maybe this one

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I have only dropped seven of the fifteen pounds that raced back onto me during the weeks down with family and friends when my father died. I have not felt like being that strict with myself again, and when you are closer to your ideal weight the pounds are much more reluctant to fall off. So I've mostly just been content with holding it below ten pounds overweight for these months. But I'm thinking that after my root canal next week, I'm going to drop those pounds again. Don't like how much older my face looks when I'm thinner, but I don't want the sleep apnea back either.

I may go for the Dukan Diet this time.

There are four phases to the diet: Attack, Cruise, Consolidation and Stabilization.

Attack allows dieters to eat as much non-fatty, protein-rich foods — meat, fish, eggs, non-fat dairy products and the magic ingredient oat bran — washed down with large amounts of water.

This first stage kick starts the body and produces immediate results — many people can expect to lose as much as 7 pounds in just five days.

10 days later the Cruise stage re-introduces vegetables, but no fruit. Dieters alternate days of pure protein with days of protein combined with vegetables until they gradually reach their 'true weight'. Weight will fall off at a rate of around 2 pounds a week.

When the 'Dukan-prescribed true weight' — different for every person — has been achieved the consolidation phase kicks in.

The dieter can eat unlimited protein and vegetables but other foods including bread, fruit and cheese are introduced as well.

Luckily dieters can reward themselves with two weekly 'celebration' meals and wine AND pudding. Well, it is French isn't it?

When the dieter's ideal weight has stabilized they are free to eat and drink whatever they want without guilt or restriction — except on one chosen day of the week when the dieter reverts back to stage one of the diet for just a day.

This is Stabilization and they must keep this up forever.

But then again I might not bother with it. My own way of doing the high-protein/no-simple-carbs thing works pretty darn well. People always seem to think it's the cheeseburgers that make them fat. I seem to gain the most from fruit! Chemicals are THE most fattening of all, but the carbs seem to have the function of affixing fat cells to your fat cells. That's the way it feels to me... but everything about my body is just darn strange and hardly anyone actually believes how I lose weight, that I can eat what I eat and lose weight.

Anyway, I'm thinking the one day a week of being perfectly strict with yourself might be a good way to keep off the pounds. That's much more doable than having to watch it like a hawk every single day, and every single meal. That just turns into a feeling of spiritual miserliness that puts an extra drag on everything else that is difficult. Life should feel freer than that.

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