27th September Cruise day 25

Weight loss: 0.8 kg
Total weight loss: 6.90 kg
PP

Well, I didn't write yesterday as it was my first day back at work after feeling grim. I had on okay day, but was so busy that I drink enough and ended up with a horriffic migraine. I was violently ill and ended up curled up in bed early with the baby, until guilty fear of squashing her made me take her and put her back into her own bed.

I didn't lose any weight yesterday, though, and dinner, although lovely, was 'revisited' so I'd rather not discuss it, thank you.....

Not surprisingly, lost weight this morning and I think I'm back into ketosis again, so burning more fat. I got a compliment today at work about how much weight I've lost, so that was a bonus and enough to keep me going for a while longer!

Food today has been somewhat of a disaster. As last night was a bit of a write off, I didn't make my lunch as usual, or go to the shops as needed, or, in fact, plan my menu for the week as I intended. DH is such a love. He went to the shops, brought me a lunch of left overs from last night (which , understandibly, I just couldn't face...), some sliced ham and a boiled egg. Along with some diet caffeine free cans of drink in a little cool bag.

Breakfast was a bacon sandwich, made with the now famous Dukan bread.

When I came home from work, DH had made some shepherd's pie. He'd used mashed cauliflower for the topping instead of potato and it was pretty good. It was only after I ate it that I told him that I was on a PP day and that the flour and ketchup he'd put in it were 'verboten'.... But bless him for trying, I had two helpings!

25th September cruise day 23

weight loss: 0.0kg
total weight loss: 6.10kg
PP

Breakfast: scrambled egg with bacon
Lunch: Cajun chicken
Dinner: Roast beef with gravy; fizzy jelly

Had a good day, not disappointed with weight loss and I'm not putting anything back on. I thought about it and actually, I've still lost over 3lb this week which is great!

24th September Cruise day 22

Weight loss: 0.6 kg
Total weight loss: 6.10 kg
PV

Hmmmm. Didn't eat enough yesterday, so even though I'm happy to have a weight loss, I need to remember that it may come back!

Today is a PV day, looking forward to eating something yummy today. Quite hungry.

Okay. I did say yesterday that I would do this, so I can't chicken out now. It makes me incredibly uncomfortable as I've never much liked seeing pictures of myself, but for the sake of motivation, I'm posting pictures here. This is nearly one month in, a stone down. In what is possibly the MOST unflattering top that there is - and yes I can hear my mother chastising me about bad bras right now, but - did I mention that I hadn't been feeling well? Give me a break!!!!!! Both items were there and I put them on with little thought. It would be no good posting pics of me in PJs.

So what do I think? Well, I still have a mummy tummy. I had a tummy before, but it's a completely different shape now. I've no idea if that will disappear or not, we shall see! My arms seem massive - do they take up half the body width of skinny people too? No? More swimming needed, I feel. Oh that and lose the remaining 5 stone.

What I am quite please about, is when I hold these up against the photos of me from the wedding, in August, I can see that I've lost weight, especially around my face. My legs are thinner too but overall I've the same shape that I was before. DH put it in a lovely way. He said "don't take this the wrong way, but it's because you are short, you don't notice the weight loss so much." Bless him. I told him that he was very sweet, but it was more likely to be to do with the fact that I have so much left to lose!

I went for a gentle yoga option on the Wiifit this morning. Just for 15 minutes. As my first foray into exercise since I've not been well, I didn't want to push myself. I found it hard enough. The Wiifit told me that I'd lost 1 and 1/2 stone since I'd last been on it, in August. That was a little boost, I have to say.

Once upon a time I went to the gym four or five times a week, now look at me!! Ah well, we all have to start somewhere and my gym kit is in my drawer, patiently waiting for those glory days to return. I may persuade DH to come with me.

Oh well, at least I've got that over with. I plan to next take pics another 10lb down. Phew.

Brunch today, not breakfast: dry fried onions, mushrooms, egg

Dinner: Low carb pizza with cauliflower pizza base.

Have also made cauliflower garlic 'breadsticks' and fizzy jelly for tomorrow's pudding at the folks.

