Down 2lbs Since Yesterday!

Last night I went out to dinner celebrating one of my dearest friends who is moving away. I knew we were going to a restaurant so I planned ahead and looked up the menu online. I picked the one thing off the menu that was even close to Dukan friendly, the cobb salad (without dressing) and ordered it. It was SO DELICIOUS and filling! I didn’t feel left out hanging out with all my friends and I wont remember my good friends going away party as that time I sat at a table drinking diet soda and watching my friends eat yummy BBQ food while my stomach was grumbling and I had a miserable time. So it’s a win win!

Yes, the salad did have cheese, I ate it because there really wasn’t a lot there and it all just looked so good. This morning I weighed myself and I lost 2 full pounds. SCORE!

So no, I didn’t have a supplement day yesterday, but I stayed on track and lost the weight, so I will have a redo of day… what am I on now… day 4? Today. I didn’t cheat because of cravings, I ate a Dukan friendly meal at a BBQ restaurant, had an amazing time and planned ahead for success! I feel really amazing!

I started back on Dukan 130 days ago. In that time I have allowed myself to cheat, I have fallen off the wagon for a few days at a time, but mostly I have stuck with it to the tune of an average 1.57lbs lost per week and 022lbs per day. Total lost in 130 days: 29.0lbs and I am currently at my lowest weight during this time!

Plan ahead for success!!!

-Constance (Dukan Dietress)

How I Get Paid To Shop Online:

Day 5

Chatting with a friend last night about this weeks weight loss was eye opening. How come I know so many wise people? I simply don’t understand it.

I was telling him that I was doing really well, feeling successful and that I didn’t have any cravings. I feel focused and happy.

He texted me back: “Awesome, no need for that to change :P’”

Omg he is totally right.

There is no need for it to change… why does it keep changing? Whenever I restart my dieting and try to regain focus I always do the same thing… I start off saying that I am focused and have no cravings. This lasts anywhere from a few hours to a little over a month (in my most recent experience) and then when I do end up cheating… well why? Because all of a sudden I have cravings and am no longer focused?

Well… he’s right. There is no need for my positive attitude to change! Why in the world would it change?

What circumstances change my drive, the cravings… I generally have the same temptations around me… it’s all about my headspace but I SHOULDN’T allow that to change! I can keep being successful, as long as I don’t change my attitude.

This is another plus of really trying to do this diet thing one day at a time. Just focusing on today. I mean today is day 5 back on and it feels like day one because today is the only day that matters. Sure, I have not cheated since Friday… and that’s awesome. Just gotta keep focused and stay POSITIVE! :) Time goes by, in fact, it FLIES by… before I know it I’ll be a few months back on track, I’ll hit my target weight and have regained that confidence and sexy-body I thought was lost forever. ;)

Otherwise I did SUPER good last night. You have no idea. Usually dinner-time onward is my kryptonite. I eat extra food and a gallette or I full out cheat. I am really bad at this. Generally when I cheat it’s after work.

Well, not only did I stick with a steak (and dats it) but I drank some tea and avoided food for the entire rest of the evening! Even when Prawn hid in the kitchen to eat baegals and whatever other junk he was eating. I could hear him… I could hear the little voice inside me asking to have a baegal… or eating more steak or a gallette or ANYTHING and I shot it down.

It was hard, like brutal. But I totally did it. So far food today has been great as well. I’m on a roll!

Oh, and not weighing myself everyday is KILLING ME. I guess I’m curious and since I know I’m doing EVERYTHING right… I feel like it’s dropping. But I want the proof!

And it’s only Tuesday!!! I still have almost the entire rest of the week to not weigh myself. This is going to be hard!

Have a great day! Make good choices, also, Challenge results are up!

xoxo

Good Day, Refocus & Stupid Cycles

Thankfully one day of good food behaviour cancelled out one night of being bad.

Well almost, a 0.2lbs gain. Nothing to cry home about.

