an absolute breeze.   So “tasty,” the “easiest diet I’ve ever been on!”   “I’m never hungry!”   It’s like all the Dukan diet testimonials were written by hack movie critics from the U.S.   “The Dukan diet – Laugh out Loud Funny!”

    Here’s the thing:  it’s anything but funny.

    I tried reading the French Dukan forums but, big surprise, the commentary was too rigid and formal for me. Bonne continuation! they crow to each other.

    The British forums are even worse.  I’m a little irritable without a single carb in me.  So the Britishisms on the forums are a bit much.  First, they congratulate each other:  “Well done, mate!  “Good on you!”   Some of them, of course, are a bit “knackered” by the diet but others love to go on about the oat bran they put in their “porridge” for “brekkie.”  A few have hit upon the tactic of popping a few “sugar-free lollies” in their mouth to get past the cravings.

    Frankly, I find the babyish “ie” they tack on to perfectly normal words a bit intolerable – at least without the help of some garlic mashed potatoes and Hershey bars.   Oooh, does that make me a bit naughty? Get me a lollie, someone, or I might go daft with this dodgy diet!  That wouldn’t be naff of me, or would it?

    Anyway, the Brits act as if this diet were as easy as sucking down cheeseburgers, fries and chocolate doughnuts three times a day.

    For me, not so much.  I’m looking forward to adding in vegetables or veg, as my Anglo-Saxon cousins put it, but I haven’t felt great this past week.  Maybe I haven’t eaten enough or drunk enough water.

    Yes, I did cheat a bit.  I have to confess, seeing as how I have witnesses (who do not want to be identified or included on this blog.)

    My cheating has been minimal, in my opinion.  Several nights I have added a dollop of ketchup to my steak.  Two nights I have had a glass of red wine.   So naughty! But I fancied it!

    At least twice I have placed olive oil in the pan when frying up chicken.  Goodness me!

    That’s it.

    I don’t feel hungry so much but I don’t feel good.  It’s as if there is a total absence of comfort in my life.  Eating nothing but protein is like being an orphan.  There are no mother or father foods.   My normal high-energy is lacking.

    I go to bed fairly early and have weird anxiety dreams.  Just short of nightmares.  I lose my purse.  I slip and fall on my lower back.  A very good friend is revealed in my dream to be a professional flamenco dancer.  Etc.   Dodgy stuff.

    I also sleep way more than usual – I’m almost late to brekkie!

    But it’s working for me so far, because I work well when I have to be very disciplined.

    I’m hoping the veg will help me sort out the kinks.

    Cheers, mates!