23rd September Cruise day 21

Weight loss: 0.4kg
Total weight loss: 5.5 kg
PP


I'll take that weight loss, thank you. I was worried about having to report another ridiculous weight loss on Monday morning (0.2lb last week!). But fingers crossed, I can stay the same or lose more by then.


I have mostly been sitting on my backside feeling sorry for myself this week, so any weight loss is a small miracle. The good news is that BGs are starting to get back to where they should be, so hopefully by Monday I should be fit and well again, whohoo!


I have been pretty lax about logging food intake and cooking properly. This is what happens when I don't have a menu planned for the week. Must do something about that. I have to say, PP days are VERY difficult if you haven't planned ahead, especially if you are feeling un inspired. (As I have been these past few days.... I guess I just couldn't beat the pizza.)

But I must plough on. It would be foolish to let a few difficult days (well, couple of weeks) stop me from doing something which is ultimately good for me, especially after surviving for 33 days without giving in to cravings or allowing emotional eating to rule and stuff my face into a mountain of ice cream and chocolate.

The mission for this weekend is a mini reboot. I am going to take a picture of how I look every 10lb loss, starting with tomorrow. And exercise when I can. I've been pretty weak this fortnight, so I'm not sure what I can manage, but I guess I'll find out pretty soon...

Plus menu planning. I have designated Mondays as menu planning days. So this weekends meals are another pizza tomorrow, as it was so good, and Cajun chicken for lunch on Sunday. Pictures to come!

Oooh, Sunday dinner at the folks is going to be hard, it's another PP day, so restricted veg :( It's coming to something when I am feeling envious of the stewed apple mush that I am feeding to DD! I'll just have to make an awesome desert. I have diet lemonade and sugar free jelly crystals.... so I'm going to make Fizzy Jelly!

22nd September Cruise day 20

Weight loss: 0.0 kg
Total weight loss: 5.10 kg
PV


Didn't really feel much like blogging, spent most of the day in and out of hypos after trying to adjust medication to being BG down to a reasonable level.

Consequently wasn't expecting to lose any weight as I ended up having to eat carbs to correct hypos :(

Made a major mistake by eating scampi - seemed like an easy meal - before I read the nutritional info on the back. Lots and lots of carbs... Dammit. Tasted nice though.

20th September cruise day 18

weight loss: 0.5kg

total weight loss: 5.10kg

PV

Starting to feel a little better today as I wasn't kept up the ENTIRE night by coughing, so I had a bit of sleep. Also perked up with some good weight loss news this morning, so that is a bonus. Fingers crossed I can be back to normal soon, there are things I want to do. I want to go for walks with DH and the baby (Dear Daughter, DD); I want to get back on the Wii fit; I want to get back to my weekend swims. Right now, I struggle to be able to manage the trip to the newsagent, which must be all of about 50 yards.

But anyway, enough whining. Have felt more inclined to cook and eat today. Perhaps that's because DD has just started on solids and I have been stewing, blending and freezing pears for her to try. (Which she apparently can't get enough of! Is it wrong that I am terrified that she will grow up addicted to carbs?) I haven't had a great deal of choice as I need to do this for her, so I have to do it. I do have to sit down after a few minutes and have a rest, but at least it's got me cooking again.

Breakfast: Bacon, eggs and a sausage

Lunch: Indian style aubergine (from mydukandiet.com) - needs a little tweaking before it suits my tastes.

Dinner: Pizza, with cauliflower pizza crust (from yourlighterside.com) and all I can say about this is I cannot wait to cook it again!! I was worried that it would have a wierd cauliflower taste but it didn't. It was A-MAZING.

19th September Cruise day 17

Weight loss: 0.0 kg
Total weight loss: 4.6 kg
PP

Still not feeling well and if I'm honest, just don't feel up to going shopping for food or cooking. Thank heavens for Dear Hubby, who spent much of the day looking after me as best as he could. Didn't feel much like food, but managed to eat a boiled egg for breakfast, some roast gammon slices for lunch and a lamb korma for dinner. Hmmm quite a few cheats there I suppose, but at least I'm eating something.
BGs are up and I don't know what to do about it other than take some more medication and pray that I don't hypo. They are making me feel even worse.
And that is all for today.

