End of a phase in sight

I realised I haven't posted for a while. Sorry to anyone checking my blog regularly!

As you know I'm working my way through the third phase of the Dukan Diet and I'm now a couple of weeks from the end. It's the sort of point when you can start to think that you could just skip to the next phase. After all what difference will it make? 

The difference it will make is that it will show indiscipline. It will demonstrate a lack of control. Sad to say, but anyone who has been seriously overweight for any length of time, got into that position because of indiscipline and no self-control. Losing weight and staying at the correct weight is as much about taking charge and being in control as it is about shedding the pounds. 

I have been on this programme for over seven months. My weight reached my target way back in mid-October, as I've told you all. Since then every day when I look at the scales I have been gratified to see stability. I am in the process of relearning how to eat properly.

It is true that at this stage I may well have learnt all there is to learn and I could move on now and skip the final weeks of this consolidation stage. But what would I be telling myself if I did that? I would be saying that it's OK to cut corners. If I can cut a few corners now, then I can probably do the same later on. Then if that's OK, maybe a few more. That is the beginning of the slide down to where I was before I started.

The truth is this programme is not difficult to follow. It is not too constraining. I'm not hungry and I eat well. We have dinner parties, I enjoy deserts and a few glasses of wine. In fact there is very little that I want to eat that I can't enjoy during the course of a week. 

The key, I believe, is learning to think about food, which helps you to appreciate it better. You learn to appreciate how good the food is and what it does. The point to sticking to a plan is to teach yourself that you can stick to a plan! You are not a quitter and at the same time you can enjoy your life and your food. 

You also learn that if you've eaten enough today, why not save the treat which tempts you to another day? You will appreciate it more tomorrow than if you stuff it on top of everything else you've eaten today. That is the discipline which will keep you slim and enjoying your food.