Last one, then I’m deleting this blog!

I have got a new blog, my dearies, if anyone wants to re-follow me. I thought to myself ‘new eating plan, new blog’. Kind of like a fresh start, you know? Plus I know many of my followers on this blog are Dukaners, and I thought it’d be kind of cruel to just change the blogs name and then fill their dash with pictures of fruit and bread and sugar and all things Dukan dieters can’t have just yet. I know I hated it when those kinds of things appeared on my dash!

So here it is, my new blog:

panicatthefitspo

Get it? Sounds like Panic At The Disco! Oh boy, am I clever.

Been great playing with you all! I’m off now to eat bread and mayonnaise. Salad and chicken may also be involved.

Om nom nom nom

Well, my darling Tumblrbots, this blog is coming to an end.

I realise this is incredibly abrupt, but I’ve been doing some hard thinking for a while now and I’ve decided to come off the Dukan diet. And since I won’t be ‘doing it Dukan’, this blog won’t really be relevant anymore!

I’m still going on my weight loss journey, don’t you worry. But I’m ready for a more open and carefree diet. Fruit, nuts and wholemeal carbs, here I come!

I think, for me, the Dukan diet was an AWESOME kick start to my weight loss. That I got such great results in such a short time has definitely spurred me into continuing to lose weight. But I believe that the restricted diet caused me to lash out more often that I would on a less strict diet. That is, I binged more on the Dukan than I did before I went on the diet, back in the dark days of being 100kgs+

The diet wasn’t something I could commit to in the long-run, basically. It was a really successful means to get me motivated to try harder with my weight loss, but it’s not something that I can maintain. Lots of other people have been able to do it, but in the end the diet just wasn’t for me.

I very much like the idea of a diet heavy in protein, but I think the absence of carbs and sugar was the foundation for my binging habits. So I’m going to continue doing a day or two of pure protein a week, while eating a normal, clean, balanced diet all the other days. And now that I’ve discovered the benefits of calorie counting, I can definitely keep track of progress.

(That was another thing, I was consuming way too few calories on the Dukan. I was very close to entering starvation mode, if I wasn’t there already. I just wasn’t eating enough since I never figured out good Dukan snacks, only meals.)

So I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who followed me these last few months. Even bigger thank you to those who gave me advice or asked for my advice. I’m so grateful that you reached out to me. I think it’s one of the beautiful things about the fitblr community, that we all help each other. We’re in this together, after all!

And, of course, goodbye! It’s been great fun, but I’m moving on to a new way of eating.

Lots of love,

Doing-it-Dukan

…you get hormonal late at night and eat 4000 calories of junk food. You then fall into a pit of despair, lying on the floor clutching a teddy bear, wailing along to slow, sad Celine Dion lyrics and wishing fervently that you had a genie lamp nearby.

But then! You re-read the packaging of the chips and chocolate you just ate, and realise you were reading in terms of kilojoules, not calories.

Then you jump up and down in ecstatic joy, change the song to T-Pain, and dance around like a happy fool.

Then it dawns on you that you still ate about 1300 calories of junk food in one sitting.

And you’re back to where you began, on the floor in hysterics.

Yeah…. I like those moments.

God damn it. It’s like a freaking cycle. Every 3 days, I lose control.

I blame pre-menstrual hormones. It’s definitely not my lack of willpower, no. It’s hormones.

Here’s a quick note to say ‘Count Yo Shit!’

What is this ‘shit’, you ask? This shit is calories. This shit is the energy absorbed from food that is used to fuel your body and keep it functioning. Too many is bad, too little is bad. You gotta count them to find the right balance for your beastly body.

What’s the deal with calories?

You see, my young pedawan, our bodies burn a certain amount of calories per day without any help from us. Just the energy it takes to digest food, keep the heart going, breath in, breath out, make poop, etc — it all burns calories. You could lie in bed all day, doing nothing but breathing, and burn calories.

