Monday, August 8, 2011

Dukan Diet: Attack Phase - Day 1

Today was day 1.  I received my instructions from the coaching website in my inbox this morning around 4am.  The email directed me to my 'secret corner' on the Dukan Diet website.  When I arrived I had Motivation, Food, and Exercise instructions for the day.

Motivation: The instructions warned me about becoming tired during the first two days and encouraged me to eat lots of foods and exercise moderately.  It also gave a story about Aborigines in Australia and conforming with the group... this story didn't make much sense to me so I ignored it.  Then it stated too focus on the 'everything allowed' instead of the 'everything disallowed' and congratulated me on starting this journey.

Food: This was my favorite page!  It first reminded me on the importance of drinking 6 to 8 cups of water a day, especially when trying to lose weight... and even more so when using a high protein diet.  Drinking water is important because of the increased uric acid the body absorbs due to the increased levels of protein.  Uric acid can cause kidney stones, so drinking a lot of water to flush the kidneys is essential.  Next, this page gave me at least 12 food options in the categories of "on-the-run," "express," and "classic," for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Each meal links to the online recipe book to help with preparation.  The page also listed healthy snack options at the bottom.  A lot of the recipes really interested me.  It was amazing how you can combine 'healthy' ingredients.. actually almost pure protein ingredients... to make so many things.  There were recipes for vanilla flan, homemade custard, vanilla cookies, ice cream, cheesecake, and baked chocolate pudding!  I attempted to make the custard.  More on that later.
     Today I am supposed to eat pure protein in unlimited quantities from lean meats, non-fat dairy (not cheese.. but cream cheese and yogurt are ok), and seafood.  I am also allowed 1.5Tbspn of Oat Bran.  I need to drink 6 to 8 glasses of water.  Simple enough.

Exercise:  The bare minimum workout was to 'stand-up' during the day for 60 minutes and walk for 15 minutes.  They also instructed to do 15 crunches, 15 squats, and take the stairs whenever possible.

~*~

Today I woke up early and read my instructions.  I was too curious so I ended up reading them at 4:30 in the morning.  I decided on my menu for the day and wrote it down.

  • Breakfast: Coffee with splenda and skim milk, non-fat yogurt, 2 egg whites with chives
  • Lunch: ham and turkey roll-ups - lean ham and turkey with cream cheese and herbs (I used a variety) rolled up like sushi and cut into bite sized pieces, non-fat yogurt, homemade custard
  • Dinner: Baked chicken with mustard and onions, non-fat yogurt, homemade custard. (notes: onions and pickles are allowed as condiments.. but not in a quantity to count as a vegetable)
  • Snacks: ham and turkey roll-ups

Soon after, I returned to bed for another couple hours of sleep.  When I finally got myself out of bed for good, I went to the kitchen and tried my hand at the homemade custard recipe from my secret corner food instructions.  Note: making custard is actually pretty hard... and.. should probably not be attempted half asleep or by someone without many culinary skills such as myself.  After mixing the yolks... boiling the milk.. adding the splenda and vanilla extract... tempering the eggs... and dividing into baby cooking crocks I baked for 25 minutes @ 350degrees.  Something went wrong here.  My baby custards never did set up right... they were liquidy with bits of cooked egg inside instead of a cheesecake consistency.  Despite the texture, they were pretty delicious and fulfilled my need for something sweet after a meal.  Maybe I will attempt them again, but not for a while.  Too much for a beginner, like I said.   While the custard was baking, I used the egg whites that I separated from the yolks for the custard recipe and made a baby omelet.  Egg whites and chives... that's it.  It was actually pretty satisfying.  So was the coffee and the yogurt.  Seemed like a pretty normal meal to me.

I headed to work like normal and lasted through the morning on my breakfast.  I ate the turkey and ham roll ups for lunch along with yogurt and a custard that I brought to work with me.  I saved two of the turkey and ham roll ups for a snack along with half of the custard.

For dinner I had the chicken, onions, mustard, yogurt, and the Dukan Galette.  The Dukan Galette is basically an oat bran pancake made with the allowable amount of oat bran for the day.  I made two... a sweet one and a savory one.  I ate half of each and like them both in different ways.  This really was a little piece of heaven for me.  I savored every bite of that pancake. After I ranted and raved about the taste of it, my husband decided to give them a try.... he didn't think they were anything spectacular.  Maybe it was just me... maybe I am starting to already appreciate food more.

In terms of exercise, I didn't take the stairs in the morning.  I am on floor 5 and was holding a hot wobbly custard in one hand... I felt that was a big enough excuse to take the elevator.  I made up for it by taking the steps down and up from the 3rd floor when I went for a walk outside around the building.  However, I took the elevator down to my car at night.  The steps semi creep me out.  I'm not against steps... just those steps. Well, and really any parking garage steps... those are definitely creepy.  Along with a midday walk outside, I ended up doing a Leslie Sansone Walk at Home video for about 20 minutes and an Upper Body strength training routine from the book Lean, Long, and Strong, which lasted about 15 minutes.

~*~

Results:  I took my measurements and my weight this morning on an empty stomach.  I will update with the changes at the end of the attack phase.

Overall, I think today was a complete success.  I barely felt hungry during the day.  The protein really seemed to fill me up adequately.  However, I did feel dizzy a few times.  I am not sure if that is from my blood sugar stabilizing, not eating carbs, tense muscles in my neck, or a virus I am fighting off.  I will see if that feeling goes away as my body adapts to the new eating habits.  I also felt pretty tired today.  My body just felt a little weak.  Luckily, today was not a running day for me at the gym so I was able to skip it and do a home workout instead.  I am not sure I would be able to get through a tough workout right now.  In the book Dr. Dukan says that all of these feelings are normal during your first couple days on the diet.  I am not concerned by them.  Also, I really felt no intense cravings for other foods today.  I hope this stays constant, but I doubt it.  I looked at the pretzels in the kitchen at work, but not longingly.. just observantly.

I did have a couple of emotional doubts today... such as a 'why are you doing this' thought.  And a 'can you really keep this up' thought.  But, knowing that in 3 more days I will be having vegetables... is pretty exciting.  I think I can make it.

Time for reading and relaxation... then on to day 2!

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