18th September cruise day 16

weight loss: 0.5kg
total weight loss: 4.6kg
PV

Finally! Phew! I was starting to panic that I would have to report a weight gain during tomorrow's weigh in. Fingers crossed I can lose a little more tomorrow and then have something great to report. I joined a facebook group of peeps who follow a low carb diet. The person who runs it has organised everyone into teams and every monday we report our weight losses. It's kind of fun and I get to chat to folk from all over the world. Also, the support that they give is immense. There is also a Dukan diet facebook page, where people share ideas and recipes and that too is helpful as it's more diet specific.

Today is a PV day, so I am really looking forward to dinner at the folks. I can have vegetables with my roast, whohoo. Tempted to make some low carb meringues and make that yummy dessert that I made the other day.... And this time I'll take pictures...

Nom. That is all I have to say on the matter.

As for exercise, didn't go swimming this morning as I'm still a bit weak and coughing. Went for a mini walk yesterday, so that will have to do. Desperate to get back onto the (borrowed) wii fit. Will start tonight with an easy yoga routine. Dear Santa, please may I have my very own Wii fit for Christmas? Then I can give this one back and still feel rightous.

You never know. Santa might read Blogger.com.

17th September Cruise day 15

weight loss: 0.0kg

total weight loss: 4.1kg
PP



Okay, weight stayed the same. Still feeling grotty but not so fed up as yesterday, thanks to kind messages from friends and family. I know I'm doing okay and I'm keeping on with it.


But, you can see from what I cooked that I really want to sit and eat something comforting right now! BG are still up, so in a way, I'm lucky. They serve as a constant reminder NOT to be tempted. Yesterday I made the lemon cake, adapted from the bread recipe from mydukandiet.com. It was absolutely gorgeous and I've had more this morning. Got some paper cases as I'm going to try making them up as little buns and then freezing them. Not today though, fof I have other fish to fry. Or grill. Yesterday I also made dukan friendly ice cream (recipe from the same website) that's sitting in the freezer and carb free nachos.


The nachos are lush. The recipe is from yourlighterside.com and these contain courgette and cheese, bound with some egg.





In the first batch I did, I used cheese which was too strong in flavour, so this time I used mozzarella. There is still a slight cheesy undertone but they are crunchy and delicous. And, as the website says, I do wish I'd made more. Mine were salt and vinegar flavour but the next batch are going to be sweet paprika. It took a while to get the timings right on the oven and these are still a little more dark than I would prefer them to be, but I swear, you blink and they are burnt. I am fairly sure that my oven runs too hot as I always have to reduce cooking times - I need to get an oven thermometer. But anyway, back to the nachos. The next batch will be split into half for snacking on and half for piling high with chilli and sour cream.... yummmmmm.

Breakfast: Boiled egg
lunch: chicken strips
Dinner: Roast gammon.

Not at all inventive, really. I should try more recipes for PP days.

16th September cruise day 14

weight loss: -0.4kg
total weight loss: 4.1kg
PV

Starting to get really despondent now. Still fighting off whatever crappy virus I have.

I have gained weight. The logical bit of my brain says ' don't worry, that happened before and it all came off again plus more' and ' don't worry, you know that it's just because of the time of the month, in a week it will all be gone'. Trouble is, I don't think that the logical bit of my brain isn't talking to the emotional bit of my brain, which is currently sulking in a corner, arms crossed and bottom lip stuck out.

BGs are also up and making me feel worse. They haven't reached stupidly high levels yet, sitting at 7.8 fasting, but they are a constant reminder of why I need to keep on going with the nearly-no carb thing. It would be impossible to cut out any more carbs than I am doing right now, so I need to up my medication again, just until I feel better.

So all in all, I did have a bit of a girly cry this morning. The kind when you know you sound like a pathetic idiot as soon as the words are out of your mouth, when you are trying to explain to nearest and dearest why you are bubbling away. Can anyone say 'hormonal'?

Breakfast: boiled egg
Lunch:Satay chicken and veg

Dinner : Prawn curry

On days like these, one must eat copious quantities of cake. So here is dukan lemon cake. Made, and eaten, with love.

