Entry 001 Surfer Boy

I travel to work from the countryside (nearest town Duvall) Now this is beyond the eastside of Seattle. This is the Snoqualmie Valley, next stop the foothills of the Cascades. So it is 60 miles round trip, 90 to 120 minutes a day. I have given up listening to news or commercials so the radio is out. I listen to iTunes all the way in and out. Since I am still an information junkie but don't want to hear about elections, killings, the Right, the Left, the wars and especially the tanking economy, I stockpile podcasts and listen to them. They are all eclectic and range from the mundane to the insane.  Recently I fell upon Stuff You Should Know coming from the site How Stuff Work.  Highly entertaining trivia mixed with droll humor. Perfect for driving. The two hosts are Chuck and Josh and they keep me company as I wait for the traffic bottlenecks of my driving routes to pop me back out on to open roads. (I am generally a bovine type that does not pull out of line, u-turn and head off in other directions looking for an escape. I am always sure the end of the jam is moments away.)  I downloaded every show these guys had archived and as I got to feel familiar with each of their styles and voices, I wanted to put those names with some faces.

So, I surfed the net looking for my ride sharing buddies.  The Stuff You Should Know  site is huge and after I met the boys in virtual space I started hopping around. I found this side bar article about this new diet. I NEVER click on weight loss links but this one drew me in.  Let me announce to you here: This is the next South Beach, Atkins, Weight Watcher's, Cabbage Soup (although I always called it the Dolly Parton Diet) and Amputation Diet http://www.faddiet.com/amputationdiet.htm.  I clicked on the link to this new diet and have been going down the rabbit hole ever since. It is called the Dukan Diet (or Rêgime Dukan if you are pretentious or have French extraction. I gots both.)

You can google it now or just wait and I will tell you all about it.
The Dr. is a well known French nutritionist with all the credentials and this rêgime has been around for 10 years  I think his diet is why you don't see people in Paris with surplus baggage.  It just hit the British Isles. In fact, if you order the book, you will find it to be written in British English..you know,
programme, labour, bow down to the queen...that stuff.


Being verbose by nature, it is hard to for me to nail this down succinctly but here goes:
First set a weight loss target.
Phase 1 The Attack Diet
lasts for 3-10 days according to just how much fat you want to dump and how dedicated you are.
Fast and dramatic results. This is where I am now. 7 days, 9 pounds gone.
Limit yourself to these foods:
lean cuts of meat-mostly chicken, turkey, beef and fish and shellfish. Includes salmon. I include pork tenderloin and lean ham. Lamb is out for now. Don't know about game for any of you hunter-road kill gatherers. rabbit is ok. Couple of eggs per day is ok.
Absolute non-fat dairy is ok. Non-fat milk, cottage cheese, non-fat yogurt, all ok. Doc Dukan includes these dairy products because of their taste punch, even though they contain lactose, a sugar.
Drink a liter and a half a day of water, tea, iced or hot. Same with coffee, but I only drink coffee first thing in the morning. Diet sodas are ok, but I find them to increase my desire for sugar. Although an occasional diet Pepsi so cold it has frozen chips in it really gets my attention.
This part I love. Sugarless gum is ok because the Doc says if you have gum in your mouth, you can't be eating anything else. Here is where the Doc really flies the tricolor.. "gum is very good, but I do not chew gum because it is not elegant"  This is pure French, n'est pas?
Lastly there is the introduction of oat bran. One and a half tablespoons a day. This is like oatmeal/grits. he goes into detail about it, but its for roughage. I will tell more about this stuff later.
Spices, salt (Doc says easy go here) herbs, non-sugared mustard, vinegar and dill pickles. The Doc adds a few other things but this list is strict. The Best Part: this is a no counting calories diet. So you can have all the meat you want. This part is crucial for my success. I am a big eater. Reading this part is what hooked me and threw me down this rabbit hole.
Oh yah, the final bit. You Must Commit to a 20 Minute Walk Each Day. Period.
Phase 2 The Cruise Diet
this phase is what you stay on until you reach your desired weight loss.
It is the same as the Attack Phase with the addition of vegetables with the protein some days. There is a lot of blah blah blah about the rhythm. One day with veggies, one day without. Or 5 days with,  5 days without. All kinds of combinations of the above.  I am not there yet, so we all wait and see but I suspect I will be a "one day with, one day without" man. Easy to keep track and adhere to.
Veggies are more the green type along with turnips and cauli. Usual no's include potatoes, corn and avocado. Includes the oat bran, water and exercise.
Phase 3 The Consolidation Diet
this phase lasts 5 days for each pound lost.  I want to lose so much weight that I will be on this part of the diet for 400 days! I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.  Just like the Little Steam Engine.
So you can have all the protein from the Attack Diet, all the vegetables from the Cruise Diet. (Still no corn yet. I live a couple of miles from Kosters' Farm where they grow the best two colored corn around. I can go there, get corn from the field and have it in the steaming pot in 45 minutes. Sigh. Oh well, there is always 2012.)

One serving of fruit a day, except bananas, raisins (who cares) and (drat) cherries.  I am already planning a jailbreak on this item as they are my favorite fruit, they only come once a year and I have 2 cherry trees!
Add two slices of wholemeal bread a day. (have you clued into Dave's Killer Bread yet. It is the best (and most expensive) sliced bread on the market.We are using it in our Box Lunches.  It really is great. Feel like I am eating food when I have a sandwich out of this great product. I'll see you soon Dave!!

A wee bit of cheese each day is added.

Two servings of starch per week. Good news for the potato freaks and the GRITS. (Girls Raised in the South)
Lamb and pork roast are back on the menu. For personal use I  love the organic lamb farmer down the road. I buy a lamb each year and have it butchered. This year I will have to stick with breast and leg.

NOW HEAR THIS: 2 celebration meals a week. This is not an all you can eat. NO bingeing. But you can have an appetizer, an entrée and ...ta daaaa...... dessert!

I know, I know. With all the possibilities, this is what I am already planning on in 2012?   hahahahaha
I love this chocolate. It is German, it is rich and the texture is perfect. Crunch and melty butter cocoa.

And without question, protein only Thursdays.
Plus the water, the oatbran, the exercise....

Phase 4  Permanent Stabilization Diet
so for the rest of my life I will have to say I am on a permanent stabilization diet....until I am spoon fed baby food again. Good times.
ok. Here it is.
Go back to eating what you want 6 days of the week remembering and holding on to the good habits you have learned from the consolidation platform. I guess that is why I will be on that phase (3) for over a year. Get it ingrained. Lets face it. Losing weight is goal driven and easy by comparison to changing life habits. I really feel good about this, but yet I am only taking the baby steps.
Protein Thursdays for ever. Period.
Never take escalators or elevators again.  Now I get the gist of this but this is another amusing Parisian conceit from the good Doc. All the buildings in Paris have a 121 foot cap or about 6 stories (except for the financial core district) So that is well and good for him. But will I trot up the stairs to the 76th floor of the Columbia Tower Club?  Prolly not. But as I said. I get the idea. I could commit to taking the stairs for 6 flights at least.
oh yah, the oatbran and at least some kind of  exercising with velocity every day.

Well, as the pig says:   Th-Th-Th-Th-Th- Thats all folks!

See ya later.