Today completes 15 weeks, yet again I am restarting again in a bid to finally, for the first time in 21 years, make it truly below 14 stone!!! and stay there!
Last week, after noticing that I had trully broken 14 stone, I reflected on my past experiences- my sabotage of my dieting- and subconciously awakened that same pattern. It has since become a self fulfilling prophecy...BUT today marks the end of all that!
Here goes...and so far, so good.
In reality, I think in life each of us goes through phases. Recognition that one one phase has come or is coming to an end requires us to be prepared to let go or to release that which is part of the old. Many a time, though, we hunger or thirst for, or are so comfortable that we do not wish to release or leave, the old. Such clinging on is a reflection of insecurity or perhaps indolence (laziness or what I think of as succumbing to inertia!) and can only lead to stagnation.
Some diet concienciously but cannot let go of the alchohol, that particular food, be it pork, cheese or chocolate, or perhaps that TV program that lulls us to sleep, preventing us from exercising or action towards achieving the goal we dream of.
Well, it is time for me to let go!!! I know that if I just persevere a little, it will become easier...a bit like activation energy in a chemical reaction.
When I started Dukanning, I thought I would just have one activation hump...that which the attack phase gets you over!
Well, I now know that each new day brings a miniscule activation hump...the willingness to stick to the diet, which occassionally can reqire greater energy...the will to remain committed towards the potential greater betterment! Every so often, there may arise the need to recommit, such as I am experiencing and others have experienced on this diet after mor major lapses. With an eye on the final goal or at least a refocussing, it is possible to harness the necessary energy!
Meals:
Breakfast: 125g WW yoghurt with 1.5 tbsp oatbran
snack: none
lunch: 2 chicken thighs, Activia vanilla yoghurt 125g and a can of diet coke.
Snack: 125g WW toffee yoghurt, 1 chicken thigh (skin always removed!)
Dinner: 1 chicken thigh (skin always removed!)
At various time: fresh baked Dukan chocolate cake (using Dukan chocolate muffin recipe but baked in loaf tins) and 375g yoghurt, as necessary until cravings were quelled!
This was not ideal but was certainly better than eating a whole load of chocolate! I will get there in the end!
Water check: 1l water, 1x 330ml diet coke.
Exercise: none
I must say that I do know that exercise is essential and for me it is best done in the evening...then my metabolism is raised while I sleep- but I am under pressure of work so I hope to get there soon!
I will just explain here how I explained ketosis- the mechanism of the Dukan diet (using the benefit of my Lighter Life experience), to a friend some time ago.
Your body gets energy from the starch or sugar or carbohydrates you eat (its 'on the table and easiest to get source of energy'); in the muscles and liver (its 'in the fridge' or more difficult to reach source of energy) and in its fat deposits e.g flabby abdomen, thighs, double chin, and 'love handles/ back rolls' (its 'in the freezer' and therefore hardest to get source of energy because it first has to 'defrost' the fat before it can access the energy)
BUT your body will only 'defrost' those fat stores if it first cannot get ready sugar/ starch from which it can get energy AND if it cannot find the energy in the 'fridge' (your muscles and liver).
When it 'defrosts' the fat sources, it does so through a process called ketogenesis or 'ketone production'. So if your body is using its 'freezer' sources of fat (there for healthy weight loss), your body produces ketones and you are in ketosis.
(This is different from a person who is eating carbohydrates but their body cannot use this because it does not produce the insulin chemical that does that job. Even though they eat carbohydrates, their body goes into ketosis! That is a very serious condition for diabetics because their body will be flooded with ketones and sugar (carbohydrate) and they go into diabetic shock!!)
So as long as a person is not diabetic, they have to deprive their body of carbohydrate to first force it to 'open the fridge' or use the fat in the liver and muscles (a process called glycolysis) then the body is forced to go into its 'freezer' and ketosis starts.
If you eat more than 50g of carbohydrates in a day and you do not exercise, your body has enough carbohydrates and will not go to its freezer. So you may be dieting for nothing if you cheat often BUT if you exercise (e.g. Dr. Dukan's 30 minute walk) then you increase your body's need for energy and it MUST go to the freezer.
However, if you cheat often but exercise often, you go through a cycle where 'keep putting food in the fridge, finish that and then go into the freezer'. So you go into ketosis everyday, but you do not stay there so you lose weight in daily burst rather than one continuous ketosis. In this case, your weightloss stagnates and one delays the Dukan weightloss journey! If you cheat and do not exercise, you may gain weight and set back your journey!
It is better to get on with it and be done sooner rather than later!
Wish me luck and for my part, I realise that I will need to ask for strength and help for it is my duty to preserve and take the best care of this human body that I have been permitted.
It is said that 'health is wealth' and I know this is in more ways than one!
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