One month of consolidation

It's been 4 weeks on consolidation now and I can safely say that it works. I've been maintaining my weight losing a few more pounds in the process while eating bread and fruit every day (except protein Thursday of course) one guilt free celebration meal per week one meal with whole wheat pasta per week and even some of that dark chocolate.
 On top of these items I eat a lot (and I mean a LOT) of meat and vegetables. Lately I've been partial to the ground turkey patties and steamed veggies but a nice beef, turkey or chicken stir fry is also a nice option. I don't eat as much steak as I used to, mainly because I'm pretty fed up with all the chewing.

I'm still being a slacker when it comes to the exercise. I have had zero motivation to get started, but so long as it's not impacting my weight I'm not going to freak out too much about it. I've learned over the years that if I force myself to do stuff when I'm not motivated it just wont last. I was super motivated to lose the weight, which is why it's worked so well, but since the slacking off with workouts doesn't have any effect on the weight it seems (at least in my head) that it's of less importance right now. Now it's not like I don't move at all. I do walk to places and do vigorous cleaning fairly regularly.. and then yard work.. and running after kids. Maybe I'm getting enough just from that.

Anyhow... Here's a recap of the past week in consolidation:

August 24 138.8 lbs (celebration meal: rotisserie chicken, fries, BBQ sauce, chips for dessert)
August 25 140.0 lbs
August 26 139.8 lbs (whole wheat pasta meal)
August 27 140.6 lbs (slipped and ate an oatmeal cookie)
August 28 138.4 lbs
August 29 138.2 lbs (Protein Thursday)
August 30 137.6 lbs

Dark Chocolate Love Affair

It's the end of my third week in the consolidation phase. I had a weak moment last Friday when I was at the grocery store picking up weekend snacks for the other family members. I saw these really fancy chocolate bars on sale and I picked one up. Dark, dark chocolate.

 I remembered I had read one of the Dukan forum ladies say she ate one piece of dark chocolate every day and did not gain any weight from it. I decided to try and see what happens. The willpower it has taken to limit it to just one square a day is worthy of a medal. This is quite  possibly the most delicious chocolate I've ever tasted.
 At the end of the week I can safely say it hasn't affected my weight. It did, however, affect my cravings. I've been craving more sweets since that little introduction of sugary stuff. It seems the dark chocolate was both a blessing and a curse. It's good for the heart though... Google said so.

Here's a weight recap of week three:

August 17: 139.2 lbs
August 18: 138.2 lbs (CM: Homemade burgers, fries and a small bowl of chips for dessert)
August 19: 138.8 lbs (Starchy meal of the week. Whole wheat pasta)
August 20: 140.0 lbs
August 21: 139.8 lbs
August 22: 138.6 lbs (PP day)
August 21: 137.6 lbs

Hopefully I wont keep losing a pound a week on consolidation, that would make me way too skinny. I assume it will level out soon though.

Second consolidation week is done

I've got through 2 full weeks of consolidation now and I'm feeling more and more relaxed as the time passes. There was that one incident with the McDonald's food, which I don't think will ever happen again, but other than that I've felt great and have had no issues food wise.

I've been eating the usual breakfast every day, a grilled sandwich of some variation (mostly ham/cheese/tomato) with steamed vegetables for lunch and protein (turkey patties, chicken, steak etc.) with salad or steamed vegetables for supper. Also drinking my prescribed amount of liquids, plus at least 3 cups of tea per day.Black tea in the morning and green tea at night.

I've found that, since I started consolidation, some of my cravings have returned. I blame this on the introduction of carbs and the celebration meals. It's hard to only have that ONE time per week when you're allowed something 'forbidden'. Lots of self control is needed. It's mostly sugar I crave.. my old nemesis. I can't let myself fall back into old habits again though because there'll be no stopping it then.