15th September Cuise day 13

Weight loss: 0.0kg
Total weight loss: 4.5kg
PP

Still feeling poorly and really stuggling to be motivated to eat. Not helped by needing to take antibiotics and hour before my injection, which is an hour before eating. Makes life so much more complicated.

Breakfast: Couldn't face food.
Lunch: Oven baked 'southern fried' chicken strips. Naughty, but I fancied them and little else.
Dinner: Beef casserole

And all I can think about is that it's weigh in day on Monday :( Pants, pants, pants.

14th September 2011 cruise day 12

Weight loss: 0.0kg
Total weight loss: 4.5kg
PV

Still feeling rotten, so happy that there's no weight gain. Turned out the dukan pralines that I made yesterday from the recipe on mydukandiet.com. Normally I make these exactly to the recipe and they turn out like perfect little roses. This batch has a scoop of protein powder in as an experiment. On sitting, it made the mixture very thick - almost setting by itself without the need to put in the freezer. That made it harder to get the mixture in the mould but they seem to be a bit longer lasting and almost bubbly in texture.

Breakfast this morning was a courgette fritter. Grated the courgettes, squeezed out all the water in a muslin, added a little cheese and a beaten egg and grilled. They were nice, but I made 3 and just couldn't eat them all. The recipe needs a little adjusting before I can use them as a replacement for hash browns in a cooked breakfast. I should have had these with turkey rashers and poached egg, but, meh, feeling poorly and it all seemed too much effort.

BGs are finally responding to me being poorly and have gone up. Not sky high yet, but not the low figures that I've gotten used to since starting dukan - and, my whole reason for being on this crazy diet in the first place. So I'm back to juggling medication to try to find the right dose which will have an effect. I can cope if it's just for the short term. Hoping the antibiotics kick in soon and I start to feel better and then I can go back to being just a little bit more carefree.

Dinner was A-MAZING! On a whim at the supermarket last week, I bought one of those packets of spice mixes. I usually disapprove of them as I usually put together my own mixes at a fraction of the cost. So it was odd that I picked it up. It was Saag aloo mix by schwartz. I used slices cauliflower instead of potatoes -so I know it wasn't saag aloo - but it was just gorgeous. And totally vegetarian, which I have to admit was a blessed break from the protein, protein, protein.

It was so yummy I forgot to do my injection beforehand. Which means I also forgot to take my antibiotic and hour before the injection..... Dammit.

Still poorly, and really right now all I want to do is sit and eat, so if I manage to not do that, I'll be happy!

13th September Cruise day 11

Weight loss: 0kg
Total weight loss: 4.5 kg
PP

Weight stayed the same today but will persevere, as before. Am wondering if I will fall into a pattern of losing more after a PP day than a PV day.

Still feeling pretty crappy but trying to stick to the diet. Main deviations have been the sugar in lemsip. I know Lemsip wont help with a chest infection, I should stop taking them.

There is a massive box of chocolates sitting on my dining table, which has been there for a few days. Craig bought it as a present for a special friend of ours and so it sits there until we can give it to her. I haven't been massively tempted by it, but today I decided to make my own chocolates to treat myself.
Again, mydukandiet.com gives recipes for dukan pralines and for meringues, which I've been wanting to try for ages. Luckily I have the joy of a food processor to make these with, otherwise I just wouldn't bother, the way I've been feeling. I can just dump in the ingredients and leave it to do it's thing.

So, I had to use egg yolk for the pralines, which gave me left over whites - hence the meringues. The meringues tasted great, but still there was that sweetener after taste. I think I'm going to get immune to it eventually. I made two lots of pralines, about 30, in a cute little rose chocolate mould that I pop in the freezer. I had some mixture left over, so I thinned it out with some milk to make a chocolate sauce.

I later made a dessert with the sauce, vanilla yogurt and meringues. It was lush. Dear Hubby agreed (there was enough for two) and we talked about how I should take pictures to put on the blog. Sadly we had this conversation as we were staring at the empty glasses and we didn't think that would make much of a helpful picture for you!!!!!
I am going to make picture taking a bit of a mission from now on, starting with dinner.