I enjoyed my vegetarian day to be honest. I did end up eating a galette and some plain Greek yogurt late at night, I’ll be honest, but I didn’t go overboard. Just one galette and a few spoonfulls of plain with fat free, sugar free jello in it.

Have you ever done this? I got the idea from a reader who suggested protein powder in plain Greek yogurt and I had gone overboard one day (over a year ago I’m sure) buying jello packets. They were on sale and I figured instead of buying the pre-made cups (you are allowed 5 a day on Dukan… the ff and sugar free kind) that I would just make jello.

Also, I figured at parties, I could make my own jello shots and just not mention they were booze-less. Making me stick out less.

Of course, I only did this once (New Years Eve of last year) and noticed that I have about a bilion jello packets… and no patience to actually make jello.

Two things I have been doing, putting a bit of jello powder in my morning galette (turns the pancake whatever color of jello you pick, so maybe bright yellow or bright red) and gives it a yummy sweet taste without having to add any artificial sweeteners (I’m sure the jello has enough aspartame anyways…)

I have also been adding it to Greek yogurt. Not as tasty a substitute as the galette. Still yummy though.

The reason I have switched my Greek yogurt habits, is because there was a time where I was eating 3 tubs of Greek yogurt a day. Starting with fat free (still has LOADS of sugar) and eventually adding in full fat, still tons of sugar… I would go through these tubs like crazy.

Not good, also not very Dukan. I would then gain weight, which is discouraging… Discouraged me almost always leads to binges.

Not good.

So not only does switching to plain Greek yogurt cut down the sugar of my treat by more than half, but since it’s not too delicious, I don’t crave it like I did it’s fruit-flavoured counterpart, meaning I not only don’t spend 15$ a day in yogurt… but I also don’t overeat it and gain weight the next day. Purrrfect.

Anyways, so that’s that. Going to focus tonight. I am having one of my girlfriends over who has lost focus (she lost 30lbs following Dukan… in less than a month. Amaaazing) anyways, she cheated once, and although she has gotten back on the wagon it has really shook her.

So we will refocus, hangout, catchup and have a good, not cheating night. :)

Some of you know that I work inventory and receiving. Well today I was kindof thrown for a loop since I opened a box and woah! BATHING SUITS…

I live in Canada and winter is juuuuust starting here. A little snow here, frost on windows there… only a few weeks until Christmas…

Bathing suits.

I am not bathing suit ready…

I need to step up my game. It really gave me a heart attack, at 21 I should be spending some time in a bikini this summer… not to mention my bikini competition in 2013… what am I doing? What am I waiting for?

Why couldn’t it click like 2-3 weeks ago when I first decided to restart… and by 2-3 weeks ago I mean 5-6 weeks ago… I need to stick with this new lifestyle change. I am sad because I don’t find myself attractive… binge eat… gain weight… omg I’m not attractive… binge eat… gain weight…

It’s a stupid cycle! Yes, not the only thing that makes me binge, but a major contributor.

Am I the stupid one? I need to focus… again. Well I did yesterday, here’s to day 2! :)

Drink your water today, if nothing else, okay?

xoxo

Self-Sabotage – The Worst!

Good afternoon you guys, how have your diets gone so far this week?

I had a successful Monday but my weight went up on Tuesday morning, boo. Then I had a really really LONG and BORING Tuesday at work. I actually felt my sugar drop after work (I walked home) and all of a sudden I had these really intense cravings.

I didn’t cheat on my way home and had a reasonable supper. I watched TV all night and then when Prawn was about to come home I asked him to stop at a convenience store for chips and chocolate… which he did.

We watched TV and ate and then he snapped out of it and asked if I had just manipulated him into buying junk. I said yep… and then realised it myself and was so disgusted.

We went straight to bed and that was that.

Except for this morning when I was thankful I ‘only gained 4 pounds’ and I have been spending all day feeling swollen and puffy. My belly looks so gross and my boobs look gigantic. Oh, awesome, nice. I can’t fit in any of my clothes and I totally hate myself.

Fack.

Why did I do that?

