A good week - minus some cupcakes

On the whole, this week has gone well. I lost 2lbs and mainly stuck to my menu plan, I did heaps of Zumba and I'm definitely noticing that my body is toning up. Even my hubby commented that my arrms felt very toned the other day.

About those cupcakes.... well I was at a babyshower, it would have been rude not to! I seemed to be one of the only people without a baby or a bump - so I didn't want to single myself out any more by refusing a cupcake or two.

Anyways, here is my menu for the week ahead....

Monday (PV) - Thai Chicken Curry
Tuesday (PV) - Pizza Express - Pollo Vedure Salad
Wednesday - (PV) - Steak with mushroom sauce and vegetables
Thursday (PV) - Chicken with tomato salad
Friday (PV) - Bolognaise
Saturday (PP) - BBQ
Sunday (PP) - Ham omlette

Hope everyone has a good week xx

Menu plan Monday

At the start of the diet I always planned a menu for the week ahead and I think this is a big part of the reason for my success. I've got out of the habit of doing this, so I'm going to try and re-introduce it by posting each Monday on my blog. So here's my dinner menu plan for the week:
Monday (PV) - Mexican Chicken salad
Tuesday (PV) - Dinner out @ Pizza Express, Pollo Vedure Salad
Wednesday (PP) - Extra lean beef Meatballs in a creamy dukan sauce (gravy and 0% fat cream cheese)
Thursday (PP) - Chicken wrapped in prosciutto with cottage cheese and gherkins
Friday (PP) - All day breakfast (beef sausages, turkey bacon and scrambled eggs)
Saturday (PP) - Steak and eggs
Sunday (PP) - Garlic Roast chicken

Plus lots of water and my daily quota of oatbran (which I have also gone off track with)! I'm looking forward to a great Zumba workout tonight too. xx

One year on!

So it's been over a year now since I made one of the best decisions ever and started on the Dukan diet. I can't believe that this time last year I was carrying around 4 extra stone.

I have finally managed to implement a non-negotiable 3 days a week (at the very least) exercise plan and that seems to be really helping to keep the weight off. I bought Zumba for the Wii the other day and I am loving it, it's completely hilarious - the cats look at me in a confused manor whilst I jump around like a total loony.  

Despite the strict exercise regime, I'm not being as strict with the diet. It's naughty I know, but after a year sometimes you just need to mix things up a bit to avoid boredom. All I really want to lose is another stone, but I just can't seem to do it - the weight comes off so much slower than it did before, it's so frustrating. This weekend I vow to put together a menu plan for dinners next week and stick to it, I'll post it up here so there's no getting out of it!   

Oh so quiet!

Well where did July go? The time seems to be going by so incredibly quickly, it's scary. I have been bending the dukan rules of late - hello beautiful fresh Strawberries and hot chocolate with marshmallows - oh and did I mention cocktails galore at our annual summer party! All I can say is oops.

However, there is a small matter of my impending holiday to Florida ( 5 weeks to go!), so I need to be disciplined again. I'm not sure why I'm finding it so hard at the moment. Anyway on Monday it's back to the straight and narrow, I'm going to up the exercise as much as I can before I hit South Beach!

Hope all is going well for you guys. xx 

Melt in the middle BBQ burgers - yum!

Here's a Dukan(ish) recipe I made up last night, it was pretty good if I do say so myself, so I thought I would share it with you guys.

Ingredients (Makes 4)
500g extra lean beef mince
1 small onion diced
2x spring onions
1 egg beaten
1 small chilli chopped
4 mini babybel lights
1 tablespoon BBQ sauce (not very dukan sorry)
Salt and pepper


Method

1. Add the mince, egg, onion, spring onion, chilli and BBQ sauce in to a large bowl, season to taste and mix together thoroughly with your hands.
2. Create a round patty about 1cm thick, place the mini babybel light in the middle then make a similar size patty and place it on top. Repeat this to make 4 burgers.
3. Spray a large pan with frylight and fry for 6 minutes on a fairly high heat, alternatively grill for the same amount of time.

4. Enjoy...

This can be eaten on a PP day and on a PV day you could grill some large field mushrooms and use as a bun!

Race for life

On wednesday I donned a pair of flashing bunny ears and joined my mother-in-law and 2000 other women running 5K to raise money for Cancer Research. It's something that I've always wanted to do, not only raising money for such an important cause, but actually running 5K!


Post-race with my Mum-in-Law!


This time last year, it's safe to say that I would not have been able to do it - I couldn't even run for more than 5 minutes without needing to walk, so it felt great collecting my medal at the end of the race!

