My Progress So Far – The end of week 33

The past 6 weeks have been rather eventful. They have spanned Thanksgiving and the pre-Christmas/holiday season. Having two kids and so many holiday parties have made  the past few weeks a blur. I know this is not a ‘valid’ reason to neglect my blog. If there are any of you who read this on a somewhat regular basis, and have returned for more, I just wanted to apologize for departing from my usual bi-weekly schedule.

In the past 6 weeks I have lost an additional 11 lbs, which brings my total to 74.6 lbs. I have been at this for 220 days.

My Progress So Far – The end of week 13

Well I must say that I had quite a roller-coaster of a week. Last week I had a such a fervor for running and dieting, so by the end of the week my hard work had paid off. When I weighed myself on Saturday morning I was down 4.2lbs, which made my progress an even 40! I was thrilled! My four protein days in a row had really sped things up, and my birthday did not blow my diet.

I knew that we had another weekend of traveling and bbq’s so I planned my week so that I could eat veggies on the weekend. I was also going to see some old friends that I hadn’t seen since I started my diet so I was pretty excited to see them and see if they noticed the difference in my appearance. Most did, and my college roommate bought me a bottle of really good rum for my birthday. I thought “what the heck, lets celebrate my progess,” so I had few cocktails (diet pepsi & rum), and I got drunk. But I was on top of the world, so I did not pace myself, and I ended up getting to the place where it’s a good idea to tell people what you really think. I ate a few hotdogs and some hamburgers, and overall I had really good time. We decided to spend the night and make a weekend of it. The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing, I felt a little guilty for drinking so I ate pretty lean on Sunday.

Monday morning was time to get back to reality, I stepped on the scale and boom… I had gained 5.6lbs in 48 hours. I was completely deflated. I knew that I had eaten more fat that I was supposed to, and the drinking was not the best choice but 5.6lbs… that’s close to setting me back 2 weeks. Now I am running everyday and eating well, so I am hoping to return to my place of glory asap.

The final progress is I gained 1.4lbs for a total loss of 34.4lbs, boo

Drinking on the Dukan Diet

I know you are not supposed to drink any alcohol on this diet, but I am a man and I had to test my limits… and then test them again. Before going on this diet I was social drinker, I would have a drink or two 3 or 4 times a week. When I read the book and the doctor said absolutely no drinking, I thought this may be somewhat challenging, but it’ll be a nice change. About 3 days into my attack phase I was visiting my brother-in-law and we were relaxing and smoking cigars, he poured himself a nice glass of whisky and I declined. Is there anything more manly than whisky and cigars? Eventually I became green with envy and decided to have a tiny sip just to taste. Seriously, not even a 1/4 of a watered-down shot.

At this point I was feeling pretty good about myself, 3 days had past and I had already lost 8 lbs and I was able to show decent self restraint in the face top-shelf whisky. Well the next morning I woke and weighed myself, I gained 2.4lbs, boo. I weighed myself 5 or six more times, but the number did not change, I was seriously bummed. For the rest of my attack phase the weight came off slowly in comparison to the first days.

After my diet seemed to be derailed, or rather seriously slowed, I decided to avoid any alcohol like the plague. Not drinking at social events makes me feel awkward. Until now I didn’t realize how many events I attend where people just expect you to have a drink. Sometimes I feel as if declining a drink offends my host, other times I feel as if people are wondering why I wouldn’t have drink. But that could also just be my crazy insecurities popping up again. I even went to a wedding of one of my college buddy’s and had to explain over-and-over that I was not a recovering alcoholic, I just wasn’t drinking because I was dieting.

Last week I received a job offer from the company I had just interviewed with. Great news, my wife wanted to celebrate! “Lets go out to dinner”, “c’mon you can have one drink, this is really good news.” So that afternoon we did some research and I decided to try one Diet Coke and clear Bacardi. The next morning I still lost weight. A few days later we went out again and I had a few Diet and Bacardis, and I got drunk, I had no tolerance, and a hangover to boot. I still didn’t gain weight the next day, but I’ll continue avoiding alcohol.