Back On My Weight Loss Journey

Summer is almost over, vacations are done, only 4 more weeks till Megan starts her first year of high school.  It is about time I stop making excuses and get back to taking care of this extra 20 pounds I'm carrying around. 

Excuses, I have a long list

Too hot
Too tired
I have to spend quality time on Pinterest
I have to cook/clean/wash/clean out the cat box
I dont wanna exersise by myself
My feet/back/legs/pinky finger hurts
I'm on vacation
I love ice cream
My summer clothes wont fit if I lose weight
Ect, ect, ect...

Enough already!!

Its time to get back on the saddle again.  Not only that, but I watched the 60 Minutes piece on sugar being toxic last night.  I LOVE sugar.  I am a firm believer that sugar is addictive.  One cookie is never enough for me. That is some scary stuff.  Sugar leading to all kinds of bad things.  I can believe it.  I just found out I have borderline high cholesterol.  I am convinced sugar is to blame.  Well, I am the one who eats the stuff so technically I am to blame. You know what I mean.

I have been having great success with the Dukan Diet.  It is not easy to do.  I think for  now I will just go the old fashion way.  Cutting calories and exercise!  I have to focus on portion control and NO sugar, no white flour.  More fruits (yuk, I am not a fruit eater!  crazy I know) and veggies.

Getting fit and healthy is one journey that never ends and for this girl who loves travel and adventure , it is my biggest challenge yet.

If you are driving through my town and see someone parked in front of the  Dairy Queen looking longingly at customers walking away from the window with giant size blizzards and a pool of drool under her car, that would be me.

A Dukan Diet Supper

What to have for supper?  This question is one that is sometimes easy to answer and most times it leaves me clueless.  So I ask the hubby and daughter to give me some suggestions.  They usually look at me with the look that you are talking French to them.  Total bewilderment.  Yah, big help they are.

Meal planning is especially hard when one member of the household is trying to follow a diet.  So when I opened my new Dukan Diet Cookbook for ideas I was pleasantly surprised to see many recipes would work great for the whole house.  

My first recipe I tried was the Chicken With Mushrooms And Asparagus.  What a hit.  The only thing I tweeked was I added a one pound bag of shirataki noodles.  This was also the first time I used these high fiber, low carb and calorie Asian noodles.  They were great and took on the taste of the dish. The great thing is, is that my local supermarket has these noodles. You can order them through the Dukan website also. All three of us loved this dish and I am happy to say there were no leftovers.

Try out this Dukan recipe and let me know what you think!  I think I will love this cookbook.

Back On The Dukan Diet Bandwagon

As you may know-last September/October I started the Dukan Diet to much success.  I shed 11 pounds on it and felt great!  Then the holidays and my busy life got in the way (along with my sugar habit) and the weight slowly crept back up.
Two weeks ago after a terrible Memorial Day weekend I decided enough was enough and I had to jump back on the diet.  I did 6 days on the attack phase and managed to drop 6 pounds.  I also downloaded two apps to help me out.  One is called Slimkicker for my Ipad and Map My Walk for my android phone.  I did blog about Slimkicker in a previous post.  Map My Walk uses the GPS on my phone to track my route, MPH, time, pace and you can share your success to Facebook and Twitter.

I am now on the Cruise phase and have dropped another 3 pounds according to my scale this morning.  The thing is, is that I have been doing great during the week.  Being on a strict schedule with work works well.  Everything is timed.  I pack all my food the night before.  I am on a great schedule with walking our great trail system in town almost every weekday when I get home from work.  It works great having a teenage daughter who is now home for the summer and helps me out doing chores which frees me up to get my daily walk in.

The trouble is weekends.  My Friday, Saturdays, and Sundays are a REAL challenge.  We tend to eat a couple meals out which is disastrous for me.  Portion control is painful since I am a lifetime member of the clean plate club.  I'm busy doing cleaning , gardening and getting leisure activities in with friends and family.  The last thing I have on my mind is planning meals and exercise. I try to make sure I have plenty of Dukan approved food in my fridge.  If you peek in my fridge now you would see a supply of cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, boiled eggs, and lean meats.  Plus some fresh cut veggies for veggie days.  I have not been perfect on the weekends, and that is where I need to improve.  Why is it so hard to remember how great you feel when you are eating right and working out?

So here we go again...but this time I will do it.  How is it that I have traveled half way around the world without anyone I knew and yet I have such a hard time trying to lose 20 pounds?  Gosh, losing weight and staying healthy is hard!  Hopefully with the help of writing this blog and sharing Dukan recipes plus support from friends and family, I will be a diet success!

So....I Had A Piece Of Cake

Yesterday was the first time I had cheated on my Dukan Diet. It was just a little piece of cake that's all.

Now I went into this with the intention to stick it out for the long haul, but yesterday I knew I would have a hard time. It happened to be my cousins daughters first birthday party. I knew there would be plenty of food and oh no a (gasp!) birthday cake.

I did fine during the lunch having just my protien and veggies since it was veggie day. There was a great selection of fresh veggies. The problem came when all the presents were unwrapped and out came that cake! Well my mouth started to water so much that i could have used the birthday girls bib. My thoughts immediately started a wrestling match in my head do I or don't I. As the cake was being cut and served I still was trying to work up the courage to say no. It came to my turn and the "do it" won out. I had the smallest piece cut and gave my daughter the red balloon out of frosting on the top of my piece. I stuck my fork into that piece of cake and it was heaven when it hit my mouth. The inner layer of frosting was slightly lemony. I savored it, eating slowly. When it was gone I did feel a little guilt, but that went away.

Was it worth it? It sure was. Today I got right back on that horse and am back in full swing. I do have to say that I think my slight stomach ach this morning had something to do with having that piece of birthday cake yesterday. It's a good reminder that I'm serious about losing the weight this time and keeping it off!