Day 25 - Friday

Lost - JOHN: 0.2Kg   SAWA: 0.3Kg
The menu
BREAKFAST: No breakfast today (John & Sawa).
LUNCH: McDonalds- McRib and QuarterPounder (John) Fish sandwich and QuarterPounder (Sawa) and chicken nuggets (shared).
DINNER: Bran with milk (John), Dry bran (Sawa).
OTHER: No snacks today.

Exercise

Walked around town for about an hour (John and Sawa).

Notes
Today was a "forget the diet day".  The McRib came to McDonalds. And like Homer Simpson, I couldn't pass it up.  So we went there for a kind of late lunch. Then we went for a long walk around town. I also noticed that I think my actual stomach has shrunk, because about halfway through the meal, I was already feeling a bit full.  One great side-effect of this diet. My appetite has gone down a bit. 

Day 24

Lost - JOHN: 0.2Kg   SAWA: 0.4Kg
The menu
BREAKFAST: Tofu burgers (John), Bran muffins(Sawa).
LUNCH: Chicken and veggie stirfry (John & Sawa).
DINNER: Bran with milk (John), Kanten Jelly (Sawa).
OTHER: Fish sausage, kamaboko

Exercise

Walked home from work (John), 30 minutes walk (Sawa).
Notes
What a day yesterday.  At my job a student brought us a big box of donuts and sausage rolls.  Another student brought some high quality chocolates. I had one of the chocolates, which was 77% cacao, so maybe that's ok.  Heh heh. But, overall I think the willpower held out pretty well. 

What's a "Hanshin yoku"?

So recently, my wife heard that doing "Hanshin yoku" is good for a diet. What is that, you might be asking yourself?
Turns out it's just a bath that's not completely full. All you have to do is fill the bath so the water comes to about your belly button. The temperature should be between 38 and 40 degrees Celsius (100 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit).  You should try to stay in it for about 30 minutes. Just make sure you keep the top half of your body out of the water. This way you'll sweat a lot.
It's basically like a home sauna. I don't know if it really helps, but the days we do it, I usually see some kind of weight loss the next day. So why not give it a try. Get a good book, jump in the bath and relax for half an hour.

Day 23

Lost - JOHN: 0.2Kg   SAWA: 0.1Kg
The menu
BREAKFAST: Tofu burgers (John), Bran muffins.(Sawa).
LUNCH: Chicken breasts (John), Tofu burgers(Sawa)..
DINNER: Bran with lowfat milk (John), Kanten (Sawa).
OTHER: Fish sausages.

Exercise

Walked home 30 minutes from work (John), walked 40 minutes (Sawa). We both took a bath.
Notes
Still losing weight.  Not much happening this day.  A usual all-meat day for me.  Sawa's still eating tofu burgers for lunch and Kanten almost everyday.  Tomorrow is a veggie day.  Big 'ol stirfry. 

Day 22

Lost - JOHN: 0.6Kg   SAWA: 0.3Kg
The menu

BREAKFAST: Vegetable omelet and cucumber salad (John), Bran muffins(Sawa).
LUNCH: Chicken stir-fry (John), tofu burgers and some okara(Sawa)..
DINNER: Yogurt with bran (John), Cream puff (Sawa).
OTHER: Crab sticks and fish sausages.

Exercise

Walked 30 minutes in the morning together.
Notes
Still going down.  Great great great.  Today was a veggie day for me, so I tried to eat a lot, like the cucumber salad, and the omelet had a bunch of veggies in it. Sawa had her usual, except this evening she at a cream puff.  Can't be helped. Her customer offered it to her.  You have to keep the customer happy.
Late night tonight, so I didn't have the half-bath.

Day 21 - Week 3 Review

WEEKLY SUMMARY
Weight Lost - John: 0.6kg (1.32lbs) Sawa: 0.4kg (0.88lbs)

This was a real yo-yo of a week for me. I went up and down and up and down, and finally only ended up losing about .6 kilos, which all came off on the last day. I don't know what it was, if my body was finally getting adjusted to the protein only diet, but seems it's still working. I'll take -.6Kg any day over +.6kg.  Sawa did great as well. She almost dropped a pound this week. Again, I'm really impressed with this diet. 


Today's breakdown:
Lost - JOHN: 0.6Kg   SAWA: 0.6Kg
The menu
BREAKFAST: Tofu Burgers (John), Bran Muffins(Sawa).
LUNCH: Crab salad (John), Tofu burgers(Sawa)..
DINNER: Yogurt and bran (John), Kanten(Sawa).
OTHER: Crab sticks and fish sausages.

Exercise

Walked together for 40 minutes around town. Walked home from work about 30 minutes (John).
Notes
Wow, week three finished.

What are these foods we're eating? Part 2

So again, reading through my posts I noticed we're eating quite a bit of food that isn't so common in the states. So it's time for another post to talk about some of the foods we're eating.

