The Dukan Diet (14 page)

Up until now you were allowed the lean meats. From now on you can add lamb and roast pork as well as ham, in any quantity, once or twice a week.

• Leg of lamb
  is the leanest part of the animal, but avoid eating the outer slices of the roast. First, the fat surrounding the leg does not come away easily, so the first slices are high in fat and calories. Second, large roasts are usually cooked to a very high surface temperature to ensure that they are properly cooked inside. But this often chars the outside layer, making it potentially carcinogenic. If you like your meat well done, take the second slice.
  
• Cooked ham
  may now be eaten. You are no longer limited solely to rindless extra-lean ham. You may eat all kinds of ham, but be careful to remove all fat. However, avoid cured hams such as prosciutto, which are not allowed yet.
  

These food categories are the platform for your transition diet. Remember that this is not at all a permanent diet or a weight loss diet. This is a healthy, balanced diet whose only role is to help you get through a period when your body, worried about losing its reserves, is doing all it can to restore them.

Five days for every pound lost is about the time you need to reassure your body and for it to come to terms with the new weight you are trying to impose on it. Once you get beyond this transition period, you will be free to eat as you want for 6 days out of 7. This prospect should give you the encouragement and patience you need; you know where you are heading and how long it will take.

But that is not all. To conclude this transition diet, I have two more important things to tell you. I will start with the good news.

During the first half of the Consolidation phase you are allowed 1 celebration meal per week; during the second half you are allowed 2. For example: You have just lost 20 pounds, so your Consolidation phase will last 100 days. The first 50 days, you are allowed 1 serving of starchy foods per day and 1 celebration meal per week. For the remaining 50 days, you can have 2 servings of starchy foods per day and 2 celebration meals per week. I really want to emphasize the word
meal
here because even when I write it out on a prescription, some patients seem to think that it means “all day long.”

What is a celebration meal? A celebration meal can be any one of your three meals in the day, but my advice is to choose dinner.

Celebration means party time! At each celebration meal you can eat whatever kind of food you want and especially whatever you have most missed during the weight loss period. There are nevertheless two important conditions: never have second helpings of the same dish, and when you are allowed 2 celebration meals per week, never eat 2 celebration meals in a row. Everything is allowed, but only one of each: 1 starter, 1 main dish, 1 dessert, and 1 glass of wine—all in a reasonable quantity but only once.

Take care to space out your celebration meals to give your body time to recover in between. If you have a celebration meal for lunch on Tuesday, then do not have one for dinner on the same day. Leave at least one meal in between. You might also want to keep celebration meals for evenings and weekends when you are eating out.

For those of you who miss fried chicken, spareribs, baked ziti, or any other dish, now is your chance. For those of you who have been waiting so long to finish your meal with a real dessert such as a piece of chocolate cake or ice cream, well, now you can. For those of you who like good wine or champagne, you can now enjoy them too.

Now without a second thought, you can accept those dinner invitations you have had to refuse, but only once a week during the first half of your Stabilization phase, then twice a week during the second half.

Many of you who have got this far will have become so used to
eating in a new way that you will hesitate to let go and enjoy a celebration meal.

You should understand, though, that these meals too have been carefully planned. Moreover, these celebration meals are not simply suggestions, they are instructions you must follow to the letter.

The Dukan Diet is a comprehensive program, and you cannot pick and choose from its different component parts without reducing its effectiveness. Maybe you do not fully understand why the freedom of these two meals is so important. Now, then, is the time to talk to you about pleasure, the other aspect of eating.

Nourishing yourself is not just about taking in enough calories to survive; it is also, and even more important, about enjoying eating as part of that process. It is now time to reintroduce this pleasure, this vital reward that was taken away from you during your weight loss period.

Since we are talking about what tastes good, I will use this opportunity to give you an important piece of advice, essential for any permanent stabilization. So do not take it lightly.

When you eat, and particularly if what you are eating is savory and rich,
think about what you are eating
. Concentrate on what is in your mouth and on each and every sensation this food is giving you. Numerous studies carried out by nutritionists have proved the major role that taste sensations play in making us feel full, triggering the feeling of being full and satisfied.

So eat slowly
and
concentrate on what is in your mouth
. Avoid eating while watching television or reading.

Enjoy these wonderful celebration meal moments, without any guilt, and, believe me, they will not cost you a thing.

There are, however, two conditions you must abide by:

Here you are with all of the ingredients that make up the Dukan Diet’s Consolidation phase. You now know what you have to eat and how long this period, easily calculated, will last until your body accepts the new weight imposed on it.

