Attack Day Three!

     Today is day 3 of attack and also Sunday, so that means church-we attend Harvest Bible Chapel London and had to be up and have breakfast early and get the kids ready. I woke up feeling somewhat lethargic...probably still getting the carbs out of my system. Down .8 lbs today! Dolph and I made our 'trimmed and washed' peameal bacon, eggs, and gallette. The bacon was yummy!
     We had decided to invite the Chapmans over for lunch as they had been doing the diet and I didn't have my book yet. BTW, you can order it here. Wasn't sure what to make for lunch- I had leftover roast beef, but not enough for everyone (Chapmans have 6 kids-3 were coming) so we stopped and picked up extra ground beef, raced home and made burgers. The Chapmans came in as I was making my burgers and we all hung out at the end of the island by the fridge and talked 'condiments'. They would pull something out of my fridge, check the carb and fat listing on the label, then put it back and grab something else! Tim said, "That looks so gross!" Suddenly I began to laugh uncontrollably...here I was up to my elbows in a bowl of meat with my guests gathered around watching me and our Vegan friends, the Bunches, were at their house probably standing around a bowl of salad! Anyway, it was one of those moments in life that seemed a bit absurd! I'll post my recipe for homemade burgers, which have a quantity of jerk seasoning but are not hot-just spicy!
     So the kids got all the toppings with bun while we sat down to a plate with a lone burger, a pickle and PC brand Buffalo Chicken Sauce. I also smeared a bit of PC brand Sweet with Heat mustard which will change your life...if you let it! I tried to go for 2 pickles but Dee said, "No, Rose! One pickle is a condiment...two are a vegetable!" She's not going to let me get away with anything!
     After lunch the kids played Just Dance while Levi and Maddy sat around and did homework and the adults compared Dukan recipes and talked protein. After a bit we decided to go for a walk-Deanna walked circles around me in some kind of shoes with heels, while I huffed and puffed down the road. I felt like Big Dog/Little Dog! The guys strolled behind! It's 2 km to just past the corner and back-Dr Dukan recommends walking 20-30 min per day.
    When we got back, Adelaide gave me a bracelet that she had made me-I'm going to wear it to remind me of how much this family is supporting me! It was a great afternoon.
     Later after they left, we watched some TV and I had another burger patty for supper and some plain non-fat yogurt with vanilla added. My legs are very itchy again when trying to sleep!

Rosemary's Jerk Burgers

2 lbs lean ground beef

2 Tbsp extra hot horseradish sauce

2 Tbsp Jerk sauce-I use Mr Mr Gouda's or Grace

1 Tbsp dried parsely flakes

1 Tbsp onion powder

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp sea salt

1/3 cup bread crumbs (for Dukan I substitute oat bran)

1 egg

Mix by hand and form into 6 oz patties

put on a plate and cover with saran wrap

and refrigerate for at least 1/2 hour.

The flavours intensify and the burgers stay together better on the barbeque.

Don't be afraid of the seasonings in this. You really just get a very flavourful burger.

I like to barbeque until just med and use a meat thermometer to check.

The link for the Mr Gouda's says this seasoning is authentic and HOT!

I don't find it very hot at all. If you really like HOT, then use PC Montego Bay Fiery Jerk Sauce

tested by a Jamaican and certified authentic!

The kid's yummy burgers!

Our delightful Dukan dinner!

Tim made a friend with Colt!

Dee burning a few calories with the Pogo Stick!

Attack Day Two!

My morning weight is 245.2! 3 lbs down! Dolph and I made our eggs and galette again. I sliced up one of my Turkey bites and fried it up as well. Can't believe how on board my husband is with this diet-it's kind of nice having him do it with me rather that watching him eat anything he wants while I'm the only one dieting! For lunch I had part of a chicken breast and a chicken sausage. We went for a walk after lunch-2km.
I spent quite a bit of time Googling Dukan and looking up recipes. I found a lot of blogs and the US Dukan website with lots of recipes to try!I added a Dukan board to my Pinterest page so that I could keep track of everything. Then I entered Dukan into the search on Pinterest and found scores of recipes and articles on the diet. Lots of info to read up on!
In the afternoon we headed out to Walmart and Superstore to stock up on stuff we could eat and ended up buying a van load of protein. I walked past the take-out counter at Superstore and had to buy one of their Barbequed Chickens...the smell was killing me! We took it home and cut it in half, peeled most of the skin off (c'mon...we had to eat a bit of skin!) and devoured a half chicken each...I kind of felt like cavemen! I don't recomend this because it was 20% fat, although most of that was in the skin, but I still felt that it was too fatty after I ate it. The poor kids were drooling on us as they watched us devour it! Don't worry-we threw them some scraps! We also bought bags of frozen sole, Alaskan pollock and shrimp. I wasn't a fan of the pollock. I found it too oily for me. Peameal bacon was on sale so we bought a whole 2 lb chunk of it. I think it was 12 % fat. We washed the cornmeal off it and trimmed all the fat before cooking for breakfast in the morning. Can't believe how much I have to pee...guess that's the water weight coming off.

