Shaun and I are 10 days in and still going strong on the Dukan diet. When I left you last week, we had made it through the Attack Phase and into the Cruise Phase, which felt like such a relief! In the Cruise Phase, vegetables are added to your meal plans and it makes such a refreshing difference.
Once in the Cruise Phase, we are to alternate days between Pure Protein (PP) and Protein Vegetable (PV). Somehow now going back to those Pure Protein days doesn't seem so terrible and the vegetable days feel like a treat. #whowouldhavethoughtit
One thing that has become apparent and pretty frustrating is that I feel as though I am ALWAYS cooking. There is always something to prep, chop, shop for or clean up. By last night, I have to admit, I was pretty tired of doing it all. After just a week of this, I'm questioning how I'm going to find the time to squeeze all of this in. On Monday afternoon, amongst other prep, I processed two heads of cauliflower and froze them to be used as pizza crust, fried rice or as a taco bowl base throughout the week, thinking that it would make such a difference in prep time on the weeknights. Well, it still required defrosting, heating, draining, mixing, shaping and baking, negating a quick dinner. Instead we sat down to eat at 9:00 last night. It wasn't great. But on the upside, the cauliflower pizza was!
I made two personal pizzas using half a head of finely chopped cauliflower. These came out great! And we were stuffed afterwards. I topped mine with turkey pepperoni, while Shaun added some sautéed mushrooms to his.
Updated to note: I made the crust by following this recipe/tutorial. I used half of a large head of cauliflower for 2 hearty personal pizzas, which fed 2 people generously, and froze the rest in a plastic bag for another night. I made a few adaptations to the crust: I used only fat free mozzarella, I did not use parmesean cheese. I also added oregano and a pinch of garlic powder to the crust. On top, I used plain tomato sauce that I seasoned with oregano and basil (fresh basil would be awesome on this!), fat free shredded mozzarella, and turkey pepperoni. Yum!
It was a great dinner, but was for sure a lot of work.
On the grocery side, I've found that we are certainly spending a significant amount more over the last week+. I hope it's due to ramping up, buying the diet staples and finding our footing, but I'll be interested to track it over the next few weeks.
Also - the dishes. They are never ending honestly. Our dishwasher is full to the brim every night, and there's more piling up.
But...all complaining aside, overall I'm feeling pretty good. My clothes are fitting better than they have in a long time and I've lost 5 pounds in just over a week. I wish I had taken my measurements before I started since I'm pretty positive I'm losing a lot in inches as well. And lastly, I sat and flagged a ton of recipes from the Dukan Diet Cookbook last night and can't wait to dive into some of those in the coming weeks and will be sure to share as I try them out.
Meanwhile, here's some samples of what we've been eating:
Breakfast: mushroom & FF feta frittata, hard boiled eggs, turkey bacon, smoked salmon scrambed eggs, smoked salmon galette
Lunch: turkey burgers, deli turkey slices & FF cheese roll-ups, smoked salmon & FF cream cheese roll-ups, taco bowls over broccoli slaw or as lettuce wraps, grilled chicken breast
Dinner: cauliflower-crusted pizza, steak, chicken, fish, chicken sausages, roasted vegetables on the side
Snacks: FF cottage cheese w/cinnamon & vanilla, sugar-free Jell-O, string cheese, turkey pepperoni, veggies & yogurt dip
So that's my wrap up as we embark on week 2!
Any other Dukan-ers out there? What have you been eating lately?