Re-do Day.

Today is the day for re-dos.  I'm redoing my pathetic excuse for a diet. I'm redoing my horrible lack of physical exertion. I'm redoing my lack of effort to complete jobs for my photography business. And I might redo my toenail polish this evening to something sparkly, thanks to Karen from Sunshine's Heart blog for posting her fab glittery nail polish.

Diet and Exercise: I'm sure you all read about my whinyness BS about how I ate everything that was within sniffing distance of my snauze and the need to kick my own ass back into gear. Well, I did indeed get a little better last week, but totally blew it last Sat. night at a buddy's birthday party/drunkfest. But that's OK.  Because today's redo day. 

I've decided to start another diet. And do you believe it, I almost didn't tell you all.  It's just that I didn't want to you to think that I'm some 'hopping turbo diet trying bunny' that goes from one diet to the next. Because in my entire life I've only done about 4 diets, and two of them were this year.  So this new diet/eating plan would be my third for the year.  Is that bad? Yes? Fizzlesticks.  But here's my take on it: The first diet this year was the Herbalife shake thing, and I mainly wanted to do that to control some of my cravings and portion sizes. Since I started that right after the whole holiday food extravaganza (aka Christmas) where you eat till you look like Violet Beauregarde after ignoring Wonka and gobbles up some of the three course dinner gum and swells up like a giant blueberry, my portion sizes and the need to stuff my face was out of control.  And it worked great, I lost about 7 lbs with that diet.  Then it was Atkins, and really I only did this to try and get down below 150 for whatever special occasion at the time, and it worked. But I didn't like it so much. Just eating protein wasn't bad, but eating all the bacon and cheese I wanted didn't really seem like a 'healthy' approach.

Sooooooo, now I've decided to try the Dukan Diet.  (Thank you Middleton's for shedding light on this 'new' must do diet. Note sarcasm.) 

I bought the book and everything.

Now, I know what your thinking.....well, your probably thinking two things.....'Another diet, Laura!?' and 'You seriously considering that diet?'

Well, Yes....and....Yes.

I've almost completed the book and so far it's really interesting. Dr. Dukan really gives good tips on how to manage your weight, and produces compelling evidence on how to 'cure' yourself from being overweight.  I don't know if I believe the 'cure' crap, but I do believe someone can change their horrible eating plan into something healthy, and sustain it for life. 

The principles of the diet are high protein, low carb, low fat diet, where during the Attack Phase, first 3 days (this varies per person), you eat strictly fat free yogurt/cottage cheese/pudding plus eggs and all the lean meat that you want. Oh and take 1.5 T of oat bran, either in a little pancake or mixed with yogurt or something.  After that, you begin the Cruise Phase and mix the Pure Protein diet with a Protein/Vegetable diet.  Basically, eating everything stated above, but now you can eat veggies, alternating every other day.  I follow that phase for 48 days or until I reach my goal weight of 138. Next is the Consolidation Phase where you mix in some starch and sugars, like whole wheat grains and fruit, plus two 'celebration meals' a week that can be whatever you want.  This phase is really important because this would be the time when people revert back to their old ways, then end up quiting the diet and gaining all the weight back.  Finally is the Stabilization Phase, where you're allowed to eat anything but one day a week you eat the Pure Protein diet of lean meats and no carbs.

I chose this diet for many reasons, one of them being that yes, you will lose weight quickly, and I'm sorry, but who doesn't want to lose weight quickly? Even though there is a buttload of research saying the turtle wins the race on dieting, but I get soooo discouraged when I don't see the scale moving.  That's what makes me give up more than anything, I think.  I need constant 'rewards' for my hard work. Another reason is that it's going to force me to eat healthier.  No more fatty foods. No more alcohol....wait, what?  Shit.  Yep that's right. I'm going to try....again....to be as sober as possible.  I just need to make a change in that aspect of my life. There's been too many times already this year that I'll say, "its so nice outside, lets drink." Or, "it's my friend's B-Day, let's drink."  I need to learn that not everything is an excuse to 'pop a top'.  And it's not that healthy for me, so I might as well reign it in now. One more reason is that Dr. Dukan 'prescribes' exercise during this diet.  Granted, it's minimal, but whose to say I can't do more?  But I think if I pretend that he's really my Dr. and he's really coaching little ol' me, that I'll actually do it (I love living in fantasy lands where it's all about me.lol.).  Basically it's walking everyday, starting out for 20 minutes, then moving up to an hour.  But I bet I could start running again and all it's going to do is help me.

What I'm hoping to get out of this is learning to enjoy healthier foods so I don't turn to the crap food when I'm feeling awful (I know, I probably ought to deal with that too, I will, I promise).  I also want to control my carb eating, because I still have crazy cravings for tortilla chips that sometimes scares the shit out of me.

The book talks about after all phases are complete you can eat whatever you want and not gain weight (as long as you have one Pure Protein Day a week). I think that's a bunch of hooey.  If I eat whatever I want, I'm going to end up gaining all that flubber back.  Plus, the way I'm eating now is NOT healthy, so why would I want to go back to that?!  So that's the part of the diet that I'm going to modify a little.  I'll probably do the 'celebration meals' a few times a week, but the other times I'm going to stick to a lot of nonfat dairy, lean meats, veggies and fruits, and whole grain carbs.  Exactly what a healthy diet is supposed to be.  I guess this is just a means to an end for me.....to get to my 'real' diet, which is long term healthy eating. So, I guess going on another diet is OK then, right? 

Who the Hell cares. I want to do this! I AM going to do this! I'm going to be great at it! And I'm going to get healthier!

OK, there you have it. Diet #3 for me.  Lets all hope and pray to the weight loss Gods that I don't wuss out on this one.