Now, depending on your height, weight, gender and age, the amount of calories you burn without effort can be calculated by finding your BMR - Base Metabolic Rate. There are calculators for this all over the Internet. Go find one. It won’t be an exact number, because the Internet doesn’t know your muscle mass (more muscle = more calories burned per day) or body type, but it will be a good roundabout figure.

Why does counting calories help with weight loss?

Well, grasshopper, from what I can gather from my few Google searches into the topic, if you create a calorie deficit in your diet, then the extra energy burned is taken from fat.

Deficit — it’s a nice word, yes?This means that you consume less calories per day than your body will burn. If you eat as many calories as your BMR needs and then sit on the couch all day, you won’t lose or gain weight. Because you have eaten enough calories to keep your body functioning, but have not burned enough to leave a deficit. For example, my BMR right now is calculated to be around 1600. If I eat 1000 calories a day, and then exercise and burn 300 calories, I am left with a deficit of 900. That’s 900 calories that had to find something other than food as a source of energy to keep me going — hopefully, it found that energy in my fat stores.

You see, I eat 1000/1600 calories in a day. I’ve already got a deficit of 1000 calories therefore that my body will burn from fuel that isn’t food. On top of that, I burned 300 calories from exercise. So I’ve now either got 700/1600 calories, or 1000/1900. Either way, there’s a gap of 900.

Now, this is useful for weight loss because apparently, for every 3500 calories you burn, you lose one pound of weight. You don’t even have to exercise (though it’s recommended for cardiovascular health and overall fitness), just so long as you have a calorie deficit in your daily diet. That’s half a kilogram, just from watching calorie intake! Adding exercise into the mix speeds up the process, no doubt.

What’s wrong with too little or too much?

We need to eat. Our bodies need food. We need the vitamins and the minerals and the actual physical foodstuffs for our digestive system. No matter how exciting a calorie deficit is for weight loss, your body requires that you eat. Itneedssomething to run on. If you don’t eat, then your heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, intestines, pancreas, stomach - EVERYTHING - can’t function properly. This is where health problems occur. Diarrhea, acne, gum disease, dizziness, hair loss, you name it… all because there’s not enough fuel! A calorie deficit is a good thing, so long as you fill you body with clean, healthy calories such as those found in vegetables, nuts, grains, meat and fruit. 

My sister-in-law has a rule when it comes to clean eating: “If it comes from the ground or has a mother, it’s good for your body”. Nothing processed ever came off a bush, or out a cows behind, so try to avoid it. This means things like bread, flour, white sugar, hot dogs, most frozen foods, etc, etc. If you can tell it wasn’t hand-picked or born in a barn, then it’s not full of good, delicious, body-helping energy and vitamins.

Too many calories? Well, there’s something obvious in that. Going over your BMR, even with healthy calories, can result in weight gain. Sometimes this is a good thing, for people trying to gain muscle or bulk up. You need those extra calories to help boost your body into producing good, healthy muscles.

And of course, eating 7000 calories worth of McDonalds, cake or lollies is not at all a good thing. Your body has a harder time breaking down fats and sugars than it does calcium, sodium, fibre, etc. You are literally damaging your body by eating too much of these kinds of foods. It’s okay to indulge every now and again, and your body will forgive you. But not daily. That’s not fun for anyone’s digestive system.

HOPE THIS HAS BEEN HELPFUL.

Anyone know of a decent HR monitor/calorie counter? One that’s not too expensive but still pretty accurate?

Shoe porn, courtesy of Nike.

I’m making an alteration to one of my weight loss rewards. Instead of new hair at 75kg, I’m buying a pair of these running shoes to inspire me to run.

Just do it.

I went to a Body Pump class this morning, and I’m so glad that I could choose my own size weights. If I’d lifted what half the class was lifting, I’d be curled up in a corner of the class room, rocking back and forth, softly singing lullabies to myself as some kind of weird stress management. That said am I looking forward to wild, crazy DOMS tomorrow.

