The time arrives when you look at the scales and you see that you have got to the weight you aimed at when you started losing weight. I remember it well. While I had been very positive all the time I was progressing to that target, actually getting there gave me a sense of achievement that ranks with the other big ones in life; getting a driving licence; graduating; getting my first job, or first promotion. It is a life-changing, empowering achievement. You will feel great and you should enjoy that feeling because you have earned it. It is your hard work, with the support of those around you, which has brought you to this point.
There are two important considerations as you reach this milestone. The first one is to accept the achievement and stop. Many people think, having got this far, that they should build a safety margin or should aim straight away for something else. Do not do this. You set out with a goal in sight. do not start moving the finishing line. The weight you aimed at should have been your "ideal weight", based on your physique and your diet history. If you start aiming at something else now, you will set yourself up for failure. Be proud of what you have done and consolidate that.
The second consideration is to ensure your work is not undone straight away. Many diet programmes leave you at this point with congratulations but without giving you a clear path to follow. The result is that a lot of slimmers put back the weight - and often a bit more - and find they are once more overweight, demoralised and looking for another way to shed the fat.
The Dukan Diet offers a continuing programme to first of all ensure you don't pile it all back on and secondly show you how to carry on with your life and your new weight. Phase three of the diet is the Consolidation Phase. This sets out some more rules enabling you to eat more, eat a more varied diet and get used to this for an extended period before going onto living as a slim person.
The first big change is that instead of alternating between protein and vegetable and protein days, you only have one day a week as a protein only day. The other six are based on the vegetable and protein days. What you can eat is expanded by allowing measured portions of starchy food, fruit, cheese and even some "celebration meals" when pretty much anything goes. Read the book, or check the website for full details of exactly what you can eat. Or send me a comment asking for more information! I'm happy to help if that's what my readers want.
I've been following this phase for the past four months. I still have a month and a half to go. The phase lasts a long time, ten days for every kilo lost (work on five days for every pound if you use the imperial/traditional measures). This sounds like a long time, but the reality is that it is quite easy to follow this phase and it seems like there's a lot to eat after having lived under the discipline of the first two phases.
It takes some bravery to start to eat more. Part of you will be very scared to put your achievements at risk by eating more, especially the foods that you avoided because they are the sources of the calories that put you in the place you were. This phase is not about losing weight, so it is entirely logical that you will eat more to maintain your weight. Up to now you have been eating less than you need so that you consumed your stored fat.
The truth is that the restricted diet you have been following to slim down could only be a temporary phase. Good health relies on a varied and balanced diet, providing nutrition from all food groups. Balance is the key and reestablishing a good balance is what you are setting out to do. The starchy high calorie foods were the source of the fat, this is true: your eating habits and the lack of balance in your diet were the real cause of the problem. Following the rules, eating the expanded range of food in this controlled way will help you to establish the good habits for the rest of your life.
Remember to enjoy your food and really savour it. Remember to stop eating when you have had enough! If you are eating a couple of slices of bread, you will probably want a bit less of the other things you ate. When you have your celebration meals, remember the rule of not taking second helpings. Develop those good habits which you can take forward.
Remember the exercise. Enjoy your daily walk. Don't forget the oat bran. Remember to keep drinking water and that often when you fancy a snack, you are probably thirsty, so have a glass of water and see if you still want to eat something.
I'll tell you some more about this phase and how it unfolds, including some more graphs of my weight record, over the next few days.
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