Ok.. it's been a while.. I know..

There really hasn't been too much to blog about, diet wise. It's been a slow and steady decline. had another mini plateau where i lost and gained the same 4 pounds for about a week but that seems to have passed now.

Yesterday (and today) I was below the 160 mark for the first time in many years. It feels like a little milestone of sorts. 159.6 this morning. I've lost 25.6 pounds to date. The BMI is still indicating overweight status, but I believe that once I get under 159 that will change to normal. I'm ahead of schedule so far so I might be done before the date set on my original "true weight" calculation. I'm supposed to be finished on August 22 but I do hope I get there before. I miss bread...   Next phase of the diet allows 2 slices of whole grain bread per day, plus one serving of fruit and also PV every day (except Thursdays).

Start weight:

185.2 lb

Weight change:

Lost 25.6 lb

Current weight:

159.6 lb

BMI Status:

Overweight

Goal weight:

141.0 lb

Goal Complete:

57.9%

Time Complete:

43.6%

Days left:

84

Bam!

-21.2 pounds. This morning the scale showed 164 pounds. Halfway there, very pleased

I took some new comparison pictures this morning. The difference is very visible now. I look much healthier and my skin tone has improved a lot.

I've been drinking more green tea since I managed to break that plateau I wrote about in my last post. It seems to really get thing moving. Yesterday was a PV day and I still managed to lose weight. That's the first PV day since week 1 of cruise where I actually lost the morning after PV, most often I'd be at a standstill or have gained some.

We bought a meat package from a butcher shop a couple of days ago. This is the first time I've gone outside of a grocery store for raw meat. I'm pleasantly surprised by how tasty the meat is in comparison. The price difference isn't huge either. On some of the items, like the chicken breast, they came with bones and skin still attached so I would assume I lost some there in term of dollars per pound and whatnot but the steak... omg the steaks..  they're freaking enormous. No sinews and veins like we so often get in the grocery store steaks and they're SO YUMMY. The minute steaks included were the biggest I've ever seen. I could only fit one at a time in my largest pan. There was lean ground beef included as well but unfortunately not lean enough for Dukan standards. It's OK though, I'm making it into meatballs, meatloaves and meat sauces for the husband and kids.

Weight Tracker Stats

Start weight:

185.2 lb

Weight change:

Lost 21.2 lb

Current weight:

164.0 lb

BMI Status:

Overweight

Goal

Goal weight:

141.0 lb

% Goal Complete:

48.0%

% Time Complete:

32.9%

Days left:

100

Broke my first plateau

I've not been terribly motivated to post the past few days because I was on a plateau, the dreaded plateau hit about a week ago and since then I'd loose a few pounds and put them all back on again then loose them then put them back on. It was fairly discouraging but I managed to stick with the program. I read on line that green tea might help people push through a plateau so yesterday I chugged about 10 cups of it and it seems to have helped, I'm back to losing again.

Weight Tracker Stats

Start weight:

185.2 lb

Weight change:

Lost 18.8 lb

Current weight:

166.4 lb

BMI Status:

Overweight

Goal

Goal weight:

141.0 lb

% Goal Complete:

42.5%

% Time Complete:

30.2%

Days left:

104

	Weight Trends (Pounds)
	7 day	30 day	90 day
Change	-2.4	-11.0	-18.8
Average	168.3	171.9	174.5

This weight tracker page it incredibly nifty. I fill it in every day and watching the graph, even though some days I gain a little, I can see that overall it's a downwards trend. I think that's the main thing keeping me motivated right now.

I haven't managed to find any other stores that sell my beloved breakfast ham so I'll probably just have to learn to cope without it.

Today I'm going to attempt making Kale chips. The vegans rave about them and I did find some websites that have oil free recipes. I'll post next time about how they turned out. Hopefully not as bad as the eggplant chip experiment.

Oh.. I took new measurements today. Lost a total of 13 cm off my waist line, 12 cm off my stomach, 10 cm from my hips, 5 cm from my thigh and 2 cm from my upper arm.... and 9 cm from "the girls" (sigh).

Cruise Phase week 5

Weighed in at 167.2 pounds this morning. That's a loss of 18 pounds total so far. I had a couple of days where I gained weight for no apparent reason but this morning it had all come off again. I suspect it was water retention, it's been really warm outside the past week.