I had breaded pork escalopes. Okay I know pork isn't dukan friendly, but it is protein and I'm on a PP day. I coated each one in egg and then in the rest of the breadcrumbs made with the dukan bread, mixed with a few herbs. Yum yum yum. And when I say 'I', I mean Dear Hubby, following my instructions as I coughed my little heart out lying on the sofa.....


Cooked up quite nicely in the george foreman - yeah, you're getting the idea that I like things that I can just shove food in and leave alone. The slow cooker is another favourite, but I haven't tried any Dukan recipes in that yet.

Despite being poorly, BGs are still low, whereas normally they would be high when I'm not well and that's mainly all I care about. Sure, the weight loss is brilliant, but if I can stave off organ damage, blindness and loss of legs for a few years by keeping BGs low, then I'm going to keep doing the Dukan thing. It's very similar to Dr Bernstien's diet for diabetes, so it's all good.

Breakfast: Didn't have any (couldn't face it)

Lunch: Ready roasted gammon from supermarket

Dinner: Pork escalopes; dessert without a name.

And I've just learnt that adding photos wrecks all the formatting - I'm sorry for those reading who now have to scroll and scroll. I've done my best to fix it!

12th September Cruise day 10

Weight loss: 0.5kg
Total weight loss: 4.5kg
PV
Only 4 more lbs to go and I've lost my first stone, yey!

Feel pretty awful as I got all of about 2 hours sleep last night. I spent most of the night coughing. So all in all, the last thing I could be bothered with was food or cooking. But I'm lucky enough to have Dear Hubby, who cooked me breakfast.

He also tried to cheer me up by cooking some scotch eggs for lunch. I had already boiled the eggs and I made the last of the dukan bread into bread crumbs - and they work pretty well. They tasted fab, but I can't have them too often as they are deep (ish) fried.

Breakfast: poached egg, turkey rashers, onions and mushrooms
Lunch: scotch egg
Dinner: Steak; steamed veg

Am considering making some donuts with the whey powder I bought yesterday as I really want some comfort food and now DH's gone to work and I'm left to my own devices. The dukan recipies are great but a lot end up being quite 'eggy' so hope these may be different. Will let you know how I get on.
Oh my word they were amazing!

Used a variation of this recipe I found on a low carb forum.
1 egg
1/2 stick (1/4 c) butter, melted
2 tbsp Splenda or erythritol
1 tsp vanilla
1 scoop vanilla whey protein powder
Splenda & cinnamon for topping

Used LF marg instead of butter. Cooked at 180C for about 10-15 minutes in the mini bundt tin. They were so yummy that I ate all 6 of them...... About 6g carbs for the whole lot, so not too bad!

11th September cruise day 9

weight loss: 0.5kg
total weight loss: 4kg

Wearing my skinny jeans today in a size that didn't fit me two weeks ago. Whoohoo. Went for a swim this morning, although didn't manage a great deal, still recovering from whatever bug I had Friday.

The dukan diet specifies 30 mins of exercise per day, which until now I hadn't been doing. My mission is going to be to do something every day until I work back up to going to the gym.
Now that I can get home earlier most days and with Bubs going into nursery for the mornings, I should be able to find a free hour here and there.

I'm amazed that I've lost so much in just two weeks - for a few days I thought I was going to put it all back on and get nowhere, but my faith is restored. My biggest fear right now is that I can't maintain the level of will power and end up back eating carbs. Then the weight will pile right back on, plus more. Carbs make your body produce insulin. Insulin tells your body to put down fat, which means creating more fat cells. You can never lose fat cells (or so I read) but you can shrink them right down. I'm diabetic, so the whole insulin loop thing is broken anyway and my body really doesn't tolerate carbs very well. So I can't afford to mess this up. BGs are currently amazing and I've been able to reduce some of the medication that I've been on. I wish there was a way of bottling the way I feel now and bringing it out when I'm struggling later on!

I don't really get tempted a great deal. No cravings. Having said that, the bakery did smell amazing when I walked past is this morning! But walk past I did. I know that I will mourn the lack of dad's roast potatoes on my plate later on today too, but I will manage. I struggle more when I don't have meals planned out, so I've done that and am looking forward to some tasty meals this week.

