Guest Post - Siobhan from Faux Leatherette

Hi my name is Siobhan from Faux Leatherette and I am here to tell you how I lost 3 stone in 3 months on the Dukan Diet!

I had never tried a diet before I tried the Dukan. Since about the age of 9, I have always been on the "chubbier" side of life due to lack of exercise and bad eating habits. This meant by the age of 21 I was big! I've never had a problem with being bigger and my health never really suffered probably because I was young. But after realising suddenly I was a size 24 (no really how did that happen!) I decided I needed to look at my diet.

It was around this point my mum then found the Dukan Diet. Being larger herself she wanted to try it, and unlike all her other previous attempts at diets I thought, why not join her. The first thing I did was check out what my "true weight" was online (you can do this here: http://www.dukandiet.co.uk/) and this also tells you how long your attack stage should be! The attack stage is the first stage of the four included in the Dukan Diet.

Attack Stage:
This is a short period of time, I think the maximum is 6 days, where you just eat lean proteins. This means eggs, chicken, fish, ham etc and nothing else. This may seem like an alien concept, but you can eat as much of these proteins as you wish, there are no limits. At first it was hard, but when I saw the weight dropping off, it seemed worth it.

Cruise Stage:
After the few days you spend in Attack, you move onto the cruise stage. Vegetables are introduced to your diet, and a lot more food options are available to you. There are a lot of websites now that have Dukan recipes that can help you if perhaps you are feeling unmotivated or uninspired. In the cruise stage you steadily loose weight, about 2lbs a week for myself. It advises you to also go on walks, and drink plenty of water! I personally added a few little extras that weren't "allowed" on the diet, but for example I had Options hot chocolate some evenings if I wanted the taste of something sweet. Kept in moderation this did not affect my weightloss and also made me feel like I wasn't missing out.

Consolidation Stage:
Now I must be honest, I never really got to this point officially, because when I returned to university I stopped following the diet and therefore stopped losing weight. But because my eating habits changed during the 3 or so months I was on the Dukan, I haven't put weight on either after stopping the Dukan Diet a year ago. So perhaps I did my own version of the consolidation stage! The consolidation stage is followed by the stabilization stage, but I never even got close!

Followed correctly (or even incorrectly!), you can loose an amazing amount of weight in a safe amount of time. My mum who has been more or less following the diet has lost an amazing 6 stone over a year and she looks fabulous. She has more motivation than me though!

I have recently started swimming again, as I really realise the importance of exercise alongside a healthy diet now and I am seriously considering starting the Dukan Diet fresh (hopefully losing another 3 stone!) alongside my swimming. My original goal was to loose 6-7 stone, and to be around a size 14 (I'm tall and broad so nope hope of me ever being a size 8). I am currently around a size 18, sometimes 20, so I have a couple of dress sizes to go.

The Dukan Diet is not for everyone, as vegetarians may find it difficult because it is so centred around lean protein. I would recommend reading the book if you are interested, it can tell you a lot more than me about the ins and outs, I am sure I have forgotten some crucial things! It is available on Amazon for £5.