Mon, Oct 31 - Yesterday was a really messed up day. We had an unusually early snow storm Saturday night into Sunday, dumping 10" of heavy wet snow. I lost power at 9PM Saturday, not regaining it until 8:30 PM on Sunday. I didn't go out walking in the snow storm, but I did go out and shovel snow from two sidewalks in front and on the side of my house. The snow was difficult to move-- a good burning of calories but not exactly aerobic. I put my refrigerator and freezer food outside in the snow to keep it from spoiling. On Saturday, I had tried to eat some pre-cooked ground turkey and ricotta cheese, but eating it cold was not very appetizing so I threw that away. I was still able to eat the dairy products and had some yogurt and cottage cheese. I was also able to eat some pre-cooked pork loin once it thawed off on Sunday-- it was cold, but edible.

Although Sunday was a protein only day, I knew I would have to be flexible, especially since the town and the power company were warning residents to be prepared to go without power for several days before it could be restored. On Sunday morning after shoveling, I was craving a cup of HOT coffee with no means to make it, so I went to a nearby coffee shop to get a large coffee, and also a pistachio nut muffin. The pickings were slim there, and not knowing how long I would be without power and how well my stash of food would hold up in the snow bank (the temperature is predicted to rise to more seasonable 40-50 degrees over the next several days), I felt a need to have something to help sustain my energy. Not only had I shoveled the snow, but I was also using more energy than usual to stay warm in a very cold house. The muffin was good, and I ate it slowly to savor every bite! I also ate raw carrots and tomatoes-- not knowing when the power would return and that it would be difficult to maintain the Dukan program if I was without power for several days, I decided I might as well eat up what I could that was somewhat on program, before I started in on the canned products that were clearly not part of the program.

Net result is that I lost a half pound when I weighed in this morning. I have now lost 14 pounds and have 11.5 pounds to go. I'm totally satisfied with this considering how mixed up yesterday was. I would have been satisfied if just to not gain any weight.

Sat., Oct 29 - I lost another pound, so I am now down 13.5 since starting the Dukan program on September 8, 2011, and taking a one week break from it in mid-October. My goal is to lose another 12 pounds, although Dukan recommends I lose .5-- we have a little difference of opinion in what my "true weight" should be. I think the 5 days of protein only and 5 days of protein and vegetables is better for me. It is easier for me to manage my food supply and take less effort to keep track of. The weight loss seems better, but I think it is too early to say that definitively.

Fri, Oct. 28 - I lost another pound when I weighed in this morning. I have now lost 12.5 pounds and I have 12.5 pounds to lose-- halfway there, but taking much longer than I anticipated, was led to believe and would like to see happen. I am following the alternating 5 days of protein only vs. protein & vegetables. I completed 5 days of protein & vegetables on Wednesday. Yesterday and today are protein only. I have to admit that I am experiencing hunger pangs today which is unusual, but also could be a result of losing that 1 pound. Hunger pangs are generally a sign of weight loss for me--if I don't feel hungry, then I won't lose weight, plain and simple.

Thur, Oct. 27. I have now lost all the weight I regained on the 10 day break that I took from Dukan program. It took 10 days to lose the weight, which is better than taking twice or three times as long to lose it as has often happened in the past. I read an article at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45053161/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/ which explains that hormones make it difficult to keep lost weight off, even a year or more after losing the weight. It is evolutionary, and the hormones drive us to eat for survival. Reading this doesn't make it any easier to try to control my weight, although it provides an explanation at least. I have 13. 5 pounds to go, in order to reach my desired weight.

Mon, Oct. 24 - Gained 1 pound since yesterday, so I am 14.5 pounds from my goal. I did the requisite walking plus additional exercise in the form of yard work yesterday, so I'm not happy about the gain, although I cannot say I am surprised by it-- this just seems to be the way of this program and my body's response to it. Again, in comparison to my many forays into dieting, this is not much better or worse than Weight Watchers ever was for me.

Sunday, October 23, 2011 - I have now lost 6.5 pounds since restarting Dukan program last Monday. Essentially, six days of back on the program and I lost the 6.25 pounds that I had gained the week before last, plus another .25 pounds. Yesterday, I walked through a local forest for two and and half hours which I'm sure helped produce these results. Today, I walked the minimum 30 minutes, although I plan to do yard work this afternoon. To recap this past week, I followed the Attack segment for 5 days, and yesterday switched to the Consolidation segment yesterday, adding vegetables. I am going to follow the 5 days of pure protein and 5 days of protein and vegetables this time, rather than switching back and forth every other day, to compare the results for me.

This week I used the Dukan web site to recalculate my plan based on my the starting point I was at after the week long break. I received a very confusing email from the Dukan folks saying my BMI was currently 26 but that is not reasonable because it doesn't take into consideration age and body frame, in which case, my BMI should be 22 to 24.  I am in my late 50's and have a large body frame, so that didn't make any sense to me at all. I just deleted the email. They may have been trying to say that 26 is the EQUIVALENT of 22 to 24 when taking age and body frame into consideration, but I read it several times and it didn't really seem to be saying that at all....

More to come!