Now I'm thinking perhaps a 10K next year...

The good, the bad...

Well the good news is that, as promised, I have staved off alcohol so far, I'm getting over my cold and have managed to get out running again (twice this weekend) - the bad news is that I had a chocolate explosion (I think that's the only way I can describe it) Toblerone AND homemade chocolate brownies.

I haven't put any weight on, so I'm not going to beat myself up about it too much. Plus, I have to stop eating all together at the end of the week for a medical check-up, maybe that will help me drop few lbs, every cloud has a silver lining I guess.

I'm considering trying a Zumba class soon, anyone tried it?  xx

Change is good!

They say that change is good, so I thought it was about time to revamp my blog. There's still a few additions to come, but I'm happy so far. I'm stuck indoors with a nasty cold today, so I thought I would make the most of my down time! Let me know what you think.

I'm afraid I must confess I had 2 raspberry martini's last night, however in my defence it was a very sunny Friday evening. Oh dear, I must try harder. I'm going to try not to drink another drop until our summer party in late July. I promise to actively ignore the champagne chilling in our fridge (wedding anniversary present) until I am celebrating reaching my true weight. xx

The final countdown

Ok guys - the countdown has begun! 13 weeks till I have to wear a bikini on Miami beach.
So for the past few months I have been merrily maintaining my weight loss - a few naughty treats here and there, I have succumbed to some bad habits I'm afraid. Emotional eating, it's always been a downfall of mine. Why do I think chocolate will solve my problems? 2011 has been a stressful year so far, work has been tough and health issues have really got on top of me. But I going to try and be positive and stop feeling sorry for myself, because dieting is hard when you don't feel 100%.

So here I go full throttle to lose the last few lbs and you never know, I may just find the courage to post a photo of myself in my bikini on Miami beach.

I'm going to be making a few changes to my blog too soon, so watch this space! xx

Just checking in...

Hello Dukan Dieters! Just a quick update to say that all is going well on the Dukan, still losing weight and I'm now at a healthy BMI - I've lost 4 stone in total.

The weight certainly doesn't come off as quickly as it did before, but despite a carb-filled holiday to France, Easter Eggs and a cake-fest this weekend in aid of the Royal Wedding I'm maintaining my weight loss fairly easily.

Who could resist a croissant or two, with this gorgeous view from the balcony of our cottage in France?!

With one last push to lose another 18lbs before my holiday to Florida (which has been postponed till September) I need to be much stricter and stop allowing myself to succumb to chocolate.

I'm now running 6km a few times a week training for my charity race which is helping to tone up the wobbly bits.

Hope all is going well for you all. xx

A typical day in food.

For Lauren (and anyone else who might be interested in what I've been eating) here is what I eat on a typical week day:

Breakfast: Activia fruit fat free yogurt
Snack: mini babybel light
Lunch: 4 thick shavings of meat (usually turkey or beef)
Snack: Activia fat free vanilla yogurt
Dinner: Turkey meatballs in a creamy sauce made with fat free cream cheese and stock (pp) or chicken wrapped in prosciutto with carrot and swede mash and red cabbage (pv) followed by a chocolate and cherry galette (using activia low fat cherry yogurt and low fat cocoa - yum!)

Drinks: heaps of tea and coffee, plus 1L water and 1/2 cans of Diet Coke
Exercise: 1.5 hrs of walking per day

At the weekend I usually have my galette for breakfast and something different for lunch like a salad if I'm PV or a selection of cured meats and fresh roast chicken if I'm PP. I sometimes cheat a bit at the weekends too with a glass or wine or some chocolate or a tiny bit of dessert if we have a dinner party, but I try to compensate for this by doing more exercise, today I went for a half hour run.

I've just started training for a 5K run to raise money for cancer research in June, so I shall be stepping up the exercise as soon as the weather gets a bit better! xx

Hello world!

I'm back! Firstly apologies for my very long absence from this blog, my husband and I were both every ill with flu for weeks over Christmas and then I suppose I just got out of the habit of blogging.

I haven't fallen off the wagon though, luckily I have been much more successful with the diet than I have been with the blog! So here are my current stats:

Total weight loss so far: 52lbs or 23.6kg
Current weight: 160.5lbs or 72.9kg
Target weight: 136lbs or 61.8kg

The Dukan diet has well and truly changed my life, I feel and look like a different person. Before Dukan I thought that I would just have to accept that I would be overweight and miserable about it for the rest of my life, a very scary prospect. Now I'm going on holiday to Florida at the beginning of April and I'm actually looking forward to shopping for a bikini and some cute little shorts. Bring on consolidation! xx