dukan diet : month 1

I've been on the Dukan Diet for a month now and I wanted to wait before I posted about it because I wasn't sure if I would still be doing it after a month. The idea to go on the Dukan Diet started last year when I went to a new doctor after moving to IL for my yearly check up. She was a Chinese-American woman who was very friendly but direct. She told me I needed to lose weight. I knew I had gained quite a bit of weight during my first year of marriage and honestly I was embarrassed by the amount that I weighed. She was very forthcoming and told me about her own weight issues although I could hardly tell because she was a very normal weight now. She told me that she always had struggled with her weight because of her busy lifestyle, the type of food she gravitated towards, and her general propensity to be more buxom. Her story resonated with me because ever since I was 18 I had struggled with my weight. She told me that she had tried different diets like South Beach but long term results never stuck and she always rebounded back to her old weight and then some. In her experience the only diet that had worked for her was Dukan and she told me to think about trying it to. Fast forward to 2013, Mark and I decided we had had our fun eating and gaining weight during our first 1.5 years of marriage and we decided our resolution would be to lose weight. Since we both were finally serious about losing the newlywed weight I thought back to the Dukan Diet and the Monday after the Super Bowl we started.

The Dukan Diet is divided into 4 phases. Phase 1: "Attack" is a short period of time to jump start the body by eating lean protein only with 20 min of walk everyday. Phase 2: "Cruise" is alternating between lean protein only days and lean protein AND vegetable days with 30 min of walking everyday. This lasts until you reach your goal weight. Phase 3: "Consolidation" is to combat the rebound effect. Certain previously restricted foods are slowly reintroduced and this phase lasts for 5 days for every pound lost with 24 min of walking everyday. Phase 4: "Permanent Stabilization" is your new lifestyle. Everything is permissible but one day every week is devoted to only lean protein.

If you're thinking about trying Dukan I would definitely suggest reading the book. Some websites and blogs might give accurate information but they don't give you all the information. To me doing Dukan without reading the book would be like trying to bake a cake without a specific recipe.  If the diet fails without following the precise recipe how can you blame the diet for not working?

Things I can share from my own experience one month in with Dukan:

• If you're a woman, your menstrual cycle will totally mess with you. Pre-menstrual and post-menstrual for me made my body totally wonky. I got really frustrated because of what the scale was telling me during this time but despair not, push forward. Unfortunately, pre-menstrual + post-menstural = nearly half of the month. This is why I started weighing myself weekly instead of daily.
• If you think you'll just guesstimate 20-30 min of walking, don't. At first I would just walk extra long at the market but then I decided to time myself on a treadmill and the difference was huge. I hadn't been walking long enough and uninterrupted 30 min of walking was way different from walking and stopping in the market aisle.
• If you're married or dating your experience will be more positive if your partner is in it with you. Conversely, if your partner is not then you'd better prepare yourself to battle temptation daily.
• If you know yourself well enough to know that you don't like eating the same things for an extended period of time then do yourself a favor and buy the Dukan Diet Cookbook. Personally, I don't trust non-official recipes because some of the permitted ingredients seem iffy.
• Calculate your "True Weight" on the Dukan website, here. This was uber helpful for me because it gave me affirmation for my goal and it gave me a timeline to work towards.
• Honestly, for me the weight isn't melting off like some testimonials or even as the book said and I still struggle with cravings but I am seeing results and I will stay the course, one day at at a time.

My one month breakdown:
Week 1, pre-menstural: lost 4 pounds
Week 2, menstural: lost 6 pounds
Week 3, post-menstrual: gained back 4 pounds
Week 4: lost 3 pounds
Overall weight lost: 9 pounds and clothing has become more loose.