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The Dukan diet menu is key to fast weight loss. How you create yours, what meals you put together, is down to you. But be warned, poor menu choices can have a detrimental affect on your Dukan diet progress.
It is all too easy to slip into ruts, to overlook things you're doing wrong or missing out on. It is possible to enjoy your time on the weight loss program and to look forward to delicious and exciting meals. But in order to do this you must take charge of your Dukan diet menu. Sloppy planning will have a detrimental effect on the speed of your weight loss. Boring menus lead almost inevitably to slips and binges.
You have been given a list of 100 foods that you can eat and enjoy in almost unlimited quantities. However, how you eat these foods, the recipes you come up with, the taste, the variety and the excitement is all up to you. In this article I will be looking at three mistakes most often made and the simple solution to avoid making them.
1. Not writing things down
I can't remember where I heard the phrase "plans that exist only as post-it notes in our heads" but I remember that the speaker wasn't very keen on them. Most of us muddle through life making plans that we keep filed away somewhere in the back our minds, adding to them from time to time whenever struck by inspiration. The trouble with plans made and maintained like this is that they're are not worth the paper they're written on!
It is all very well walking through the supermarket and mentally adding items we see along the way to a Dukan diet menu created in our heads - as long as we actually put any of these ideas into practice. I've thought of loads of Dukan diet friendly meals ('food experiments' some of them) mentally jotting down the ingredients list and then never actually putting it all together in the kitchen.
The trouble is that it is easy to think and plan out your Dukan diet menu when you're sitting in traffic, on a train, in boring meeting, or waiting outside the school gates while your kids look for missing jackets and sports kits. But it's harder to pop into the shops on the way home and remember all the details of the latest 'Chef's Special' created for your updated Dukan diet menu.
The solution comes in the form of a simple piece of paper (or laptop screen if you prefer). Put aside twenty minutes to plan out a weekly Dukan diet menu or jot down the ingredients and ideas for new and exciting recipes. A small notebook or pocket diary can be useful for recipe ideas. Instead of relying on mental post-it notes, actually write down your ideas when you have them. The next time you are food shopping, you can check your notebook and have a list of ingredients there in front of you.
Writing down the recipes that make up your Dukan diet menu will also help you eliminate the following related problems.
2. Not having enough variety on your Dukan Menu
Once we have found the meals we enjoy eating, are used to cooking and we feel secure in eating (safe in the knowledge that the food is 100% Dukan diet friendly) it is tempting to stick with what we know. This works well for a while but the menu, obviously, becomes very limited and that quickly becomes boring.
One of the problems is that shopping for food that is suitable for people following the weight-loss program can seem like too much hassle when you're tired after a hard day and you just want to go home. In this situation it's tempting just to pick up the stuff you're used to and prepare a meal you've had so often you could put it together in your sleep.
The solution, mentioned above, is having a list of ingredients already written down so you don't have to think about what you need on the spot. The added benefit with writing down your weekly diet menu is that you can plan out your meals. The simple act of writing the same meal over and over again will be enough to spur you on into being a bit more adventurous.
3. Missing out important foods (and drink)
When you are relying on a mental checklist is it easy to forget things here and there. This is especially true when we're trying to remember very unusual or very familiar items. How many times have you gone to a store to pick up one particular item, impulse bought something else, and then left without the things you actually when in there for?
When I go food shopping, I don't have to remember to buy milk. This is because I buy milk every time I go food shopping (my family guzzles the stuff). I'm usually pretty good at getting the normal every day items but as soon as anything unusual goes on the shopping list, if I don't actually physically write it on a list, I'm bound to forget it.
Most people new to the Dukan diet are not used to buying oat bran. It is a new ingredient for most of us when we start the weight loss program and it is easy to overlook. However, if you write down your Dukan diet menu, breakfast, lunch and dinner, in full then you can ensure that your daily oat bran portion is included and not forgotten.
Real-life menus come with a drinks list and your Dukan diet menu should be no different. Drinking water, enough water, each day is vitally important on a high protein weight loss program like the Dukan diet. Some of the toxins left over after your body has digested protein needs to be flushed out of your system. If you drink enough water each day then this will take care of things and you have nothing to worry about. In addition, drinking too little water each day can lead to water retention which will make you look bloated and fat (something none of us want!). A third benefit is that by drinking water throughout the day you will be properly hydrated and so feel fresher and more alert.
By including water on the menu as part of your daily routine you will make sure that you are consuming the correct amount each day and enjoying all the benefits.