I've also bought some whey powder this morning, which I'm going to experiment with as I've seen it used in quite a few low carb recipies - I know someone who will take it off my hands if I decide that I can't use it!

Breakfast: Boiled egg and turkey rasher, some roasted seeds.
Lunch: cheese spread on dukan bread
Dinner: roast chicken; sugar free jelly with lf yogurt

10th September Cruise day 8

weight loss: 1.5kg
total loss: 3.5kg
PV

Woohoo! Am FINALLY down to a weight that is less than I was before I was pregnant. I know, it's probably just because I'm not feeling well and some may go back on when I'm back to feeling better, but right now, I don't care! Another pound / half kg will take me over the stone bracket, so I will feel like I'm getting somewhere then.
Dear Hubby decided to take me on a spending spree for clothes last week, so now I have almost a completely new wardrobe. It was only ASDA, but we still managed to spend silly amount of money and he didn't even wince. It's nice to feel good about wearing nice clothes again. It's been a long time. Even before the maternity clothes I had fallen out of love with clothes, clothes shopping and everything associated with it, and started to not really care too much what I wore. This week, every day I've been wearing make up and smart clothes to work and feel like a real girl again. It's brilliant.

After eating PV yesterday, I ummed and ahhhd about doing PP today instead but thought as I'd already marked all my PP and PV days down on the calendar, I will stick to what it should be.

Still feel pretty grotty and planning to spend the day in PJs and if my baby will let me, take it easy. Drinking loads and loads.
No longer in ketosis, ( I blame the deep fried ice cream...) so hope that comes back soon. Not missing the funny tasting (and I imagine, smelling) breath that goes with it, though. Ewww.

Breakfast: poached eggs and turkey rashers on dukan bread slices.
Lunch: Chili made by DH. No rice. Not too many kidney beans!
Dinner: A cauliflower casserole. I haven't decided what I thought about that yet!

Bit anxious about tomorrow, will go to the parents for sunday dinner as usual, but am on a PP day and I know taking just the meat on my plate will not be allowed. Perhaps I'll just eat the green veg, no carrots, no peas, no potatoes.

9th September Cruise day 7

weight loss: 0.6kg
total loss: 2.0 kg
PP

Another loss again, so keeping my fingers crossed for an ongoing downward trend.

Started to feel pretty grim at dinner last night and ended up going to bed with a raging fever. Really, really don't feel like eating today so am cutting myself a little bit of slack and eating whatever I do fancy. Now I'm not talking ice cream (had that last night :S) and chocolate, but if I want to eat vegetables on a PP day them I'm going to. And a spoonful of sour cream and some sprinkles of cheddar on my chicken fajitas wont hurt me.

Normally when I'm sick BGs spike massively but have managed to keep mine down. They are a little higher, but nothing to worry about, especially seeing as through my fog of feeling awful, I forgot to take pretty much ALL of my medication for the day.

I have to say, I'm quite enjoying taking boiled eggs to lunch at work this week. They come in their own wrapper and remind me of picnics when we were kids.

Breakfast: Boiled egg
Lunch: Chicken strips, onions and peppers cooked in fajita dry mix; wrapped in lettuce leaves, with spoonful of soured cream and few sprinkles of cheddar cheese. YUM.
Dinner: Struggled to want anything, ate few spoons of savoury mince with couple slices of Dukan bread.

(Bread was quite yummy by the way, am going to try it toasted tomorrow. Then I imagine I will regret the decision I made against buying low fat spread in the supermarket last week. I DO hate margarine.)

8th September Cruise Day 6

weight loss: 1.0kg
total loss: 1.4kg
PV
Finally!!! Back to losing weight again and this time I know it's fat rather than water. The perseverance has paid off - hope weight loss continues and this isn't just a blip, but right now am totally relieved that I haven't been wasting my time.