Here's a recap of week two:

August 10: 141.2 lbs
August 11: 141.2 lbs (The CM of doom)
August 12: 142.6 lbs (I blame fast food)
August 13: 141.2 lbs (Weekly whole wheat pasta allowance eaten for supper)
August 14: 140.6 lbs
August 15: 140.2 lbs (PP day)
August 16: 139.0 lbs (!)

As you can see I'm now lower than when I started. I'm not concerned yet but if I continue to lose I might up my carb intake slightly. I don't want to be a walking skeleton.

So I did it

I had my second celebration meal. Was a fairly hectic day with lots of yard work and no time to cook anything big so we got some junk food. Ate my first burger/fries combo since March. Also had an ice cream sandwich for dessert since I skipped dessert last week and sort of missed not taking the opportunity. I'm feeling very heavy right now. So much grease and salt. It really wasn't as good as I remember it and I'm probably not going to make it into a habit again. I'm OK living without fast food. There will be the occasional one, I'm sure, but not regularly like I used to be.

 All in all I think it was good that I did eat it because now I know I wont feel good afterwards and it's much better to aim for a more well prepared celebration meal instead. Hopefully the scales wont be too mean to me tomorrow morning.

Here's the summary of my first week on consolidation:

August 2: 140.8 lbs.
August 3: 140.4 lbs.
August 4: 140.2 lbs.
August 5: 141.4 lbs. Celebration meal at Ikea. No bread/cheese.
August 6: 141.4 lbs.
August 7: 141.8 lbs. Whole wheat pasta for the starchy meal of the week.
August 8: 141.2 lbs. PP
August 9: 141   lbs.

I ate my bread, fruit and cheese every day except the one day where I skipped it because I just wasn't hungry.

It does seem, at least from the first weeks results that the process works as promised. I'm going to trust in the program and keep with the rules and hopefully I'll stay where I am weight wise.

My first PP day on consolidation

Weight has been hovering around 141-142 all week, this morning it was 141.2.

 I ate my pasta allowance yesterday for lunch together with my grilled ham/cheese/tomato sandwich. Next time I'm going to make a sauce for the pasta, eating it plain was a little.. boring and tasteless. I felt super full after having eaten it all, 225 g of cooked pasta was more than I had thought it would be.

Didn't sleep well last night due to a super crazy thunderstorm that passed by. I got maybe 3.5 hours total of sleep. Needless to say I feel like flattened poop today and it being a PP day is not helping. I'd just gotten used to having the fruit and veggies every day and now my stomach is very angry at me for not providing.

For breakfast this morning I ate my usual yoghurt/oatbran, tea and hard boiled egg. For a snack I had 5 slices of low fat deli ham. For lunch (and supper) I am making the lovely ground turkey patties made with Dijon mustard and many many spices. For my afternoon snack I will probably have some tuna or more eggs. Also drinking Coke Zero, diet ginger ale and water to make up the daily fluid intake.

Hoping that my weigh in tomorrow morning will have me back to where I started the week. That way my first consolidation week will have been a total success as far as the weight goes and I will probably feel more calm and stop obsessing so much about the scales.

Had my first celebration meal

Started consolidation on Friday. Today is Tuesday. Had my first celebration meal, yesterday lunch, at Ikea. Ate meatballs with mashed potato, gravy and lingonberry jam. Did not have dessert because everything they sold had the potential to contain things I'm allergic to. I'm not at all sad I missed dessert. The food was so delicious it was enough to have just that.  I skipped the bread yesterday because I just wasn't hungry for it. I will eat it again today though. Planning to make a ham and cheese grilled sandwich on my George Foreman grill. Yummy!

At some point before Thursday (PP day) I have to fit in my one starchy meal of the week. It will probably be some whole wheat spaghetti as a side with my usual protein.