So today I am going vegetarian! It’s something I have wanted to give a try. Just veggies and protein powder for me today! I’m thinking I might do it once a week and then have once a week pure protein and see where that gets me. Just trying to change things up.

Otherwise if you are following my Challenge you will know that I like giving little statistics every week and to motivate my participants (since I feel like we can ALL use a little motivation lately… is there something in the air?)

This week I’ve decided to include some long-term stats with everyone who sent in their Monday Weight’s original start weight and I got a bit of insight into maybe why I have been struggling lately with my weight.

Yes, life happens, it’s stressful and shitty and I have low self esteem and people suck sometimes and say things that hurt my ego…

Also, to get from my original start weight of almost 270lbs to my goal weight of 130lbs… I would lose a little over 50% of my body weight! That’s quite a bit to handle both physically and mentally. 50% of your body weight… that’s insane.

As of my Monday weight I am 68.10% of the way to my goal though… which is only depressing since I was only this September 83.83% of the way to my goal… I have backtracked a little over 15%. :( -siiiigh-

Anyways, that’s that. Focussing today, seriously I promise I wont do anything to jeopardise todays success. Don’t you do it either! I’m sick of this rut and I know I say it every post, but I am. I am disappointed that I haven’t gotten back on the wagon yet.

Are there any reasons you feel like you sabotage yourself and your weight loss? How do we get out of this negative place and get back on track. I didn’t cheat for the entire 8 months I followed Dukan the first time, surely it can’t be this difficult to stop cheating this time around!!?!?!

xoxo

Under 165lbs!

Finally broke through 165lbs. It was a little bit of a up and down battle for a few days but (for some reason) I dropped 2lbs from yesterday and am now at a comfortable 164.6lbs!

:)

For those of you who don’t remember, my start weight (16 days ago) was 180.2lbs. I have been losing on average 0.9lbs a day.

Last time I was on Dukan (between August and September of this year) I lost at about 0.59lbs a day.

I will say it again… if you want to lose weight you have to EAT. Just make sure you are eating the right things, loads of protein, don’t overindulge in Greek yogurt and you will be fine! LOL.

Last night I went to pub night with my local University’s Celtic Club. Second pub night of the month. I felt a lot of pressure to drink at this one, especially since before I got serious about dieting I had told people I would be drinking at this event.

I stayed strong and drank a LOT of diet coke. Which is fine with me. On special occasions it’s something I allow myself, or if I have particularly strong cravings. Which I did.

I ALMOST ordered nachos… The nachos at the Dub are my absolute favourite… and my friends ordered some, and calamari, and poutine! OMG I COULD HAVE DIED! But I stayed strong. I can hardly believe I didn’t cave. But I didn’t! I am so proud.

The scale rewarded me this morning with a big (much needed) drop! So YESSIR! That sometimes doesn’t happen, right? You do all the right things, that are super difficult to do… and the scale goes up? Well, not this time baby!

Tonight I am working at a haunted house… I expect to be fully hoarse by tomorrow, but haunted house = no chances to cheat so that’s good. Another night taken care of. I can’t wait to see my weigh in tomorrow, I have been especially good today.

The closer I get to this hectic moving-weekend the more stressed I am and the more my cravings seem to consume my every thought…

Wish me willpower during this weekend! It’ll be over in no time, I know. Still.

I hope you are all successful and make good choices while I’m stressing about getting all my furniture and stuff out of Prawn’s parents place. A few of you have asked… and yes, ALL my stuff has indeed been at his parents place for the 2 months I have been living back at my parents.

He has given me a few rounds of clothing, otherwise it’s all still there. Including my kitten Titan, whom I have not seen in… the two months I have been kicked out.

So… needless to say I am so so so excited to get this whole moving thing done and out of the way and to START OVER once again with my life. Just a new chapter. Hydro is set up, borrowing a truck from my uncle… it’s happening. Finally.

xoxo

I Did It!