Nori
Nori is dried sheets of seaweed. It's the same stuff that's on your sushi. It's really nice if you eat it fresh, since it's very crispy. I don't know how good it might be for the diet, but Korean Nori is really tasty, since it's got salt and sesame oil on it, and baked a bit. You can eat it as a snack. I'll have to check on those nutritional facts though.

Mentaiko
Mentaiko is the roe of cod, which is covered in red chili paste. It's not really that spicy, but it has a nice taste and a little kick. It is a little bitter though, and depending on whether or not you like fish roe, this can either be really great to eat, or it might ruin your dinner. (Cod roe without chili is called Tarako).

Hanpen
Hanpen is a kind of steamed fish cake, much like kamaboko.  But it's very light and fluffy. If you bake it, it kind of swells up like dough. It's a bit spongy and very soft with a light taste.

Daikon
Daikon is a large white radish popular in Japan. It can be eaten raw and is often shredded (called Daikon Oroshi) and used as a topping for foods like fish or noodles, or sliced for salads. Or it can be boiled until it's tender. Both ways are very good. Try to get as fresh daikon as possible, because it can be a bit spicy (like horseradish) if it's not picked at the right time.

Low Sodium Soy Sauce / Low Sodium Salt
Not much explanation here. It's just that Sawa loves soy sauce, so making her live without it wasn't much of an option. Luckily, there is low sodium soy sauce. Same with salt. Why get regular salt when you can use low sodium salt. Brilliant.  Of course they both still have quite a bit of sodium in them, so use them sparingly.

Day 20

Lost - JOHN: +0.4Kg   SAWA: +0.1Kg
The menu
BREAKFAST: Omelet (John), Bran muffins (Sawa).
LUNCH: Chicken stir fry (John), Tofu burger(Sawa).
DINNER: Yogurt and bran (John), kanten (Sawa).
OTHER: Fish sausages, crab stick.

Exercise

30 minutes walking home from work (John).
Notes
Back up 0.4. What's going on? I think I ate too big of a dinner last night. I'm going to try to cut down the dinner for a while. I finish too late on work nights to eat a big dinner by the time I get home. I'll save dinner for days off and eat yogurt for days I work. Well, for a while anyway.

Day 19

Lost - JOHN: 0.4Kg   SAWA: +0.2Kg
The menu
BREAKFAST: Tofu noodles (John), Bran Muffins(Sawa).
LUNCH: Chicken marsala (John), Tofu noodle(Sawa).
DINNER: Sashimi and tofu burger (John and Sawa).
OTHER: Crab stick.

Exercise

Walked about 30 minutes home from work (John), walked 45 minutes (Sawa).
Notes
I've been down to this weight three times now and seem to be having trouble breaking this barrier. What to do? I guess I'll just have to go for a really long walk tomorrow.

Day 18 - Friday

Lost - JOHN: +0.4Kg   SAWA: 0.4Kg
The menu
BREAKFAST: Boiled egg (John), bran muffin(Sawa).
LUNCH: Hamburger (at barbecue) (John), no lunch (Sawa).
DINNER: Grilled beef, salad, mamakari(like pickled herring) (John and Sawa).
OTHER: Two potato chips.

Exercise

Walking for half an hour in the morning.
Notes
We had the barbecue today.  There was a lot of food, mostly hot dogs and hamburgers. I ate a hamburger (no buns, just white bread). So I ate two slices of white bread. And I ate two potato chips. So I don't think that's too bad for a barbecue. That evening I think we ended up eating more with the grilled slices of beef. Let's see the effects of that hamburger tomorrow.

Day 17

Lost - JOHN: 1.0Kg   SAWA: +0.2Kg

The menu

BREAKFAST: Tuna and boiled egg salad in nori (John), bran muffins(Sawa).

LUNCH: Tofu burgers (John), boiled egg, crab stick and tuna(Sawa).

DINNER: Tofu and mentaiko (John), kanten (Sawa).

OTHER: We had a cocktail to ease our frustrated minds (frustrated from work).

Exercise

Sawa rode her bike for 45 minutes. John was lazy.

Notes

Phew. Down 1.0Kg. I guess that the body really keeps that salt in it. I was worried I was going to be stuck on a 104Kg plateau for a while. Hopefully this is the continuation of my way down. I think this will be the last day of the attack phase I do. I've kept making excuses to stay on it (gained the day before, want to push a bit more, etc), but I really think it's time for some veg. It will make it much easier to cook too. I love stirfry and and dying for a chicken and veg stirfry. Or vegetable soup. Time to mix it up.
Tomorrow is a barbecue (last of the summer for my coworkers and all), so hopefully we have some meat and I can also eat a big breakfast so I'm not so hungry. I really want to see the 102's soon.