I had some cravings the other day for the first time really since I started. I wanted to sit down and devour a bag of chips, specifically Lay's kettle cooked sour cream onion chips. I managed to will myself out of doing it, but it was rough.

Another terrible thing happened... The store I go to stopped selling the fabulous breakfast ham (the one that was 2% fat and 6% sodium) and I haven't found any other place that sells that particular brand. I wrote to the manufacturer to see if they distribute to any other stores in the area but so far I haven't got a reply. I wanted to try turkey bacon instead but after having read the ingredients I chose not to. There's a LOT of junk in turkey bacon that sounds scary on several different levels.

My last veggie day I didn't eat any asparagus and that may be a reason why I retained so much water. Today is a PV day and I'll make sure to eat some with supper.

Only 2 pounds left until I reach the 20 pound mark. That will be a proud moment for me. I'll take new measurements at that point, and another batch of pictures to compare with once the diet is finished. According to the Dukan calculator I'm set to reach my goal weight of 141 pounds on August 22, but at the rate I'm losing right now I might actually get there before. It's only taken me a little over a month to get to this point. But.. only time will tell. The loss rate may slow down at some point.

-14.5 pounds

Feeling pretty good about the progress thus far. I've managed to lose weight even during shark week (time of the month) and that's usually a time when we gain some pounds.

Going to cook up a big batch of chicken breasts today, oven baked. Cooked chicken is super good to have handy when the munchies strike. I love snacking on cold sliced chicken. Also stocked up on premade sugar free Jello cups. I find that when i make it from powder it goes runny after a day, the Jello cups stay Jello-y for EVER.

Took my measurements again this morning, not going to post them here because it wasn't too long since I posted the last ones, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. My tummy measurement is down in the 2 digits again (this is METRIC people..) and my waistline keeps on shrinking. The pants I bought new a week or so ago are already starting to feel loose.

From the medhelp website, this makes me happy:

Goal

Goal weight:

141.0 lb

% Goal Complete:

32.6%

% Time Complete:

22.8%

Days left:

115

Cruise Phase week 4. Still going strong.

Today is the middle of week four of the cruise phase, I weighed 172 pounds this morning at the daily weigh in. Total weight loss to date 13.2 pounds.

I'm feeling super proud of the accomplishment so far. Went and bought a new pair of jeans, two sizes smaller than the last pair I bought, and feel very please with how they fit. I'm anticipating a few more pieces of clothing will appear over the summer but for now I'm good with the pants. Hard to go shopping crazy on a budget.

Food wise I'm still doing ok. It's starting to get a little bit dull with the same things over and over so I will need to switch it up a little here and there to stay motivated. I'm loving the Dukan Galettes for breakfast tough, with the lean breakfast ham and a cup of Earl grey tea. I look forward to eating it every morning. I spice my galette up with some cinnamon and Splenda.  Also made a dleicious topping for my oven baked chicken breasts. Greek yoghurt mixed with Dijon mustard, low sodium soy sauce, black pepper and oregano. It makes the chicken taste absolutely divine. making the hubby taste it tonight, he's been a little standoffish towards my foods, but this one I'm sure he will love.

Yesterday was a PV day. Made a marinara sauce from scratch and fried up some ground meat patties and added them to the sauce. I ate it with steamed asparagus for sides and the rest of the family had spaghetti. It's nice when i can make things that everyone can eat. Cooking 3-4 different meals every night is too much added stress.

Cellulite

Day 24.

173.8 pounds.

11.4 pound weight loss in 24 days.

Let's talk cellulite! The amount of water I'm drinking has definitely had an effect on my backside. I don't have a full length mirror in the house so I haven't really seen what it looks like but I felt the backs of my legs this morning were much smoother than normal. I asked dear hubby to look and he said it's definitely much less than before. This deserves a *happy dance*.

My super lean breakfast ham experiment has turned out well. No excess water retention or uncalled for weight gains. I will eat it with my oat bran pancakes every morning and make my brain think it's bacon.

I'm having some motivation troubles to get off my ass and do the exercise every day. So far I've only skipped one day. Have to make sure I keep that up or I'll start slipping in other areas too.

The tracker below makes me happy, too bad I didn't have it from the beginning. The medhelp.org website has some very useful graphs to fill in for the weight and measurement and it shows a nice downward trend, which lifts my spirits every morning when I fill it in. BMI is slowly coming back down towards "normal" range again.