Success! I just wanted to stop by quickly to let you know that I did NOT cheat at my moms delicious looking and smelling Sunset Gourmet party!

Loads of fun ladies, I had a few friends show up, and I had fun hanging out with my siblings. But I didn’t indulge, even a bite! I walked around the group of ladies telling people what to try and what to eat and asking almost incessantly if they thought it was good or what foods they liked… to feel included I guess? But I didn’t eat!

Actually that’s not true, I had raw veggies. Just munching and socializing. It was a good time.

So that’s another goal completed! Good on me! I”m flying through these short term goals! Excellent. I feel really empowered right now after making that good decision.

You can do it too! Just say no, you will feel so much better after! I feel amazing right now after having made consistently good food choices for an entire week back on Dukan! All smiles, seriously.

xoxo

The Power of a Challenge

First off thank you Pam, I fixed the link on the last post. -.-

CHECK OUT THE CHALLENGE HERE

Secondly, seriously, the power of Constance’s Weight Loss Challenge… it’s already secured that I make good decisions today!

You remember my moms tasting party? Well I was flip flopping in my mind, in whether or not I wanted to cheat and indulge in her product (It’s called Sunset Gourmet… really delicious stuff!) and I was more leaning on the ‘well you only life once, might as well consider it a special occasion and cheat or something’ side, even though I just restarted my weight loss and a cheat meal this early in the game… well knowing myself that’s just asking for trouble.

The closer I got to today, the more I was convinced I would just end up cheating tonight.

Well thanks to the (seriously) overwhelming response I’ve gotten to this whole Challenge thing (7 new participants 10 new participants! 18 participants!!! since yesterday) I would feel DUMB cheating tonight! Just dumb! I actually really want to win at least most weight lost or highest percentage of weight lost… either or both would rock!

So you guys, there is no pressure with this thing… It’s a serious dream of mine to have like a solid hundred contestants trying to beat each other out each week!

Like I said on the Challenge page, I do want to do a 12 week New Years challenge as well as a few more long-term ones once I have more members. Also, if we do end up having many people join, we could do teams, like the Biggest Loser! This could really work as long as we all stay committed and keep losing together!

So (in the words of my favourite ‘Maintainer’) pull up your little girl panties, get started! Why not?

This is your last day to sign up if you want to compete in this weeks Challenge! Remember, weigh ins are on Mondays! Restart or keep pushing your efforts, fill out the form and lose with me! I need more people to beat! Hahaha. ;)

Challenge accepted!

Xoxo

Moving, Routines, Water!

Do you hate moving as much as I do?

I am still living at my parents house, all of my things are still at my old home… other than my clothing which is spread all over my car right now since I don’t want to bombard my parents house with my clothes (or lose any of my favourite pieces… which always seems to happen to me when I move).

My new landlady has been nice enough to let me move in the last weekend of October instead of halfway through the week November 1^st. It feels like it’s a long ways away but I know my move-in date will be here in the blink of an eye.

I feel like I have been moving a lot, and moving always causes me a lot of anxiety.

I moved out of my parents house the summer after highschool when I was 17, to this small basement apartment. I then moved again halfway through the year to a bigger basement apartment.

I then moved back to my parents for a month, and then into an attached house with many many many roommates (it was a 3 bedroom and at one point we had 8 people living there). I lived there for a year before moving into Prawn’s parents house.

I was sure I would live there for years and I wouldn’t have to worry about moving again. But after a little over a year… well you guessed it, MOVING.

Ugh.

I like this apartment, it’s walking distance to my work and walking distance to my gym (in the opposite direction.) Is this the one? It’s a little small. I can see myself moving again in a year, which is kindof frustrating… moving somewhere knowing in a year or so you should be doing the same stupid moving process. Haaaaate it.

I am excited to have a place again. To put all my stuff, to take care of my kitten (my baby, Titan, who I have only seen once since I moved out of Prawn’s parent’s place… only once! I miss her.)

