Total days since last transgression: 11

No daily change
Total loss since New Year: 4.3 kgs /9.46 lbs

Today’s menu: PV

Watercheck: 1.4 l

Breakfast

• mug of coffee
• oatbran porridge with sweetener
• microwaved eggs

Lunch

• Stirfried chicken thigh with cabbage an onion
• Handful of peanuts

Dinner

• Chicken fajita salad

Exercise

• 1 hour cycling to and from work

Day three on my fromage frais challenge, and no change on the scales. I have an understanding with the Scales of Woe. I shall remain patient, and they shall deliver my desired result.  Eventually.

It was a hard day at work today. Long, and mentally taxing. By the end of it, I almost succumbed to the temptation to eat the last remaining mini caramel shortbread slice sitting in my team’s bullpen. But I thought about you guys, and the fact that I’m on day 11 without transgression, and how I really wanted to make it to day 14. That was enough to give me the resolve to resist. And resist I did.

In more exciting news – J and I booked a holiday today! We’re going for 7 nights to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt. A week of basking on the beach in the sun, while waiters bring me unlimited fruity cocktails and I catch up on all the reading I’ve been wanting to do – that sounds like just the right kind of holiday for me. And for that week, I’m going to leave Dukan in the UK. I’m not going to go overboard, don’t worry. I won’t eat every carbohydrate in the place, but I will enjoy myself just a little, mostly in the form of fruity passionfruit & mango flavoured cocktails.

SO excited! We head off in just over 3 weeks time!

Total days since last transgression: 10

Daily GAIN: 0.5kgs / 1.1lbs
Total loss since New Year: 4.3 kgs /9.46 lbs

Today’s menu: PP

Watercheck: 1.6l

Breakfast

• mug of coffee
• oatbran porridge with sweetener
• microwaved eggs

Morning snack

• Handful of peanuts

Lunch

• Refried roast chicken with a little Nando’s marinade thrown in

Afternoon snack

• Fromage frais with cocoa and sweetener

Dinner

• Chicken nuggety bites
• 1 beef peppersteak
• Fromage frais with cocoa and sweetener

Exercise

• 1 hour cycling to and from work

It’s so good to have my bike back. This morning dawned icy and still, but it had rained overnight and the roads were SLICK with black ice. The new tyres served me well though – I stayed upright while a guy behind me almost toppled over. Eeek! But it’s so nice to be back on the bike after two days of enforced bus-riding.

Two days of enforced bus riding, by the way, which has precipitated almost no exercise for the past couple of days. That, and the half cabbage I had with my chicken yesterday, makes me not too fussed about the half kilo that appeared on the scales. I’m still down from this time last week, so that’s a plus.

I got my serving of fromage frais today, plus a second one for dessert. I had it with cocoa and a couple of drops of liquid sucralose – if you can get hold of that instead of the spoon-for-spoon powder (which is padded out with pure carbohydrate) then all the better. I order mine from the US via eBay via this seller. It’s a great product – plus, sucralose is better than sweeteners like aspartame because it’s heat-stable, ie doesn’t lose its flavour during cooking.

How is everyone else’s low-fat-dairy-challenge going?

Total days since last transgression: 9

Daily LOSS:0.7 kgs / 1.54lbs
Total loss since New Year: 4.8kgs /10.56 lbs

Today’s menu: PV

Watercheck: 2.9l – tea, coffee, 1.5l of water, and diet coke

Breakfast

• mug of coffee
• oatbran porridge with sweetener
• microwaved eggs

Lunch

• Stirfried chicken thigh with cabbage, XL philly and herbs & spices

Afternoon snack

• handful of peanuts

Dinner

• Roast chicken from Asda, refried with a little Nando’s piri piri sauce (J did that – simple and yummy!)
• Fat free fromage frais with raw cocoa powder and liquid sweetener

Exercise

• Again, no more than 20 mins walking (but my bike is back in action, yay!)

First things first – my bike is now repaired! New virtually puncture-proof tyres have been installed (via Edinburgh fabulous mobile bike-repair service, “2 Wheel Support”) and I plan to get back in the saddle from tomorrow morning – and I can’t wait! Taking the bus to work for 2 days has been SUCH a waste of time, literally. It takes me an hour to get to work on the bus, but just 30 mins on the bike. Plus, it’s cost me a fiver in bus fares and I’ve had next to no exercise. Hurray for bikes.

Diet-wise, I had another good day today – it’s funny how the longer I go without transgressing, the easier it gets! It also helps that I’ve put a column on my spreadsheet for tracking how many days I’ve gone without transgression. Yay!

