A friend recently shared with me about her experience with the Dukan Diet. I had never heard of it, but I was willing to find out more. It turns out she's lost 30 pounds by following this diet so far in the past several months! That's amazing, especially after getting off track during the holidays! She's over halfway to her target weight, and more motivated than ever.
You can go the Dukan Diet website and plug in your information to find what they consider your target weight. Mine was a little higher than the goal weight I had in my mind. Let's be honest- most of us have that lucky number 125 in our minds for our goal weight! I know I did. The target weight the website computed for me was 132.2 pounds, which I think is a healthy goal for me.
You see- the lowest I remember ever weighing is 131 pounds, never in the 120's. That was when I was 18 years old and ate whatever the heck I wanted. As long as I stayed active, I didn't have to worry about exercising either.
Fast-forward eight years, and my metabolism has majorly slowed down! I continued on the path of eating whatever the heck I wanted, and my activity level has slowed down too. I found myself at my heaviest of 180 pounds.
I've had intense workouts at the gym, and I have managed to lose about 10 pounds. Just going to the gym and "trying to eat better" is just not cutting it anymore. I've tried counting calories, but I just can't seem to stay under a certain amount of calories. I feel hungry, overeat, and then give up. It's a frustrating cycle! I knew I needed something more than that.
Enter the Dukan Diet. ;) The program is broken down into 4 different phases. The weight loss happens in the first two phases, so they are clearly the most challenging and most restrictive. When you calculate your target weight on the website, it also gives you a recommendation of how long you should continue with each phase and a date of when you should reach your target weight.
The website recommended I stay in Phase 1 (the attack phase) for 6 days and in Phase 2 (the cruise phase) for 114 days. Phase 1 is all about pure protein- think lean meats and fish! I do love that this diet is restrictive and yet not restrictive. You are given a list of 63 foods you can have, but you can have as much as you want of them! Phase 2 is about adding vegetables to your diet. You alternate days between pure protein and proteins & vegetables.
There's a book that you can follow that explains the whole diet in detail. I use Dukan Diet: Made Easy as a reference for myself. I think it's easier to follow than the original. I think they sell for $20 at the bookstore if you want to have a tangible copy. I downloaded mine on my iphone for $10.99- that way I always have it with me as a reference.
I think it's super important to take before pictures. The scale doesn't move sometimes, but you can definitely see your progress in pictures. Here are my before pics at 169.4 pounds:
And so it begins...
I started Phase 1 yesterday, and it's already been tough! I have the biggest sweet tooth, and I got to watch my uncle eat all of my girl scout cookies. He didn't mind at all! ;) Thank goodness that I'm still able to enjoy coffee with skim milk and splenda! Y'all, I don't know if I'd be able to make it through phase 1 without the coffee to help out my sweet tooth. I know this is going to bring results if I'm able to stay with it!
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