Well, I hate to admit it, but tonight was a pre arranged meal out with two friends. Okay listen, this blog is starting to make me sound like a right foodie solcialite, but the truth is that Tuesday's dining out experience was a necessary evil to spend some time with a friend who needed a chat. Tonight's is just, well, to get together! And it's okay to go out to eat, right?
On this occasion, tried to pick something with few carbs and not deep fried for starter, no carbs for main and declined pudding, as did my fellow diners. Feeling SO rightous and quite pleased with myself until the manager popped over with complimentary deep fried ice cream for us all.... Well it would have been rude not to eat it! But you have to love that customer relations exercise!


Breakfast: boiled egg
Lunch: slices of ham; fat free yogurt
Dinner: Meat dumplings; Beef with vegetables; deep fried ice cream :S

7th Spetember Cruise Day 5

Weight loss: -0.6kg
Total weight loss: 0.4kg
PP

I have no one to blame for this weight gain than myself!! That darned ice cream.....
Ah well.

So back to the plan. Have just realised that I haven't had oat bran for the last few days, I must remedy this tonight. I also need to make sure that I'm not cheating on the PP days with veg or anything fried. (Usually only a problem if I go out to eat...)

Break fast: Boiled egg
Lunch: Slices of ham; boiled egg; fat free yoghurt with oat bran
Dinner: steak :) :)

6th September Cruise Day 4

weight loss: -0.4kg
total weight loss: 1.0kg
PV

Another weight gain. Considering only weighing myself once a week instead, now that I'm out of attack phase because it sure is disheartening to see the weight going back on again! A web search tells me that this is quite a common experience and that the weight loss does even itself out the end. Like I've said before, if I'm still in ketosis and burning fat, I'm happy.

BGs are amazing and starting to stabilise out, which makes me very happy indeed. And my fuzzy eyesight is starting to get a little better as a result. Lush. They haven't been this good since I was on insulin.

The challenge of the day was eating out with a friend. I managed brilliantly, at least for the main course and had an epic fail by sccumbing to ice cream for desert..... Not expecting to lose weight tomorrow!! But oh it was good.
Breakfast: boiled egg
Lunch: boiled egg; sliced turkey; low fat yogurt
Dinner: Chicken with vegetables; ice cream

5th September Cruise Day 3

weight loss: -0.5kg
Total weight loss: 1.4kg
PP day

Yeah, another weight gain. Hmmmmm. Still in ketosis, so keeping going.

Breakfast: A boiled egg.
Lunch: slices roast beef; another egg, low fat yogurt.
Dinner: Beef hotpot

First proper day back at work. I did wonder how I would manage at work but took a little cool bag with my lunch stash in it and I did fine. I wasn't at all hungry and the yogurt seemed like a real treat.
The beef hotpot really wasn't hot pot at all, just beef chunks cooked in beef stock (with a squirt of tomato puree) but it was flippin amazing. In fact ate two portions of it.... Perhaps that will be a mistake, we shall see.

4th September Cruise day 2

Weight loss: -0.9kg
Total weight loss: 1.9kg

Well after first day of Cruise I seem to have gained weight. Pretty peeved. On the plus side, the Ketostix tell me that I am still in ketosis, so my body is burning fat, even if it isn't yet showing on the scales.
Break fast: scrambled egg
Lunch: ooops missed it....
Dinner: Roast and veg (no potatoes!, nearly killed me) and sugar free jelly and low fat yogurt for pudding.

Missing lunch is not going to be good... Uh oh. Not sure how that happened. Ah well. Feeling VERY impressed with myself for bypassing the amazing pudding at the folks house and bringing my own to eat. Only felt very slightly resentful... Ha! It will be worth it in the end.

3rd Spetember 2011 Cruise Day 1

PP today
Weight loss: 0.6kg
Total loss: 2.8kg

I have exceeded the 2.4kg target for attack, provided when I clicked 'calculate your true weight' button on the website. It gives you a little profile of each phase and projected weightloss. It's good to use as a guideline, but as I said yesterday, taking more advice from the book.

Well I'm finally off attack which means I can eat a little more. I'm really looking forward to being a little more adventurous with recipies on the days when I can eat vegetables (PV days).