Day 16

Lost - JOHN: +0.6Kg   SAWA: 0.6Kg
The menu

BREAKFAST: Yogurt with bran (John), bran cookies(Sawa).
LUNCH: Chicken breasts (John), tuna with nori, shredded daikon and green onion and hanpen with mentaiko (Sawa).
DINNER: Tofu with mentaiko (John) tofu burgers (Sawa).
OTHER: Fish sausages and kanten jelly.

Exercise

We got up early, around 5:30, dressed and went for a walk. A typhoon was passing through Tokyo that day and we got a taste of it. So after about two minutes, we turned and went back home. We did a few little exercises inside (my legs are actually pretty sore from the squats).
Notes
Wow. Sawa lost 0.6Kg and I gained 0.6Kg. Is this some kind of mental transference? Just kidding. But it is weird how our bodies work. Must be residual from the Chinese restaurant the other night? Wow. I thought yesterday was my weight gain from that. I'll just have to be careful tomorrow.

The Magical Oat Bran

Dukan constantly touts the benefits of eating oat bran, and doesn't just recommend it, but requires it as part of his diet.

What's oat bran? It's the outer shell of the oat that gets removed during processing.

 

One of the benefits of eating oat bran is that it reduces cholesterol. It also helps digestion. What's more, it's one of the main sources of fiber during the attack and cruise phases of the diet.

Dukan requires you to take increasing amounts as the diet progresses.

Attack Phase - 1.5Tbs

Cruise Phase - 2Tbs

Consolidation Phase (and onward) - 3Tbs

I find it really fills you up and allows you a chance to eat something a bit like carbs. The easiest way to eat it is to put it in yogurt, but I've also made pancakes with it (using fat-free yogurt and eggs) as well as actually baking muffins with it (same as the pancakes, but add baking powder and spices, etc. It turns out quite well and goes pretty well with meat, etc.

We found ours quite cheap here in Japan, so I'm assuming in places like the US and UK, you can find it even easier. Whether or not you do the Dukan diet, it wouldn't be a bad idea to add a bit of oat bran to your diet.

Day 15

*I'm going to try doing daily posts for a while, and maybe consolidate them together at the end of the week.*


Lost - JOHN: +0.4Kg   SAWA: +0.7Kg
The menu

BREAKFAST: Tofu burger (John), bran cookies(Sawa).
LUNCH: Chicken breasts (John), Tofu burger with shredded cabbage (Sawa).
DINNER: Grilled fish and scallops (John and Sawa).
OTHER: Fish sausages and kanten jelly.

Exercise

Laziness overtook us, and we ended up sleeping a bit late. Sawa rode her bike for work, but I was pretty lazy.
Notes
The dinner had less of an affect than I thought it would. Only a gain of a few hundred grams for the both of us. At least neither of us gained over a kilo. So I'm not disappointed.

Week 2 - Wondering How Long this Pace Lasts

Second week of the diet. Sawa is doing her cruise phase. I'm going to stay on the Attack phase until a little longer. (Sorry. Got a bit behind on the posts).

WEEKLY SUMMARY
Weight Lost - John: 1.4kg (3.08lbs) Sawa: 0.9kg (1.98lbs)

How to Survive Failed Experiments

The other day I tried to make lunch with some tuna trimmings I bought for about $2.00. It was just too good to pass up. And let me tell you... it turned out awful. We ended up tossing it all and just having some leftovers we had in the fridge.

I recommend that if you want to experiment, make sure you have snacks and other options ready to go, because if your experiment fails miserably (like mine did), it's nice to be able to just nuke something in the microwave.  I really didn't feel like cooking after my mishap, and we were starving. So it was a lifesaver that we already had things to fall back on.  Otherwise we would have probably just ended up eating fried eggs or something.

So experiment away! There are tons of recipes out there on the net, as well as hiding in your head.  But just make sure you have the old standbys to fall back on in a pinch.  Good luck.

What are these snacks we're eating?

I've mentioned that we're eating kanten, crab sticks and things like that.
Just in case someone doesn't know what they are, I decided to write a post about them.

Kanten
Kanten is known as agar in English. It's a kind of jelly made from algae. Sounds gross, but it tastes pretty good. We usually buy it in the convenience store in a little pack like this.

You can get different flavors. It's really just like Jello, but a bit firmer.


Crab Sticks
Crab sticks are popular anywhere.  A lot of people know them as "krab" or "imitation crab" on the label of stuff.  It's made from some kind of white fish (Dukan actually explains this one in his book).  I really like the taste of them, and they come in little plastic tubes, so you can just squeeze them into your mouth (if you are so inclined). You can also kind of squash them with a knife to separate the fibers for salads and other dishes.

Sasakama
Another kind of fish cake (or kamaboko). This one is made from white fish as well, but it's steamed, and then roasted. They have a chewy texture and are quite good cold as a snack.  I love these.