Do you know what I am excited about with this place? I will have my own fridge! This is the first time since I have started Dukan that I will have my own fridge to buy my food, organise it, make meals and not be constricted to a shelf… I can fill the entire fridge without guilt! I can prep my meals and stock the freezer… with my own stuff! I am excited about this, it will make the dieting so much easier.

My own place. Damn! Moving might suck but once everything is organised, I have thrown out old stuff I have forgotten about, my furniture is all placed… it will be really rewarding and a nice new start.

So moving causes anxiety and stress that might knock you off your dieting, your training, and throw out your routines. We ALL know how hard it is to pick back up where you started when your routines are thrown out the window. So what do you do?

Well this time around I am happy with how I handled things. I took a break to reset, to get back to scratch and to improve my overall mental health. Now I am trying to build new habits and routines, drinking my water, eating at scheduled times and making my lunches. I will have to build new habits again once I move but I cannot handle a month long break from training, dieting maybe but not from the gym. I really missed it and I miss my muscles.

It’s weird, when I took my break all my other habits when out the window. I had only planned on eating unhealthily for two weeks. In my mind I thought I would keep my other routines but they really go hand in hand.

I said it before, I stopped drinking my 8-10L of water a day, I stopped going to the gym as well. To be honest I even stopped brushing my teeth twice a day, it was a struggle to remember to get it in once a day! I even skipped one or two days of showering, me, who can’t function without my morning shower! I was sleeping in, I was all over the place!

That’s the power of a good diet, and of following this diet! If you drop it, all other good habits and routines you worked so hard to build, just crumble. Now it’s up to me to pick all of them back up.

So do yourself a favour and keep at it, I spent over a year building all of these routines, picking them up slowly but surely and building myself into this healthy, happy person. I don’t regret taking my break but I can really see the future struggle I will have bringing myself back up to that level.

Wish me luck!

Today’s habit I will be picking up again… my WATER (I just reminded myself, be right back need to drink a bit).

Slowly but surely, I will get back up there. ;)

Go drink some water, right now! Kay? & Make good choices today.

Will you stick with me as I pick up all my good habits? Gotta be strong!

xoxo

PS: I am so behind on reading your blogs… I am sorry! Will get back to this so soon! :)

Birthday Switch and Consistent Results (Finally!)

I weighed myself with high hopes this morning. I thought I would maintain or lose, I was (as usual) praying for a 2lbs loss (I know… gotta aim high though!) but since I had not done my usual 2 hours of weight training I figured if I didn’t lose… not the end of the world.

The scales of consistency, after my namesake… rewarded me for my hard work by keeping my average of 0.78lbs loss a day!

• I’m down to 156.4lbs! (Only 1.4lbs away from my Dukan True Weight, hit Feb 6th 2012)
• I have lost 14.2lbs!
• I have been back on Dukan for 18 days!
• I still have another 26.4lbs – 36.4lbs to lose before November!

I’m pleased with these results and I’m glad my weight loss has not slowed down. Today is my day off from the gym and I am not sure if I even want to weigh myself tomorrow morning since I can’t see a single reason why I would drop more than 0.2lbs and I don’t want to get discouraged with a gain.

YES I managed (even though I was really depressed… more on this later) to do an hour and a half of stairs after work last night! That means I did 3 days in a row of 90 minutes of sweaty, uncomfortable stairs!

I need to thank a few of my good friends for texting me throughout these brutal 90 minutes of cardio… I get so bored but texting people, writing e-mails, these all help pass the time faster and distract me from the sweat running down my back, my arms,  and soaking my hair. Gross.

Now why was I upset when doing my stairs last night? Because my mom changed my birthday. I know, seems weird. But let me get your opinion here:

My birthday is September 1st. I had a really shitty birthday last year. Long-time readers will know it was the absolute worst day following Dukan for me last time around, but although I always blamed it on the fact I didn’t cheat, it was a multitude of factors that were out of my control and the food really played only a small part in why my 20th birthday was so disappointing.