Last night I noticed that by breath felt and tasted odd in my mouth. This is a common effect of a ketogenic diet, but it hadn't happened to me before. It smells and feels like I'm breathing nail varnish remover. Time for some sugar free mints today, I think! I'm told it wont last long and is a sign that my body is finally burning fats rather than carbs. I took the ketostix and they confirmed that I am definitely in Ketosis. Yay!! This is where the sustainable weight loss starts to happen, so I am pretty happy.

Breakfast: Dukan chocolate pancake :)
http://mydukandiet.com/recipes/chocolate-pancake.html
Lunch: Chicken goujons; sausages; calamaris (see below)
Dinner: Ham sandwich made with dukan bread
http://mydukandiet.com/recipes/dukan-diet-bread.html

Had my first challenge today - was invited out to lunch with a wonderful friend. I was worried that there would be nothing on the menu that I could pick without wasting half the meal. Luckily they had a 'Wilthsire tapas' menu. It wasn't perfect (batter on the calamaris; breadcrumbs on the goujons and illegal sausages!) but at least I wasn't wasting half the meal and I ate nearly all of it. Just delicious.

I made the bread from the recipe above for dinner. I added some garlic powder. It was absolutely delicious and I have 3/4 of it left for the next couple of days. I would highly reccomment it if you are following dukan and on cruise. It's not that I miss bread that much (now potatoes is a different matter) but it does help to have some way to make small or quick meals. This would be great for lunches at work too.

2nd Spetember 2011 Day 6 attack

Weight loss: 0.0
Total weight loss: 2.2kg

Here are the consequences for eating chicken pie at work... Ah well, still haven't put anything on and I know the weight will come off eventually.

Breakfast: Boiled egg and galette
Lunch: Dairy Lea extra light (which DH calls Mouse cheese...) inbetween 2 galettes.
Dinner: Steak with blue cheese crumbled on top. A little cheat - but a treat from DH so ♥.

(I split the galette mixture and made 3 smaller pancakes, two of which I used to make my sandwhich for lunch.)

Today was my last official day on attack. It's gone okay. I know that the weight I have lost is mostly water as my body clears out it's stocks of carbs. Waiting to get into Ketosis and start actually burning fat as fuel. Not happening yet, according to Ketostix (pee sticks). My BGs are still low, so this is quite safe for me.

Saw an item on Watchdog about the Dukan programme. The complaints centered around how the service provided by signing up to the website did not match up to expectations.
I didn't sign up mainly because I couldn't afford it but also because I knew that using the coaching service would be a novelty for me that would very quickly wear off and then I would be paying for nothing. To present a fair case, I have seen comments from people on Facebook who have found the online coaching really helpful, but it's just not for me. I have the book and that's all I need.

Again, not feeling remotely hungry and whatever my tummy bug was has totally gone away now. I am not being adventurous with the food just now - but there are plenty of recipies for the attack phase in the Dukan blogs and various websites online if you want to. Mydukandiet.com is a great starting place.

1st September 2011 Attack Day 5

Weight loss: 1.2kg
Total weight loss:2.2kg

I didn't finish updating my food list yesterday. I was soooo sick. This didn't happen last time I used Dukan, and I've been feeling queasy for a couple of days, so I'm assuming it's something I ate. I went to bed feeling sorry for myself, missing DH to look after me.

After that and feeling that I can't quite face food as well as I should, I have cheated today.
Breakfast: Oatbran galette (part) and scrambled egg. I only ate a few mouthfulls.
Lunch: Instead of dairlea light with the rest of the galette, I had school dinner: chicken pie; sweetcorn and green beans. I didn't eat the mash potato that was served with it.
Dinner: Prawn curry. Delish.

So I'm not perfect. I've got a lot on my mind at the moment and not really as focused as I should be. I'm also not feeling totally well, so I'm giving myself a break. I just hope I haven't screwed it up too badly.

Desperately hoping I can get back on track tomorrow, I would hate for a stomach bug to throw me off course!
BGs are still doing pretty well. They were high this morning - mainly due to the emergency Jelly Babies that I had to eat after I threw up pretty much everything I'd eaten all day.
I sent DH out to stock up on emergency Rich Tea biscuits so that I can have some on hand if I don't get the carbs/meds balance right!