Dukan & the College Girl

But I totally have an excuse. Well, maybe I’m milking that a little bit. 

I got my wisdom teeth removed two weeks ago so I was pretty much on a smoothie/ice cream diet for a while and then after that it was all rice. I’ve only just recently started being able to really eat all kinds of food, but like my face will still get sore if I am smiling for too long or laughing, etc. Sad, I know. 

Relatively good news is that the max I’ve gained is about 4 lbs. I haven’t really been keeping track. I’m now back on the diet so I’ll start weighing myself again. I was supposed to be like 160 now though, damn teeth! 

Anyway, my roomie works at a fancy lingerie place and I went in yesterday with my mom so that we could get fitted. This place has been around for several decades and they really know what’s up and how to measure you correctly. Turns out I’m a 32E! Craziness! Since that’s pretty hard to find, I can also wear 34DD which is what I ended up buying since the bra I liked which was Betsey Johnson doesn’t go beyond DD. Before I was wearing a 36D which was waaaay too big on me! I know when you hear the cup size E you’re like “damn, those are big boobs” (or maybe not) but just from wearing the right bra now and my boobs being all in the right place, my shirts are fitting much looser! Significantly.

It sounds crazy, I know, but if there’s a lingerie store near you that specializes in doing good fittings, you should really go get fitted even if you don’t have the money to buy new bras. It’s not a bad idea to find out what size you should wear and then go someplace like Nordstrom’s Rack and get a high quality bra for much cheaper. Soma and Victoria’s Secret aren’t good places to get fitted, however. 

My roomie and I had a brilliant thought the other day while contemplating the raw chicken tenders we had in the fridge. The thought was this: Couldn’t we totally make chicken tenders with oat bran? YES, YES, WE CAN. 

This recipe is super simple. Really, really easy. Basically all you need is chicken breasts cut into tenders, or pre-cut tenders, fat-free milk/buttermilk/half-half (basically the richest fat-free dairy you can find), oat bran, and some salt and pepper. 

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Place tin foil down on a cookie sheet. 

While the oven is pre-heating, place the tenders in a large bowl and cover them with your dairy. Give them a little milk-bath for 15-20 minutes while you go do something else. In another smaller bowl, put in roughly a cup of bran. You don’t have to be exact about this, you just need enough the cover all the tenders. Put in a teaspoon of salt and pepper and any other seasonings you might want. 

Now take each saturated tender and dunk it in the breading, covering it completely. Set it down on the cookie sheet. Repeat! 

Stick in the oven for 15-20 minutes (you’ll just have to watch them). They should be done when they’re starting to brown. Mine were perfectly done after about 18 minutes. Eat them with some sugar-free ketchup, mustard, or whatever your fancy might be! 

I thought I’d make a short list of some of the things I’ve discovered on the Dukan diet that make it a little easier. 

1. If you hate the oat bran, or are struggling to find a way to take it, mix it in with yogurt in the morning and a little splenda. 

2. Greek yogurt has much more protein than plain yogurt. Fagé is probably the best Greek yogurt because it’s higher in protein than most others and, personally, I think it tastes better. Nothing grosser than a pastey yogurt D: 

3. Not the biggest cook in the world? Bacon is your friend. Whether it be lean bacon or turkey bacon, it’s really easy to make when you’re just not feeling up to cooking for real. Real bacon is also really delicious if you bake it in the oven which is even less fuss. 

4. Ground beef is also your friend. My go-to meal lately is basically cooking up ground beef and adding whatever vegetables I have in the fridge (I like eggplant and tomatoes) and mixing in cheese with it like mozzarella or gruyere. 

5. Make big batches of whatever you’re making for dinner. The hardest thing for me is frequently being unable to be bothered to make the effort to cook. I love to cook, but Dukan is hard because you pretty much have to cook everything you eat. So, make big batches and put them in the fridge for leftovers. 

6. Soup.

7. Finally, be on the look out for good sugar free treats. I personally cannot STAND aspartame so I’m always very cautious of what I buy when I’m getting sugar free stuff. I’m not the biggest fan of Splenda either when I can’t manage the amount myself. However. Red Diamond makes great Sweet Tea with Splenda. There are sugar free, low fat chocolates out there. Brown sugar Splenda is delicious and great on bacon and in yogurt, but it is a little bit of a cheat. My favorite thing though is Oregon Chai’s sugar-free Chai mix which you can find at Target. So, be on the lookout for good sugar free products! 

When I went to Anthropologie yesterday for some tax-free fun and I purchased both a dress and a shirt in a size 6, I figured it was just because both those things don’t involve my giant hips and Anthro is generally a little more reasonably sized than some places. 

However. Today I went to Gap for some MORE tax-free fun and purchased two pairs of jeans and a skirt in a size 6. 

WHAT IS THE WORLD COMING TO? 

I’ve been a size 8 since I started wearing women’s clothing and that was in middle school. The only times I’ve ever been able to wear a size 6 before was when I bought a pair of loose-fitting boyfriend jeans about 3 years ago and very rarely with a skirt that was free on the hips. 

Madness! The funny thing is that I weigh significantly more than I did when I first started wearing a size 8. In 8th grade I was somewhere between 140-150 lbs, so color me baffled. 

I’m not medical expert so I’m probably wrong, but I have a feeling I’m holding a lot of water weight and need to exercise. 

Do you have an answer?

My dad bought me a whole roasted chicken yesterday and today I tried heating it up. Total failure. Tried heating that thing up for 45 minutes and nothing happened at all. 

I’ve also been pretty unwell today. Been in bed with a dreadful migraine so there was not a lot of will to actually get out of bed and deal with swimmy vision and dizziness. 

Hopefully I will be better tomorrow because I have stuff to do and it’s tax free weekend!

Oh yeah, none of my pants fit anymore. 

and she said she could tell I’ve lost weight! That’s always nice to hear. 

To give a little perspective, when I started the diet I was wearing a 10-12 in pants and now my size 10’s are fitting loosely and my size 8’s are beginning to fit again. I’ve always worn an 8 on my upper body though and still do. In skirts I’ve always worn a 6-8, but since I’ve lost about 5 inches off my waist now, I think I’ll be a straight up 6. Can’t wait till I can wear a 6 in jeans too! Damn these hips. 

I think ideally I’d like to be a size 4. Wikipedia says that a size 8 is a 28-39 inch waist-hip size. This is completely crazy. Sizes are stupid. How can I, with a 29 inch waist and 42 inch hips possibly fit into an 8? My waist sure as hell isn’t 26” and that’s what a size 6 is. 

A couple of years ago, I took a class that covered a lot of the more business sides of fashion like merchandising, sizing, and trend forecasting. What I learned from people who have worked as pattern makers and drapers in the industry is that the size charts you see basically have zero correlation to the actual size of the clothing. Frustrating right? That’s why so many of us can wear up to 4 different sizes depending on the store and even just different garments in the same store! 

So don’t worry too much about what size you wear. Try not to think about it. It’s hard, I know. 

(Source: altering-appearances)