I had more of my homemade vanilla yogurt while Dolph ate half a 750 ml container of Low fat fruit yogurt. He said he felt so sleepy after (I think it was sweetened with sucrose) and passed out early. He slept all night and gained 1 lb....it was the yogurt! I couldn't fall asleep-my legs were so itchy inside I felt like my skin was crawling!
I found this photo on Marshall Brain's blog on howstuffworks. It's an xray of a 120 lb woman and a 250 lb woman. The difference is staggering. Check out the fat around her organs, the constricted lung space and even the lobes of fat in the brain! How healthy is that to have that pressure on your brain? Also her joints are compressed and her ankles are turned in. It was a great lesson for me to see what my fat is doing to the inside of my body!

You can read more about this photo, including the pronation of her ankles on Marshall's blog here

Attack Day One!

 So my first day on the diet was supposed to be March 22, 2012, but I felt really unprepared. I didn't  have the proper foods in the house and I was having my friends, Deanna and Christa for breakfast that morning. If you read the first post, Deanna is my cheerleader who got me to check out the diet. Soooo...I decided to wait until Friday and stock my fridge. We had a great breakfast-I made Deanna a piece of Salmon for her attack meal and Christa and I had Ham, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Bagels on Whole Wheat bagels-Yum! Deanna's little sad piece of salmon looked so lonely on her plate with no grilled asparagus! The night before I had made an Apple Crisp for our small group meeting and enjoyed 'The Last Supper' which was a recipe for Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese sandwiches from a Pinterest recipe. On Wednesday morning I weighed 246...after my final supper I weighed 248.4! After breakfast Deanna and I went shopping and picked up some essential ingredients; such as: low fat Greek yogurt, non fat plain yogurt and some Turkey Bites which are small turkey pepperettes. Deanna was really ready to eat again so she bought a package of sliced Turkey breast and ate it out of the wrapper holding the plastic like a bun...I dug into my bag of Turkey Bites! When we got to the self checkout the machine couldn't read the empty packages! I had lost 50 lbs in 2003-04 doing a healthy Atkins Diet and I knew that my O+ blood type loves protein so I figured this was something I could easily manage.

Friday morning: first day of Attack Phase and I woke up with a terrific toothache! Back molar-so painful that I could think of nothing else. I took Tylenol and it did nothing. Contemplated calling the dentist but decided to wait. I have suffered from TMJ in the past and thought I might need to see my chiropractor. So my husband Dolph, who has 20 lbs to lose, and I made breakfast together. We made the Oatbran Galette, which is the 1 1/2 TB of oatbran Dr Dukan recommends that you consume daily mixed with 1 1/2 TB of low fat Greek yogurt and 2 egg whites. It all fries up into this tasty little French  pancake called a Galette! Now if you try this diet, you will soon discover that on protein days, that little Galette is a LIFESAVER! There are all kinds of things that you can do with it which you can read about here. You can also use your daily requirement of oatbran as breading or to make little muffins...your choice! So we had our galettes with eggs and were quite satisfied.

My husband, Dolph is 6' 2" and large framed and works in construction, so he really needs to eat quite a bit. I packed him with a lunch pail full of sardines and fish. For lunch I had chicken breast cooked in my Lean Mean Fat Grilling machine which leaves them nice and juicy. I season most meat with Seasoning salt and Onion powder and add seasonings from there. We both had Turkey Bites as a snack. For supper I made a roast and we had just the beef with Au Jus while the kids cleaned up on corn, mashed potatoes and gravy! Dolph weighed himself before supper and had already lost 3 lbs! Men! We had Vanilla yogurt for dessert that I made by adding Sugar Twin and vanilla to plain yogurt. I'm not sure if it was in my head but I felt tired and lethargic all day, but it may have been the lack of sugar. My toothache slowly went away mid morning-thank God!

