Doing the Dukan Diet in Singapore

I have in all honesty never ever gone on a diet before. Growing up I was a stick thin kid, it wasn't till after Uni that the weight started to pile on...little by little....then marriage and pregnancy happened....and then well I pretty much physically turned into a different person. I don't know how anyone in Singapore can stay so thin, ok perhaps they have an active life etc, which was what I had in oz, but not here, but there's so much good food everywhere you look! It's not food is just found in shopping centre food courts, it is literally within reach here. Sometimes shopping centres have 2 food courts AND  a basement dedicated to the selling of food!

So after my recent trip to US, stepping on the scales when we got back I gasped and literally stared in disbelief and horror. I won't tell you how much I weighed cos it's just far too embarrasing. On the plus side, I am tall for a Chinese girl (I think), I'm 1.7m - but I am sadly overweight. But if I were short, I would look completely pudgy at the weight that I was at.

I desperately wanted to lose weight and was wishing that there was a Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers in Singapore. I wasn't going to fork out thousands of dollars at slimming centres that just leech off your wallet. And by chance I came across an article about the Dukan Diet in some magazine and it mentioned that Kate the royal and her mother had gone on this diet prior to her big shin dig, and JLo was also a big fan of the diet. So off I went and ordered the book.

Now diets really terrify me, just the thought of having to restrict yourself etc...I didn't think I had that kind of will power. But after reading the book, it seemed 'easy' enough and vowed that I'd stick to it. So to make a long story short, I started the diet 16th December and since then I have lost 5.5kgs and about 9-10cm off my waist. The difference is incredible, I feel so great because I know I look better. The diet was definitely hard to begin with, I did pure proteins for 5 days and tried to stick to the book as much as possible. Cheated here and there with tomato sauce etc that you're not supposed to have. And I endured Christmas and Chinese New Year (where I did cheat many times) and have kept the 5.5kgs off. I haven't reached my target weight yet, but to think how far I've come, I'm really proud of myself.

You'd think doing a western diet in Singapore would be difficult, as most of the recipes they offer is western. But surprisingly you can find a lot of the things you need for this diet at the regular supermarket. For example, Oat Bran, No Fat No Sugar added Yogurt and low fat cottage cheese and you can even find 0.01% milk at the bigger supermarkets. Now days they even have Fat Free cream cheese and in some superrmarkets you'll be able to find Non Fat, No sugar added Jell-O....although the price is a little bit more expensive, it's worth it if you're craving sweet stuff. Just too bad in Singapore there aren't much variety on Diet drinks which are permitted on the diet. So you're basically stuck on just drinking Coke Light/Zero or Pepzi Light/Max...which gets boring after a while. Sugar substitutes are also a bit expensive, I found that Equal was the cheapest amongst the brands. Beef is also more expensive here than in the west, but if you go to certain Cold Storages you can find marked down beef cuts which helps on the pocket.

In terms of exercise I don't do much simply because I don't have the time, I only walk my kid to and fro school which amounts to about 40mins a day. Perhaps if I did more exercise I would be able to lose more weight? But anyway, I am happy with the results and have realised it's also about changing habits and the way you normally eat. You do get used to it...but temptations are always there especially if you have a family.

Oh and another thing that I think might make this diet difficult for Singaporeans is you do HAVE to cook on this diet. There is no way around it since it is a High Protein diet which means you have to cook your meats, chicken, seafood etc - unless you survive on sashimi all day long....And when it comes time to Protein and Veg days on the Cruise Phase, you either have to eat a salad which I know is not favourable by a lot of singaporeans simply because they're not used to eating raw veg, or you'll have to go and cook your green veg like Kangkong, Wombok, etc....So it can be time consuming if you're not used to cooking.

If you are thinking of trying a diet, this diet really does work, give it a go, what have you got to lose? :)