So, Sandi and I were talking today (via email, her in Florida and me sneakily at work) about conducting an experiment, and we’d like to get you involved.

You see, she and I both independently come to the conclusion that sugar-free fat free dairy (ie fromage frais or yoghurt) is not only a tasty treat, but is actually actively beneficial for our weight loss. For my own part, I look back at when I was doing really really well on Dukan (basically June-September 2010) and the thing that stands out for me is that I was, almost without fail, having at least one serving of fat free yoghurt or fromage frais every day. It’s actually surprisingly consistent. I’ll need to go back and analyse each blog entry in more depth to try and work out whether it merely decreased my appetite and therefore I ate less, or whether it really has an independent effect.

Sandi has had a similar experience.

So. Perhaps it’s time for us to be a bit more scientific about this, and increase our sample size? You are all strong, dedicated women and men, fellow bloggers and dukaneers, all. And January/February are particularly difficult months for dieting. Sandi and I think that you should join us, and start taking a serving or two of fat free yoghurt, cottage cheese or fromage frais every day, like medicine! If we all do this together and compare our results, I reckon we’ll have some useful semi-scientific (rather than purely anecdotal) evidence to pass on to the rest of the Dukan community.

If you’re up for it, blog about it! Spread the word to your own readers who may also be bloggers! Or if you’re just a lurker, try this experiment with us and post your results in the comment section of whatever blog you read regularly. I’ll be setting up a page dedicated to this, so that I can keep a close eye on what’s going on with my own experience.

So who’s with us?

Morning weigh in: 99.7kgs

Total days since last transgression: 8

Daily GAIN: 0.5kgs / 1.1lbs
Total loss since New Year: 4.1kgs / 9.02lbs

Today’s menu: PP

Watercheck: 2.2l – water, tea, coffee & diet coke

Breakfast

• mug of coffee
• oatbran porridge with sweetener
• microwaved eggs

Lunch

• Beef stew with minimal onions and no other vege (home made ofc!)
• handful of peanuts
• Minor transgression – a few cashew nuts

Afternoon snack

• Fromage frais with cocoa and sweetener

Dinner

• 2 mini cheddar cheese portions
• a few chicken satay sticks

Exercise

• only about 20 mins walking all up. Not a great day for exercise without my bike.

The Scales of Woe are making me woeful. How DARE they show me up again this morning? I’ll bloody show them, I tell ya…

I ignored their woeful tidings today, and instead  concentrated on being a Very Good Girl.  The cashews were a mistake – sorry about that. Not enough of a mistake to reset my transgression counter though. What? It’s my counter, and I can reset it when I like…

I am actually starting to get more and more behind the theory that fromage frais, a serving of it every day, really does help the weight loss process. I’m testing it today – I didn’t have any for a few days, but had some today – let’s see what the results on the Scales of Woe are tomorrow morning, ey?

My bike is still in its stable, unfortunately. I’ve decided that rather than go with Katherine’s (very helpful) suggestion of getting the Slime self repairing inner tubes, I’d bite the bullet and get new tyres – the old ones were getting bald-ish anyway, and several people have told me that they’re due for replacement soon. So I’ve decided to pay a little extra, and get some whizz-bang-Super-Tough-Anti-Puncture tyres. Edinburgh has a fabby mobile bike repair service who are coming around tomorrow evening to install everything, and I should be back on the roads, causing havoc and mayhem on Edinburgh’s bike paths, by Thursday. Hurray!

Morning weigh in: 99.2kgs

Total days since last transgression: 7

Daily GAIN: 0.5kgs / 1.1lbs
Total loss since New Year: 4.6kgs / 10.12lbs

Today’s menu: PV

Watercheck: 2.2l – tea, coffee, water and diet coke

Breakfast

• mug of coffee
• oatbran porridge with sweetener
• microwaved eggs

Lunch

• Stirfried chicken thigh pieces with half a sweetheart cabbage and low-fat boursin cheese

Dinner

• Oven roasted chicken wings with the fat cut off
• Roast Pumpkin, parsnip, onion & bacon bits

Exercise

• 50mins cycling to and from work
• 15 mins walking home from my THIRD puncture in less than a week

Hello hello! I’m back from the murky land of My-Web-Host-Screwed-Up-My-Settings-And-Took-Ages-to-Fix-It.

Contrary to what you might be forgiven for thinking, given my past history with not blogging for days on end, I have been 100% on plan these past few days. I’ve had 7 bad-food-free days, despite temptation, I’ve been getting my exercise, and my weigh-ins have been steadily falling on the Scales of Woe. I had a whoosh yesterday morning, followed by a Monday-Bounce today (which comes from the late morning weigh in post sleeping in, followed by the Monday morning pre-7am weigh-in) but I am still below where I was this time last week, so I call that a win.