I have been looking forward to my birthday for months. I saw it as a chance to ‘redeem’ my birthday. Have a good birthday. I’m turning 21! A huge milestone! I also missed my family and couldn’t wait to get everyone together. The only problem was that I was stressing about food.

I made the decision a few days ago that I was not going to cheat. For birthdays though (in my family), the birthday girl/boy chooses what the family is eating that day. So I wasn’t sure if I was going to force my family to eat chicken breasts or if I wanted them to eat my favorite meal: pasta dish. The one I fantasized about eating for my birthday for… well months.

& Then there is cake. I wanted to eat cake… I haven’t had birthday cake in over a year and a half, and talked to my mom about making a Dukan-friendly cake (knowing it wouldn’t be the same)… I just didn’t want to feel left out, or ostracized because of my dieting on my birthday (again… and like I feel every single family event).

Well my creative mommy who cares and loves me a lot came up with… let’s just move your birthday this year!

At first I argued with her, I was really sad and upset, but I know the thought is there and it makes sense… the thing is she wants to move it to November 4th, the day after my competition. That’s where I started getting anxiety.

• What if I am not ready to compete November 3rd? What if even by pushing myself as hard as I am right now my body just isn’t up to par and I don’t compete… I will have missed my birthday for nothing.
• I looked into it and it’s 65$ a ticket to attend the show for the day… not only can I not expect anyone I know to spend an entire day at the event (competition is at 10am, big show is at 6pm)… but that’s expensive!!!
• My mom asked me to change my birthday on Facebook and that means only a handful of good friends will remember it’s my birthday and wish me happy birthday on Sept 1st… the rest will have forgotten and/or will not ever acknowledge my 21st birthday at all… and that makes me feel kindof lonely and sad. I look forward to the hundred or more “happy birthday”s on Facebook every year…
• My ‘birthday’ on November 4th will be overshadowed by my competition the day before…
• I can’t expect my family to spend an entire weekend giving me attention (the show/competition and then birthday the next day…) I don’t want to waste an entire weekend of my family’s time.

Anyways, those all seem kindof dumb right now… my mommy wants me to tell people who wish me a happy birthday on the 1st of September that my birthday ‘is November 4th this year’ and to treat Saturday like any other day. She doesn’t want me having a shitty 21st birthday in September and then a belated birthday in November.

She wants me to be able to enjoy my birthday, eat the cake I want to eat, eat my pasta dish I have been looking forward to, drink champagne with her and really celebrate instead of feeling cravings and temptation around my birthday dinner. She doesn’t want any stress and wants me to have the perfect day.

What do you guys think? Is this a good compromise? Moving my birthday by 2 months to make sure I have the ‘perfect day’. I wasn’t sure, but my mom put so much thought into it, thinks it’s best, and I think it would make her happy to think I really enjoyed every aspect of my 21st… so I’m doing it.

How have your days gone so far? Doing well? Pushing towards those results? Making good choices?

xoxo

New Weight Low, Exciting!

Weighed myself this morning after a really good and strict food day yesterday… I am at a new weight low! What!? I never thought I would lose more than my 110 lbs. Just didn’t seem like a reality. Especially since now I am working out and gaining muscle.

I was aware that at 5’6.5″ I would probably need to get down to 137 lbs for my competition, lose another 20 lbs. But I didn’t really think my weight would drop this early, I just kindof figured my body had dropped what it could and that was that.

Well my surprise when I weighed myself this morning! I have to say, I have had a giant smile on all day. I haven’t seen that number go down in… well since February 6^th. I hit consolidation at 154.8 lbs and hadn’t seen my weight go below 155 lbs since.

It fluctuated and went all the way up to 161 lbs, but mostly stayed between 156-160 lbs.

My weigh in this morning: 153.6 lbs! Whaaaaaat?

I’m pretty happy. I must be doing something right to have broken through this plateau, since I have been eating incredibly strictly for weeks now and with all the gym-time I am logging in.

Anyways.

Just wanted to share. I guess that means I’m up to… 111.2 lbs lost. XD Little successes.

xoxo