Three days back on Dukan diet and I have lost a total of 5.25 of the 6.25 pounds that I gained last week, with such a quick weight loss verifying that I am losing mostly built up fluid. This results in my wanting to lose another 14.75 pounds, which includes the couple of pounds that I gained the week before last week, BEFORE going off the Dukan diet. My employer is running a flu clinic today, and it is likely I will get a shot-- I hope this does not affect my ability to continue to lose the built-up fluid and then get back to losing actual fat pounds. I am satisfied that I am losing the fluid, although I certainly don' t consider it to be any kind of miraculous progress. Anything less would be highly frustrating. I have maintained the daily walking regime this week, except for yesterday due to my work schedule.

After a ten day hiatus from Dukan, I am beginning again. Yesterday, I weighed myself for the first time in the ten days, and gained 6.25 pounds. This morning, I've lost 2.75 pounds. This still leaves me 3.5 pounds up, but hopefully some of that is fluid that will come off quickly this week. Why is it I can gain 6 pounds in a week, but can never seem to lose 6 pounds in a week??? This time on Dukan, I will do the Attack phase for 5 days as I did before, but then alternate pure protein with protein and vegetables every five days instead of every other day. It was too difficult to figure out what I needed to buy to ensure I had sufficient vegetables on hand for every other day, especially because some days I would be hungrier than others. I either had too much food on hand, or not enough was was rationing what I had until I get to the store. I think the alternating five days will work out better-- this time of year especially where I want to take advantage of whatever fresh vegetables are still available until having to resort to frozen or canned vegetables.

Today, I gained another quarter pound without having gone off the dukan program at all yesterday. Today is a P&V day and I am going out to dinner tonight. Although I will try to remain within the program by eating fish and vegetables it will still be hard because restaurant food is prepared with more salt and fat than I use at home. So I am sure I will have a weight gain tomorrow too.

As I predicted yesterday, I gained three-quarters of a pound today-- isn't this fun? The ironic thing is that I wasn't hungry last night and had a lighter dinner than usual of cottage cheese and tomatoes. Later, I had a scoop of yogurt. I still gained weight! This is so incredibly frustrating-- not the fast diet program that Dukan is supposed to be at all! I can't help but come to the conclusion that Dukan is like any other diet-- if it is relatively easy for a person to lose weight, they will lose it fast. For those of us who are predisposed to being obese, we will NOT lose weight fast, regardless of what diet we use. Although these results are frustrating, in reality I would not be achieving any better results with Weight Watchers, which has always been agonizingly slow for me to lose weight on, no matter what version of Weight Watchers I've used (and I have used several over the years as they have modified their program).

Another small weight loss today-- I lost 3/4 lb, so now have lost a total of 12.25 pounds with 12.75 pounds to go. An agonizing quarter of pound away from being 50% from my goal!! Not much else to say at this point.  Today is a protein and vegetable day, so I will probably regain what I lost yesterday when I get on the scales tomorrow. This is incredibly frustrating. The act of blogging about it serves somewhat as an incentive to continue pursuing the program, although no one is reading or commenting on it-- and I am not promoting it in any way to make that happen. I am blogging purely for my own motivation.It is easier than keeping a hard copy journal of my experience with this program.

Having started this Dukan program trial on September 7, I am three and a half weeks into it. I lost 8.5 lbs the first week, and have lost another 3 lbs since then for a total of 11. 5 lbs, with 13.5 pounds to go. I have felt frustrated with the program because it does tout a two pound a week weight loss and after the first week, I have seen no where near those results. To me, it feels as if the weight is creeping off, not dropping off! For the Cruise phase which I am currently in, I am alternating each day with pure protein vs. pure protein & vegetables. I am thinking of switching to 5 pure protein days and then 5 protein & vegetable days to see if that accelerates things, but I will continue my continue method for one more week.

This past week was tough, as I had out-of-office conference to attend where lunch was provided. Not knowing what to expect, the first day, I brought raw carrots and cottage cheese which I ate discreetly on break. When lunch was served, I was actually able to eat something there, having two small slices of chicken marsala, steamed vegetables and salad. Nonetheless, I gained a pound a half the next morning, which I attribute to the sodium in the chicken and related fluid retention. Expecting the lunch to be similar the second day and discouraged by the weight gain on the scales that morning, I did not bring anything with me and would not have had time that day to eat it discreetly anyway. I ate breakfast at 6:00 AM and had nothing more all morning. By the time lunch was served at 12:30, I was quite hungry but lunch that day was an assortment of sandwiches and salads that had things I couldn't eat on the program. So I skipped lunch, and ate as soon as I was able, but it was close to 3:00 PM. I ate pork loin and ricotta cheese. Then, I wasn't hungry again until about 8:00 PM when I had some poached salmon-- not the best time of day to be eating that type of food. Fortunately, this awkward eating pattern didn't adversely affect my weight loss. I lost the 1.5 pounds of fluid retained the previous day as well as an additional quarter pound. I honestly expected to see a net weight gain at the end of those two days!

This coming weekend, I will likely take a break from the program-- not to go hog wild, but I feel like I've been on the program for longer than 3.5 weeks. I can't say that I am bored, but if the weight is going to come off this slowly, it is hard justify such a strict eating regime for a sustained period of time with no breaks and mediocre results. After next weekend, I plan to begin again, doing pure protein for 5 days, then 5 days of pure protein & vegetable. This is essentially starting the Attack phase all over again, but perhaps that will wake up my sluggish metabolism to let go of some of this stored fat.