Kamaboko
Kamaboko is basically the most popular kind of steamed fish cakes in Japan. They are usually colored pink and white, and used for celebrations like New Years. They come as a kind of loaf on a block of wood, and you can cut it into however thick slices you like. Rubbery, but pretty tasty.

If I can think of anymore snacks from Japan that we're using on the diet, I'll try to add another post.

Week One- Learning as We Go

The first week of the Dukan Diet. I'm going in having read a couple blogs about attempts, as well as the book. So I have some ideas, but really, you never know until you start.

WEEKLY SUMMARY
Weight Lost - John: 4.2kg (9.25lbs)      Sawa: 2.5kg (5.51lbs)
First week done. During this week I made two personal revelations.
The first is that you can go to a restaurant and find something you can eat.  Don't give into temptation and make sure to ask if there are low sodium/sugar free/oil free alternatives.
The second is that during the first (and possibly the second week), you'll run into friends, family, coworkers who will try to persuade you to give up, that the diet is dumb or won't work, or who just plain laugh that you're trying. Don't get too upset with them. If you stick to the diet and are losing weight and not cheating, I think most people will finally "give up" trying to discourage you.  In fact, a lot of people are really supportive. So don't be afraid to tell those around you what you're doing. If anything, it helps make you accountable.  If you're not the only one who knows you're dieting, then you won't be the only one who knows if you quit as well. And that's a strong incentive to keep going!

The Night Before

Tonight I tested out making one of the Dukan galettes. No Quark (whatever that is) or fromage fraise (whatever that is either). I used some of the fat free yogurt, an egg and the bran with a dash of salt. Overall, I think they'll be pretty good. It's a bit eggy though, so if you make it sweet, maybe you should just use the egg white. I'll try that later.  Also, a good non-stick pan is a must.  My pan is a bit old, and my galette came out in a few pieces.

Not made by me, but looks similar.

 Also, I read that a substitute for Quark can be made with yogurt if you drain it overnight. So, in a colander, I put a couple pieces of paper towel, dumped a tub of yogurt into it, and put it all into a bigger bowl to catch the runoff.  In the couple of hours since I did it, a fair amount of water has already come out.  What's going to happen?

For tomorrow's lunch I butterflied some chicken breasts (which luckily are the cheapest cuts of chicken in Japan). I sprinkled with a little salt and pepper, rubbed on some crushed garlic, a pinch of bouquet garnis and sprinkled with lemon juice. It's marinating in the fridge as we speak. We'll have that with a galette for lunch. Breakfast will probably be a salmon omelet with some yogurt.  I think that should hold us to dinner, but my wife asked what about if she wants a snack. So I'll make some tuna salad (using yogurt instead of mayo) and she can munch that.

Dinner is going to be grilled Pacific Sauri, which is a really nice fish. We might have that with a Japanese Omelette. So, we'll see how this all turns out.

A Bit of Setup

I bought the Dukan book, gave it a thorough read over the weekend, and my wife and I decided to give it a try. We set Tuesday as the day to start for some reason. I don't know why, but we did.

My wife is set to do the attack phase for three days, while I do it for six.  The diet sounds really easy, but I definitely don't want to get caught in a corner without the proper food. So today was a bit of shopping.

We live in Japan, so finding some of the ingredients are problematic.  For example, low fat cheese is nowhere to be found. I found some fat free yogurt at least.  I was worried I wouldn't be able to find the oat bran, but we found it in one of the basement supermarkets that are all over Japan in department stores.

The rest was buying some chicken and fish, which was more than easy to find.


*
I'm pretty sure if you've found this site, then you know what the Dukan diet is.  But just in case you don't, here's a quick rundown.
A doctor in France name Pierre Dukan created a diet based on four phases-
The Attack Phase: You do this for 3-10 days, eating pure protein (meat, fish, tofu, eggs).  It's supposed to be a sneak attack to confuse your body's metabolism.
The Cruise Phase: You do this phase until you reach your target weight. From here, you alternate between only protein days, and protein plus vegetable days.
The Consolidation Phase: This phase is supposed to stabilize your body so it doesn't gain all that weight back. For every pound you lost in the first two phases above, you're supposed to do five days of consolidation. So it could be nearly half a year or more, depending on how much you lost. Now you can eat some more carbohydrates, like bread and pasta on certain days, while still doing the "cruise phase" style of diet.
The Stabilization Phase: From here, you're supposed to be able to eat like normal. However, once a week you have a protein only day. This is supposed to help keep you balanced.
The Oat Bran - This is Dukan's secret. You eat from 1.5 to 3Tbs of oatbran a day. It helps digestion as well as fills you up. This is one of the most interesting parts of the diet. I'll explain it more in another post in more detail.

Check out his website if you want to assess your own goal weight.
http://www.dukandiet.com