What is not winning, however, is my poor bike. There must be a patch of bike path with broken glass on it somewhere along my commuter route, because I’ve had three punctures in a week. Not. Happy. My darling bike is not happy either.  I don’t have any puncture repair kit, nor the knowledge to repair the puncture if I did, so I’m hoping that the mobile bike repair service I found for Edinburgh is going to call me back and answer my message.

I just want my bike back!!! Waaaaaahhhh!

Total days since last transgression: 1

Daily GAIN: 1.0kgs / 2.2lbs  <– dammit.
Total loss since New Year: kgs / lbs

Today’s menu: PP

Watercheck: 1.9l

Breakfast

• mug of coffee
• oatbran porridge with sweetener
• microwaved eggs

Lunch

• 4 slices of butter roast chicken from Sainsburys
• 3 slices of roast beef from sainsburys
• 1 slice of pepperoni, the rest of the pack got thrown out for being gross
• 2 slices of Cathedral City cheddar cheese

Dinner

• mini chicken satay pieces, stirfried with some lean bacon, and a slice of cheese

Exercise

• 1 hour cycling to and from work

I don’t know whether it was the alcohol from tomorrow night or just hormones or something but this morning I woke up feeling like I’d smoked a pack of cigarettes the night before, and today my lunch tasted … empty. The cheese, usually so good for knocking the carb cravings on their head, tasted like something was missing.

The cold meat cuts tasted bland and dry – I’ve had total cotton-mouth all day, and it’s just nasty. This isn’t metal mouth – this is something else.  AND I’m up 1kg on the scales. I hope I’m not getting sick – though it’s entirely possible that there were more carbs in the haggis last night than usual. Grr.

Got home this evening absolutely exhausted, but managed to get a second wind later on to plough on into the next dress I’m making – omg it’s gonna be so pretty! Each one I make gets me closer to knowing what I want my wedding dress to look like, and this one (while not the right colours) is not far off the mark in shape. Just a little longer, and we’ll have the perfect, comfy, home made wedding dress. While I totally respect a woman’s right to choose how much she spends on a wedding dress, I personally can’t bear the thought of skimping on any other part of a wedding reception/party for the sake of dropping £££s on a dress that I’ll only wear for a day. Plus? All those wedding dresses out there look really uncomfortable and binding. I want one that will move and breathe – and I’ve discovered just the right cotton-lycra-viscose blend to do it for me.

From about June this year, I’m going to start playing with a full length mock-up of the dress, in identical fabric to what I want, but a different hue – that way I’ll have a maxi dress – maybe even two – for August, and a much better idea of what I want to make. My only worry is that my weight has fluctuated so much over the past 18 months, who KNOWS where I’ll be at on the scales in May 2013?! But at least I know that I’ll be so well practiced by then that if I need to, I can always whip up another better fitting dress, or alter the one I have.

Fingers crossed for losing that entire kilogram tomorrow on the scales.

Oppose it.

Daily LOSS: 0.4kgs / 0.88lbs
Total loss since New Year: 4.3kgs / 9.46lbs

Today’s menu: PP at lunchtime, PV at dinner (I know, I know. Mixed up day.)

Watercheck: 2.9l – tea, coffee, water and rum&diet coke

Breakfast

• mug of coffee
• oatbran porridge with sweetener
• microwaved eggs

Lunch

• grilled gluten free chipolata sausages

Dinner

• Burns Supper with folk from my old work

Exercise

• 1 hour cycling to and from work

I had a flat tyre this morning on my way to work! I was so lucky though, that it happened in just the right place for it to be convenient – almost directly outside the closed bike shop to my work. They weren’t open yet, so I had to lock it up outside their shop window, and post my bike-lock key through their letter box. I didn’t have anything to write a note with even, so I had to call them once I got to work, after they opened, to explain this mystery key through their door…

The Burns supper was a challenge. Lots of booze (I did succumb to a Rum and Diet Coke, so I’m back to Zero Days On Plan) and even the soup had rice in it!! It was a late night, but lovely to see all the folk from my old work.

Daily GAIN: 0.1kgs / 0.22lbs
Total loss since New Year: 3.9kgs / 8.58lbs

Today’s menu: PV

Watercheck: 2.1l

Breakfast

• mug of coffee
• oatbran porridge with sweetener
• microwaved eggs

Lunch

• Chicken wings

Afternoon snack

• A couple of handfuls of peanuts

Dinner

• beef chow mein, no noodles

Exercise

• 30 mins walking from bus stop to work and back

Oof, I’m a bit sore from Derby yesterday. That, and the fact that it was 5 degrees below freezing in the morning, meant that I was reluctant to take to the bike and head out on the roads.