NOT.

Me and my bestie/gym buddy have got a plan worked out now. We do 4 gym classes a week (3 cardio, 1 strength), one day of normal gym (i.e. treadmills and cross-trainers) and have two rest days. These rest days will hopefully include a very chilled walk along the river with our poochies, so it’s not technically a workout but at least we get some exercise in.

‘Come on, slow poke! Let’s go for a walk!’

And I’ve been pure protein for two days now, since I fell completely off the wagon, off the road and then down a proverbial cliff on Sunday. There was some bread, some chicken schnitzel, some Mars Bar cake, and an entire bag of Snickers Pods. To myself.

Yep, the Mars Bar cake really was just as tasty as it looks. And probably had about 4000 calories in it.

Also, I bought a new deodorant. Rexona Sport for women. It sort of smells like a male deodorant, which usually wouldn’t bother me, but I find it a little inappropriate that it’s possible to be turned on by the smell of my own sweat. Delicious, manly-smelling sweat.

And since exams are coming up soon, I’ve got plans to spend my afternoons in the uni library, staring aimlessly at my text books and wishing I could absorb their knowledge simply by looking at them. Maybe I’ll do some study, too.

Anyone want to read and summarise three of these for me?

And who knows what the week will bring? My parents leave for Greece in two days (woo! party at my place!) and I’m looking forward to sharing the house with no one but my beloved cat.

Isn’t he so perfect??

Today was a day for the letter F. Let’s go alphabetically through these.

Family! So I had to celebrate Mother’s Day with my mum a day early, since she’s spending all day tomorrow in the city, and I’m working 8 hours anyway. And since I’m mega poor because of reasons, I decided not to buy her a present and instead take her on a picnic beside the river. My mum LOVES picnics and so do I, so it was a good time. It was really nice, and I think my mum appreciated spending one-on-one time with me more than she did a present. As kids get older, I think all that parents want is time spent together.

However, also on the family topic, my Nana had to be rushed to hospital after searing pain in her right side, near her ribs. We were worried it was her lungs, which she’s had trouble with before. Then we thought it was a gall bladder attack - no small thing since she’s 82. It turns out she has pneumonia, which is just as serious in a woman her age. But she’s doped up the wazzoo, feels no pain, keeps raving about London and the war (WWII), and is doing fine. Thinking of you, Nan!

Fitness! I came back from the gym an hour ago, after doing a Body Step class with my best friend/gym buddy. It wasn’t as intense as I thought it would be, mostly because I couldn’t figure out half the moves to do them properly. But I sweated, and my heart rate went nuts, and I was puffing. So I judge it was an hour well spent. The fact that I could keep up is a huge thing in itself. Last October, I would wistfully watch those classes happen and say, ‘One day, I’ll be fit enough to do that and not feel stupid’. High five to myself for achieving it!

Food! On the picnic with mum I enjoyed a salad roll (wholemeal grain bread, not white!), some grapes, dates, blueberries, mandarin and some banana pikelets I’d made this morning. All in all, epic food day. I haven’t eaten so much fruit in ages, since the Dukan diet says there’s too much sugar in fruit. Even if it is natural sugars, it’s not in-line with the diet’s requirements. I also bought mum and I each a a Ferroro Rocher. In some ways it’s kind of useful that my mum is a diabetic, because dinner/dessert treats are never junk food. She can manage one Ferrero without falling into a sugar coma, so one we had. And it was AWESOME.

And now my parents have made pumpkin and corn soup which smells AMAZING but I won’t have any. On top of that, they’re making some home-made sausage rolls. I’m gonna try my best not to cave, but I can’t promise anything. My dad’s sausage rolls. are. damn. good.

AND! I’ve recently discovered how to make oat bran porridge. This recipe plus one for Dukan bread/toast, I’ll put on my Recipes page soon!

Hope you’re all simply marvelous in whichever corner of the globe you squat.