Dukan Diet Week 15

Week 15 – Cruise Phase

In this report we crunch some numbers related to my progress. I also have several transgressions. Who knew Cracker Barrel had a low carb menu?

Monday, October 24, Day 99

Breakfast – Dukan pancake and turkey sausages, coffee

Lunch – Left-over meatloaf, yogurt

Dinner – Pork chops, yogurt, protein shake

Tuesday, October 25, Day 100

Breakfast – Dukan pancake and turkey sausages, coffee

Lunch – Left over pork chops

Dinner – Roast with a Dukan gravy recipe, yogurt

I’ve been reading a site that is doing something very similar to what I’m doing here. See here. Today I read about his week 22 experience and at that point – on or about day 150 – he reached a total weight loss of 50 pounds. That’s 1 pound lost for every 3 days on the programs, very impressive. Using my numbers from my last reported weigh in on Friday, I’m running better than a pound every 4 days (3.9 days to be precise), so I’m not very far off his pace.

I think the performance gap is 2 fold, his tendency for exercise and mine for cocktails… and I’m mostly serious on that assessment. My dietary transgressions are not measurably worse than his but he does invest significant time in his exercise routine. A worthy cause and the results are obvious.

Yet, an underlying message is very clear. I’m dropping weight on a regular basis and feeling better every day with hardly any exercising. I’m not advocating not exercising, it is something I need to do for my long term health. But what I am saying is that I’m like a science experiment. I’ve gone through streaks of intense exercise including some success with the P90X program. During those times I did not materially alter my diet and while I felt better due to the exercise I was not really losing weight. On this program when I unintentionally reverse the inputs – significant diet changes with little exercise, the weight starts to melt.

Clearly the optimal solution is to engage both – diet and exercise – and again I’ll comment that I intend to exercise more and I’ll mean it as earnestly as ever. I’ll also know that I’m doing well, even if at a slower clip, and that I like where I’m headed.

Wednesday, October 26, Day 101

Breakfast – Dukan Pancake and frittatas, coffee

Lunch – Salmon over a bed of lettuce… chocolate bar

Dinner – Lean pot roast

I stopped by a collegue’s desk for a work related conversation and it turns out she was selling chocolate bars as a fund rasier. I ingored the bars for the duration of our conversation until the very end when she asked if I’d like to support her son’s band trip. Hmm, in hind sight I should have left both the dollar and candy bar but I rather I left the dollar and took the candy bar. It was good and gone scarily fast. For kicks I checked the lable and was quite surprised. The bar had 240 calories and “only” 24 grams of carbs. Wow, that’s a pure chocolate bar (with almonds) and it has fewer calories and carbs than any number of granola bars in my pantry right now. I was surprised to see that. Now granted, the candy probably had lots more fat but my recent experiment proves – to me anyways – that carbs are a greater enemy than fat.

Thursday, October 27, Day 102

Breakfast – Dukan pancake, coffee

Lunch – Chopped salad from PF Changs – flat awful salad, yuck… I did eat the fortune cookie too

Dinner – Fajitas, and refried beans… yep, another violation

I worked late tonight because I’m taking Friday and Monday off work. My wife decided to do take out as a result and she ordered from our favorite local Mexican joint. Great food and the Fajitas we’re pretty low carb. The refried beans with a little melted cheese looked too good to resist and a think they may have been the best refried beans I’ve ever eaten.

Friday, October 28, Day 103

Breakfast – Dukan pancake and fritattas with coffee

Lunch – 2 hamburger patties

Dinner – hamburger steak and green beans

We left Atl this afternoon for a weekend trip to a mountain cabin with friends. On the drive we stopped at a Cracker Barrel – not exactly a place I think of when I think low/no carbs. However, much to my surprise they have a specific low carb menu – not low fat or low calerie (though there are parallels), but specifically low carb. I think my meal had a net 4 carbs which is pretty good for a restaurant meal. I’ll keep this in mind for future meals out.

Late Friday night I had a couple cocktails with Sprite mixers…. and mixed nuts

Saturday, October 29, Day 104

Breakfast – 3 Buscuits and gravy, coffee

Lunch – hamburger patty, yogurt

Dinner – Taco salad – cocktails…

Yep, broke my diet today in a pretty big way. At the cabin one of the ladies woke up extra early and made homemade scratch buscuits. Oh wow, I knew I’d have a transgression at some point this weekend but I thought it would be smores by the campfire or a few extra cocktails. But it turns out I broke ranks at the breakfast table, but who in their right mind can resist fresh hot homemade biscuits with homemade sausage gravy? Not this guy.

I was good for the rest of the day until dinner – except for a lone cocktail. At dinner we had nacho salads and I jut could not resist having chips with mine. Oh well, another transgression. I guess I’ve exhausted the reward dinner I’d earned for hitting the 25lb mark – even though I’ve not yet officially hit it yet.

Sunday, October 30, Day 105

Breakfast – 1 buscuit with gravry…. just helping with the left overs, right!?!

Lunch – Another Cracker Barrel stop and this time I ate from the low carb breakfast menu – 3 eggs with bacon and whole wheat toast, about 8 carbs per the menu – not bad when you consider that the average Americal eats around 300 carbs. The bacon is not technically Dukan approved but it is carb free… its technically more Akins approved than Dukan

Dinner – pot roast and green beans… from a local Atlanta favorite – OK Cafe – great good but probably a higher fat content… also a yogurt

The Dukan Diet: 2 Steps to Lose the Weight, 2 Steps to Keep It Off Forever

Devised by Dr. Pierre Dukan, a French medical doctor who has spent his career helping people to lose weight, the Dukan Diet rejects counting calories and promises permanent weight loss while allowing adherents to eat as much as they like.