Nevertheless, one key ingredient, vital for the security of this Stabilization phase, is missing. This diet, with the added variety of two celebration meals a week, cannot on its own guarantee perfect weight control during this highly sensitive period. That is why I have included, by way of security, 1 full day per week of the pure protein diet, which you have already tried and tested.

On this day, you eat only pure protein foods. I will just remind you of the main categories: lean meats, all fish and seafood, poultry without the skin, eggs, nonfat dairy products, and 1½ quarts of water. As before, you can eat as much and as often as you want from these protein categories and in any combination and proportions that suit you.

This pure protein day is both the driving force and the insurance policy for your Consolidation phase. It is the price you need to pay during the Stabilization phase to keep things under control.

Again, this price is not negotiable. Carry out this day to the letter or do not do it at all, but you are the one who will lose out.

If possible, always make your pure protein day a set day—Thursday, for example. This weekly rhythm is one of the guarantees of the rule’s effectiveness. If Thursdays are not possible for you because of your job or social schedule, make your pure protein day Wednesday or Friday and stick to it.

If for some reason you cannot keep to your pure protein day on your chosen day one week, do it the previous day or the next day, and the following week go back to your chosen day. But do not slip into the habit of breaking the rhythm this way.

You are not keeping to this rhythm to please me, but to fight against your own tendency to put on the pounds easily. You are the one who will benefit from following this rule, so remember that.

If you are on holiday or traveling, keep it up. You should be able to find plain nonfat yogurt, eggs, and some kind of lean meat (grilled, broiled, or roasted) almost everywhere.

During the Consolidation phase, you must keep eating 2 tablespoons of oat bran per day. These 2 tablespoons are in addition to the 2 slices of 100 percent whole grain bread. If you have become used to having an oat galette for breakfast, keep the bread to have in the evening with your cheese.

During the Consolidation phase, you can lower your walking time from the 30 minutes of the Cruise phase to 25 minutes a day. Obviously, this is the minimum compulsory duration, but if you enjoy it and have the time, then walk for longer. Walking is one of the best activities you can do, for the number of calories it burns up—as you are likely to keep on doing it in the long term—and also for your well-being. It is also the one that results in the greatest secretion of serotonin and endorphins, chemicals found in the brain that contribute to feelings of well-being.

If you are dealing with stress or frustration, if you are suffering from depression or nervous exhaustion, if you have been hurt, if you feel abandoned or lonely, go for a walk. I promise you that you will come back feeling better than when you set out.

I have kept until the end four pieces of advice to warn you of the dangers of neglecting this most important stage in the Dukan Diet.

During this third phase of the Dukan Diet, you will not have the encouragement and excitement of watching your weight go down on the scales. You might therefore start wondering why you have to follow this transition diet in which you are not yet really free but are not losing weight either. You could be tempted to relax your self-control or simply go beyond recommended limits.

Do not do this
. If you neglect this consolidation phase, there is one thing you can be absolutely sure of: all those pounds you lost with such effort will most definitely return and return quickly. And if you do not put on a few extra too, you will be getting off lightly.

Putting Weight Back On Leads to a Progressive Resistance to Dieting
Besides the feeling of frustration and defeat produced by putting weight back on, there is another more serious danger with far-reaching consequences for those who follow diets without consolidating them: resistance to dieting altogether.

Anyone who loses and regains weight several times becomes immune to dieting. What I mean by this is that after each defeat, it becomes increasingly difficult to lose weight again. The body has a sort of memory of the diets it has been through and finds better ways of resisting new attempts to lose weight; each defeat opens the door to another one.

Your Body Retains a Biological Memory of Weight Extremes
Moreover, every time you put on weight and reach a new record number on your scales, the way your physiology adjusts means that your body will then always try to reach this maximum weight again.

Losing Weight Is the Same As Feeding Yourself with Fat and Cholesterol
Finally and probably the most serious consequence of going back and forth from putting on weight to dieting—a consequence of which you are probably not aware—is that with each weight loss, your body makes you consume your fat reserves, so when you lose 20 pounds, it is almost as if you had eaten that amount of fat or butter.

Throughout any weight loss period, a large quantity of cholesterol and triglycerides circulates in your blood. Each time your heart contracts, this blood, rich in toxic fats, inundates the arteries and coats their inner walls.

The risks posed by these circulating fats are largely compensated for by the benefits of weight loss to your physical and psychological well-being. But be careful not to try and lose weight too often. People who try to lose weight without success once or twice a year are constantly exposing themselves to high levels of cholesterol. I am not telling you this to frighten you, but rather to warn you about a very real danger, one of which both doctors and their patients are little aware.