I must say here that this diet will mean quite a bit more time in the kitchen for me. We have 7 children-5 of whom are still at home. I homeschool and work with my husband in his construction business although to a lesser degree after my concussion and resulting post-concussive syndrome. I put my 2 oldest boys in high school last fall in order to reduce my stress levels. My schedule now is: I get up at 5:30-5:45, make coffee and try to get in 15-20 min of Bible reading and prayer. The oldest 2 boys get up at 6 and catch the bus at 6:45. I'm available to help them but they have their own little schedule worked out for having their showers, breakfast and packing their own lunches. Around 6:10 I start cooking breakfast for Dolph and I (before the diet, he made his own and I ate later). He gets up at 6:30 and we eat together. We get the rest of the kids up at 7:30 and I usually spend until 9 am in the kitchen cleaning up and getting them fed and onto their chores and schoolwork. Our family eats a fairly healthy diet. We have always made a point of having lots of fruit and veggies in the house, eat as much whole grains as we can and I cook from scratch 90% of the time. I make a meal plan and grocery shop accordingly. We have drug-free beef in the freezer and are planning on raising chickens this year. If I can do this diet and cook 2 separate meals for every meal and cook for seven...then anyone can do it! I was Googling and checking out some blogs of women who had done the diet..some single with just themselves to look after and when I read things like: "I'm craving a cupcake and trying to find away to make a Dukan Cupcake"... or "I didn't feel like going to the store so I stopped on the way home and picked up a cheese bun." How disheartening is that? If you are planning to fail...please don't blog about it! Marshall Brain, the Mastermind of Howstuffworks has some very interesting and entertaining posts on his blog about his Dukan Diet experience.

How did I do? When I woke up on Saturday, I had lost 3 lbs!! Yeah!

My Dukan Journey Begins

My friend, Deanna, who I call my biggest cheerleader sent me an email the other day which said:

www.dukandiet.com

check it out. find out your true weight.

this is for you! :)

more than just a diet--a lifetime cure for overweight.

She has been encouraging me in my fight to attain a healthy weight for years. Strangely, I was the one who introduced her to exercise in the early 90's...who knew she would turn into an exercise guru!
Later I'll do a post on my weight gain history...let's suffice it to say that 5 pregnancies in 7 years, stress, emotional issues and a lot of dieting had gotten me up to 248.4 lbs! There, I said it out loud! In 2010, I had gotten down 30 lbs by joining Deanna on the Lemonade diet and rollerskating aka: Roller Derby, but a concussion in December 2010 (which you can read about here) basically put me out of commission for over a year. I was not allowed to exercise, lift or even do excessive housework as any physical activity exacerbated my symptoms and gave me intense headaches and no ability to even think!

So here I was, basically very unfit, over 100 lbs overweight and turning 50 in a few months. I had started to walk 30 minutes a day in February and in spite of taking a popular meal replacement shake and watching what I ate, I had only dropped a few lbs only to immediately gain it back again! I knew I had to do something soon! I had just prayed about it with a friend and just as I got off the phone, I received the email, as well as a phone call from Deanna. She somewhat convinced me to try the Dukan Diet.The plan uses real food and is based on the premise that our body needs a certain period of time to 'forget' it's heaviest set point and therefore helps to maintain permanent weight loss. When you go to the website you are invited to find your 'true weight' and they send you a timeline in which you will lose the weight. They set mine at 156.6 lbs. I am 5' 4" and under all this weight I have a medium to small frame. My happiest weight was around 120 lbs. I felt great at 110 but usually weighed around 125 until my late 20's. I would like to get back down to around 123 lbs. That is over half my weight!

Basically, it's a high protein eating plan, started in France over 10 years ago. The premise is that you start with a 1-10 day 'Attack Phase' in which you eat only lean protein. I had lost 50 lbs eating a healthy Atkins diet in 2003-2004 so I figured I could do this. And I knew my body does not do well on carbs. The number of days on the attack phase is determined by the amount of weight you need to lose. My attack phase will be 6 days. After the Attack Phase, then you proceed to 'Cruise Phase' which may take over a year and involves eating only lean protein one day, then adding low glycemic veggies the next. In 'Consolidation Phase', you are allowed to add in some other higher carb foods but have one protein day a week, to help your body adjust. You stay at this phase over a period of months or even a year depending on the amount of weight to lose. The last phase: 'Stabilization Phase', is where you stay to ensure long term weight loss.

That night I pitched yet another diet plan to my husband. He was happy for me to start the diet and even thought he might as well, as he has 20 lbs to lose. The next day Deanna joined a friend and I for breakfast at my house. I made her a piece of salmon while we ate ham and egg breakfast bagels! We went shopping together to see what allowed foods were available at our local supermarket. The one motivating factor that really made me decide to do it, was that I've come to a place in my life spiritually and emotionally in which I feel that I can conquer this monster and that Deanna offered to pay for half of the fee to join Dr. Dukan's website and have day to day counselling. Her belief in me, more than the offered financial help convinced me that I really needed to do this, as how could I refuse when I had so much to lose (not in weight but life itself) and so much support! Even her 14 year old daughter offered to give me some money toward it! However, she only had a small amount of weight to lose, and when we found that my fee was $400 I decided for now not to join the website. With my 50th Birthday only months away and a party in the works, I was set to go! How could I not say yes to a new life with such a cheer leading team behind me? 





Not great quality photo...but you get the idea!



Does anyone smile in their 'before' photo?