Also – only gaining 100g after a heavy muscle training session like Derby (well, heavy when my body’s not used to it after a few weeks off) is pretty good – it’s normal to retain some water around the areas of muscle swelling, or so I read. So no temper tantrums from me today.

One last thing – I was cooking chow mein tonight, and J prefers his with noodles. I just use the cheapo instant noodles without the packet mix mixed in – I soak em in water for a minute or two, and then once they’ve reached the right level of softness, I bung em in a hot pan with a little oil, throw some chow mein mince on top, and flash fry it all. I was very proud of myself, that I had to taste one noodle strand to make sure that it was done – and after chewing a few times, I spat it out into the bin.

Hi, I’m Charlotte, and I’ve stayed Carb Free for… I’m not gonna count em, but I’ve not gone off track for well over 10 days! Yay!

No change
Total loss since New Year: 4.0kgs / 8.8lbs

Today’s menu: PV

Watercheck: 1.8l – coffee, diet coke and low calorie cordial

Breakfast

• mug of coffee
• oatbran porridge with sweetener
• 2x microwaved eggs

Lunch

• Pack of Sainsbury’s chicken satay sticks
• 2 slices of cheese

Dinner

• “Fancy” chicken parmagiana

Exercise

• 15 mins cycling to and from roller derby
• 1.5 hours of roller derby (2 hours altogether, but I shaved off 30 mins to take into account warm-up, cool down, stretches and stopping to listen to the coaches)

So you’ll be very proud of me, I managed to drag my sorry arse out of bed this morning and go skating. It was a relatively tough session – we did the 25-in-5 (the bane of every skater’s psyche) as a pack rather than individually. If that means nothing to you, think of this: to become a skater who’s allowed to skate in official WFTDA sanctioned games, you have to pass minimum standards tests. One requirement of the Minimums is to be able to skate 25 laps of the track in 5 minutes. I’ve never managed the 25 laps – I’ve only ever got to 23 on my best day, which is why I’m on the recreational league, not the Big Girls Teams. Anyway, skating the 25-in-5 is gruelling for a normal sized person who’s not a Big Girl Skater, but for someone who’s carrying around as much … “padding” …  as I am, it’s torture. By the 2nd minute of sprinting, your feet are hurting, your back is aching, and you’re starting to get out of breath. By minute 4, the ache has become a searing pain in the base of your spine, your quads are burning, ankles are starting to feel the strain of taking the corners pretty fast, and you’re winded. But you still have a minute to go. This is the point at which I sometimes lose my balance because my limbs have gone all wobbly, and if I lose my balance, I fall down. But you can’t stop, you have to pick yourself up and sprint off again, because every second counts towards achieving that lofty goal of getting the hallowed 25 laps.

I have cried at the end of the five minutes. Several times.

Today, we did it as a group, rather than individually.  I’m one of the slowest skaters in the group, so I was put at the front of the pack (because “you’re only as fast as your slowest skater”) and off we went. It was hard – but not as hard as I thought it would be. We managed 19.5 laps, which I used to struggle to get even on my own, so that was alright.

Anyway, I toddled off home again, and had a light lunch of mini chicken satay sticks after a nice long shower (you get SWEATY doing roller derby!) By 6pm, I was feeling wobbly.

By 7.30pm, I think I had some kind of hypoglycemic episode. I got totally irrational and cranky, and my motor coordination went out the window – I felt like I was watching the world through a long tube. I knew (or rather, J knew) it was time to get some food in me when I dropped a jar of shredded garlic out of the fridge, and it smashed all over the floor.

I actually had a little temper tantrum, right there in the kitchen. It involved growling-howling and punching the air with my fists and stomping my feet. Literally. Poor J had to sooth me, and he cleaned up the mess while I finished making dinner (which COULD NOT have been ready soon enough). (Also, did I mention already that I’m marrying a wonderful man?)

It was seriously tasty, dinner. Very simple:

Chicken, seasoned with whatever your fave chicken seasoning is – I used thyme, paprika, garlic powder, oregano and a little salt. Fried up the chicken breasts in a non-stick pan, then stuck em on a grill pan.  Sliced up some fresh tomatoes and put em on top. Laid a piece of ham on top of the tomatoes. Then topped it all off with a thin slice of low-fat cheese on each, and then put em under the grill until they were done.

Seriously Nom. It cured my hypoglycemic rage, and J could rest easy again. And now I’m off to bed.

xx