 I was very concerned about weight gain this morning (really have to stop obsessing so much) but it was the same as yesterday morning so no need for panic. I've set an acceptable weight range in which I am allowed to fluctuate up and down without concern. My range is between 139-144 lbs and this morning it was at 141.4. The weight range idea was recommended to me by the ladies at the dukan forum I frequent and also common sense.. no one stays the exact same weight every day of their lives. You go up and down all the time depending on your activity level, water retention etc. etc.

I did my 30 minute walk again this morning. I have to admit I've been a slacker with exercise lately. It's hard to fit it in when school is out and kids are around all the time. This morning though I dragged my son with me, he brought his scooter, and he actually had a good time. We might try to do this every morning when the weather permits.

 Once school starts up again and I have more time to myself in the house I am planning to start up my actual workouts again. I have this great Xbox 360 game that's like a personal trainer with customizable workout circuits. She yells and berates you when you're not performing (it's through Kinect) the moves the right way and it makes me so pissed off to hear it I get more stubborn and actually get a better workout that way because I refuse to quit and let the mean computer lady win.

Got a new weight loss graph set up, for some reason it cuts off the first number of the weight (it's in lbs not kg's) but it's more fun to look at than the other one.

Original goal reached

 This morning the scale showed exactly 141 lbs. This is the TW (True weight) calculated by the Dukan calculator and what I've been working towards this whole time. I did decide a couple of weeks back though that 141 as an odd number would bother me tremendously and that 140 sounds a lot more pleasing to my OCD senses. So officially I'm at my TW but not quite done yet.

 Today is Thursday and also a PP day. It may happen that tomorrow shows 140 and in that case I will start consolidation then. I've already bought the stuff I need. Whole grain bread, cheese, apples. The thought of having a fruit for the first time since March sounds incredibly appealing.

 For those who are less familiar with the phases of the diet the Consolidation phase is what you do when your weight loss is finished and you want to start maintaining. Maintaining really is the hardest work which makes this phase the most scary.
 Up until now it's been fairly straight forward with pure protein one day and protein/veggies the next. In the consolidation phase every day is protein and veggie with the addition of 2 slices of whole grain bread, 1.5oz of hard cheese and one serving of fruit per day. The consolidation phase is divided in 2 segments, part 1 and part 2. In part 1 you are also allowed 1 serving of starchy food per week and one celebration meal per week.
 The celebration meal can be anything you want as long as you only eat one serving each of appetizer, entrée and dessert. In part 2 you are allowed 2 servings of starchy food and 2 celebration meals per week. For the entire phase you will also adhere to one day a week of pure protein, generally Thursdays. The consolidation phase lasts 5 days for every pound you lost in the Cruise phase. For me that will mean 225 days.

 So far I have not been able to decide what i want my first celebration meal to be. I know that it has to include garlic bread with cheese, because garlic bread with cheese is something I've sorely missed. For dessert I'm thinking either something chocolate or possibly a small serving of my favourite chips. I still have no idea about the entrée which probably proves how much of a junk food eater I am.. screw the food bring me the yummies!

Here, too, are my "final" measurements as I doubt they will change by any considerable amount by 1 pound:

Waist started at 98 cm and ended at 73.5, a loss of 24.5 cm (9.6")
Tummy started at 108 cm and ended at 82.5, a loss of 25.5 cm (10.04")
Hips started at 112 cm and ended at 93.9 cm, a loss of 18.1 cm (7.1")
Thigh started at 64 cm and ended at 50.8 cm, a loss of 13.2 cm (5.2")
Upper arm started at 31 cm and ended at 25.4 cm, a loss of 5.6 cm (2.2")

Start weight:

185.2 lb

Weight change:

Lost 44.2 lb

Current weight:

141.0 lb

BMI Status:

Normal

Goal

Goal weight:

141.0 lb

% Goal Complete:

100.0%

% Time Complete:

85.9%

Days left:

21

	Weight Trends (Pounds)
	7 day	30 day	90 day
Change	-2.4	-9.0	-27.8
Average	142.4	145.2	154.9