Tag Archives: The Dukan Diet

Exercise is essential to maintaining goal weight

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Susie Stevens| Leave a comment

One of the big messages in Dr Dukan’s book is: if you don’t want to do regular exercise, don’t bother with my eating program.

At home in Sydney, Bill (my hubby) and I walk heaps and I go to the gym four times a week as well. Combined with the Dukan regimen of eating, we lost the weight we wanted to and have maintained our goal weight now for 12 months.

We have always exercised and somehow gradually put on weight over the years. Eating the Dukan way while doing the same exercise made all the difference. And importantly, how to keep the lost weight off is an issue. I know it’s a problem with most diets because there is no provision to ‘train’ the body to adapt to the new lower weight. That’s why I think the Dukan Diet works – but it is important to follow the program through to the end.

In saying that, we have found ways to modify the Dukan Diet to fit our lifestyle. The main principles we embrace – exercise and one day protein only a week – and it has worked. And we still can have our skinny bitch vodka and sodas after a strenuous day at the office. The office for us at the moment is a ski hill. Writing articles for ski blogs – is that really a job? Yes, it is. And it’s exercise that I can really get used to!

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Posted in Exercise, The Dukan Diet

Tagged Dukan when travelling, The Dukan Diet

Stuffed Mushrooms

Posted on August 20, 2011 by Susie Stevens| Leave a comment

stuffed mushroom filling without the cottage cheese added

Stuffed mushroom filling without the cottange cheese added

This is a fabulous tasting, low fat, low carb dish that can be served as an hors d’oeuvre, as an entree or a light snack when not on strictly protein only days on the Dukan Diet.

Ingredients

30 medium small mushrooms
stalks of mushrooms chopped
4 rashes short-cut, low fat bacon
1 green shallot
2–3 cloves garlic, crushed (dry roasted garlic is great too!)
2 tbls chopped parsley
1/4 cup grated low fat feta
1/4 cup grated parmesan
1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese
rind of one lemon
white pepper

Method

Put stuffed mushrooms on oven tray lined with baking paper in 180 celcius oven

Wash mushrooms, destalk and dry.

Chop stalks (remove fibrous end) finely.

Cut bacon into small pieces and fry in a dry, non-stick saucepan until just cooked.

In a bowl, add all the ingredients expect the mushroom cups. Blend to make a paste.

Put mushroom caps on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Fill the cups with the stuffing. Sprinkle with a little more grated feta or parmesan for effect.

Heat oven to 180 celcius. Place tray near to the top of the oven and cook for about 10 minutes until mushrooms are cooked through.

Cool and serve.

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Posted in Dukan Diet meals

Tagged Entertaining recipes, Low fat recipes, The Cruise phase, The Dukan Diet

May Progress Report on our modified Dukan Diet

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Susie Stevens| Leave a comment

Cracked egg representing cracking 61 kilos on Dukan Diet

Finally cracked the 60 kilo mark: well, reached it!

Hooray, for the first time in God knows how many years, the scales read 60 kilos. Actually, 60.9 but it’s still 60 that I can see.

My partner has hit a low of 91.3 kilos and still wants to lose another 6.

The question I asked at the beginning was ‘can you follow the Dukan Diet and still have a social life, that is drink alcohol, entertain and eat out occasionally?’

The answer is a resounding ‘yes’ but the progress to your true weight and the follow up consolidation and stabilisation phases will take longer too.

We figure, because this is a lifetime eating regimen, that taking a little longer and enjoying treats such as a glass of red wine with dinner, a meal out with friends, is worth it.

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Posted in Progress Reports

Tagged Drinking alcohol, Progress, The Cruise phase, The Dukan Diet

Getting through a celebration weekend

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Susie Stevens| Leave a comment

Salmon fillet with capers and dill if perfect for protein days on the Dukan Diet

Salmon fillet with capers and dill is a perfect dish for protein days on the Dukan Diet (and ymmy too)

The past weekend was Mothers’ Day weekend in Australia – ‘Happy Mothers’ Day to all you mothers’. For my partner and I, it was also a big celebration weekend with neighbours and friends inviting us out.

Friday night we had dinner with a neighbour – pizza, champagne and red wine. Note: this was the first time eating pizza since we started our modified version of the Dukan Diet in January this year – not the first time for champagne or red wine!

Saturday was yum cha with family. Yum cha is a wonderful way to eat with many small servings of lots of different dishes such as prawn dumplings, seafood and spinach dumplings, fried white bait and calamari, dim sum, spring rolls, mango and cream rolls – all taken with Chinese tea. Many of the dishes are high in fat or carbs and as more dishes are presented to the table, the tendency is to accept them and so eat way too much.

Sunday was Mothers’ Day and we did celebrate with a luncheon of the salt and pepper chilli crab that my partner made – a good choice according to The Dukan Diet.

Managing a range of celebration meals such as last weekend can be challenging especially when friends invite you out and you don’t have a lot of say in the style of food or restaurant.

Adapting the Dukan Diet

We did follow one pattern recommended by the good Dr Dukan: no two celebration meals in a row. Friday night we certainly celebrated with the pizza, champagne and red wine. Saturday morning however, we did a traditional galette, poached egg, low-fat bacon, mushrooms and wilted spinach.

We also made another modification to our diet to make sure we didn’t regress weight wise – neither of us is at our goal weight and theoretically shouldn’t be having any celebration meals. The modification? We added an extra ‘protein only’ day on Sunday.* The salt and pepper chilli crab fits with the protein only day even if it is a wonderfully decadent meal.

The results: we haven’t weighed ourselves yet. That will happen Tuesday morning but feeling really good and, from the way clothes fit, maintaining our weight loss. My partner has lost about 30 kilos and I have lost around 10 kilos and have stabilised where we are though we do want to lose 5 and 2 more kilos respectively.

* Because we haven’t reached our true weight yet and given that we have modified the Dukan Diet to suit our social lifestyle (allowing some alcohol and celebration meals before reaching our true weight), we are doing two protein only days a week: Monday and Thursday. This week, we added Sunday because of the increased level of celebration (which I might add was worth it!).

Here’s a tip for protein only days

For protein only days, try to eat a lot of seafood rich in Omega 3 fats which are totally allowed. We’ve found that adding more seafood on the protein only days helps to keep us regular and avoid the constipation that can be a not-so-good side effect of high protein eating.

Want a seafood recipe while on the Dukan Diet? Try the salmon fillet with capers and dill.

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Posted in The Dukan Diet, The Dukan Diet for socially active people

Tagged Drinking alcohol, Eating out, The Dukan Diet

Post-Easter progress

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Susie Stevens| Leave a comment

Easter is a testing time if you are still in fat-reduction mode.

However, my partner, Bill, and I managed to get through the holiday without weight gain. And we went to parties, ate out at restaurants and had the odd glass or two of champagne.

My weight hasn’t fluctuated from 62 kilos (my goal weight is 60 kilos so not far to go). Bill also had no Easter-provoked weight gain. He’s sitting at 91 kilos (goal weight is 85 kilos).

Significantly, new board shorts for Bill in size 36 – he says he can’t remember the last time he could fit size 36.

So, the proof is in. You can lose fat on the Dukan Diet and drink alcohol. The important thing for us is that we have only lost fat from our bodies and retained our muscle tone. The 40-minute walk we do each day helps as does my additional gym classes. At Easter, we did a huge walk along the coast at Port Macquarie on the central coast of New South Wales (in Australia). I’m sure that helped too.

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Posted in Progress Reports, The Dukan Diet

Tagged Drinking alcohol, Exercising, Progress, The Dukan Diet

Why is it important to regain control over our weight?

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Susie Stevens| 1 Comment

Fit or fat?

Bathroom scales are a good guide to obesity as is looking in the mirror

Collectively, industrialized nations have an obesity problem that is getting progressively worse. Around the world, first world countries (OECD member nations) are getting fatter by the minute. A report, ‘Obesity and the Economics of Prevention: Fit not Fat’, released by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development on 23 September 2010 addresses this serious epidemic.

Before 1980, obesity rates were well below 10 per cent of the population in OECD nations. Since that time, obesity rates have doubled and sometimes tripled in some countries according to a report released by the OECD in September 2010. In some countries, 50 per cent of the population is considered obese. Australia is one of these countries.

The OECD report states:
Obesity rates are high in Australia, relative to most OECD countries, and they have been increasing faster than in any other OECD country in the last 20 years. One in two people is overweight in Australia. The proportion of people overweight is projected by the OECD to rise a further 15% during the next 10 years.

… unless we decide to do something about losing the fat

The Assistant Director-General of the World Health Organization, Ala Alwan says that ‘a strategy on diet, physical activity and health provide a road map for effective action’. You don’t say!

But it is difficult to lose those extra kilos that have seemingly (apparently permanently) attached themselves to one’s body. That’s why the Dukan Diet with its four-step approach (and a giant boost at the beginning with the first Attack phase) is something this writer is keen to pursue.

Some stats on losing weight on the Dukan Diet

My goal: to lose about 12 kilograms

Result after initial Attack phase: 2.5 kilos.
Currently in Cruise control phase, now 7 kilograms lighter (and looking a whole lot better)

Five more kilograms to lose before moving to the Consolidation phase and finally the Stabilization phase that will (if I continue to follow the principles) keep me slim for the rest of my life.

Friend’s goal: to lose 30 kilograms

Results after a modified Dukan Diet for three weeks: 10 kilograms lighter.
Now after a boost Attack phase of five days and renewed Cruise phase: 14 kilograms lighter.

Getting results quickly is a big motivation to lose fat

The immediacy of results on the Dukan Diet is a great motivation. However, don’t take my word for it. Buy and read the book, The Dukan Diet. It’s written by Dr Pierre Dukan and is full of medical and dietary information to show that the program is safe and that it gets results.

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Posted in Progress Reports, The Dukan Diet

Tagged Combatting obesity, Fat facts, The Dukan Diet