Dukan Consolidation – Day 8

Posted on May 20, 2012 by flamidwyfe

So, this is my first official Consolidation Phase post. I’m so used to starting with:
“Today was a PP or PV Day” That I’m going to have to come up with something else!

I decided to make my Consolidation Phase start date May 12. I fasted for surgery on May 10 and was clear fluids only May 11. I had my first piece of fruit on May 12… Mmmmmm 🙂

So Saturday was Consolidation Day 8 out of 500! That might seem daunting to some of you, but Dr. Dukan explains in his book why it is so important to do 5 days for every pound you’ve lost, thus for me it’s 500 days. He says to rest your laurels now is very dangerous, and he’s been right about everything else, so I’m believing him! I like this quote, “Get rid of the illusion that you’ve at last finally taken care of your weight problem and can go back to your old ways. That would be catastrophic”. This phase is to “reset” your body’s internal weight level. My body needs to learn that this is my true weight, not 250+ pounds. I’m in this for the long run!

So here’s the stats:
Today’s weight: 154.7 lbs/70.3 kg
Goal weight: 155 lbs/70.45 kg

I’m still a bit bruised and still sore, but getting better. I’m also still quite swollen in a few places. Didn’t take any Tylenol on Saturday. I am taking a calcium supplement as I’ve been getting a funky cramp in my left foot. I had a lovely foot massage to help with that on Saturday night, as well.

Breakfast: Scrambled eggs with onion and chives cooked in 1/2 tsp coconut oil
Lunch: tin of tuna, two tea eggs and a small container of low fat cottage cheese
Snack: 1 ounce of Edam cheese… I missed cheese!
Dinner: Stir fry steak with onions, green peppers and curry spices, green salad
Snack: FF yogurt with flax seed meal and Splenda

On Friday night me and the Guangzhou girls went to dinner at the Arabic restaurant that I love! We spent 3 hours eating, chatting and laughing. I kept it Dukan friendly (not hard with mixed BBQ) and we talked about weight. As it turns out Jenny only weighs 43 kgs and I LOST 45.9 kgs! So we took this pic to compare…

This shot really put things into perspective for me… I lost a WHOLE adult person!

On an exercise note, I walked home from dinner Friday night 1.5 miles. So, so hard not to run. So, so weird to say that, lol! I miss running and I’m living vicariously these two weeks through my running blogger friends! I’ve also decided that in the fall, I’m going to start training to do a triathlon next spring! I’m also looking at 10Ks to run in the late fall.
I’m also back to taking the stairs (I’m staying on the 8th floor of the hospital). Going up, no problem, going down hurts in my upper midline abs area. Not sure why, but sucking it up, supporting with my hand and doing it nonetheless! And I get to start back at yoga tomorrow (Monday!!!).

How is everyone else’s weekend going? Later today I’m going shopping for shoes and a new pair of jeans… I deserve them 😀

Ciao!

Dukan – Days 261 & 262 – Epiphany

Posted on May 7, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Well, it’s been a couple of days since I wrote a post. Mostly because it’s very difficult to write posts on my iPhone… which I have to do at my flat. C–hina has a problem with ba—-logs and 😀 -book 🙂 And blocked my V — P — eN on my home IP. So the only place I can use it is at Werk 🙂 Talk about paranoid… hehe. So on my days off I only have access through my iPhone. Anyhoo…..

Saturday was a half day at work and a PV Day 🙂
Sunday was a day off from work and a PV Day 🙂

Over the course of those two days I GAINED 1.1 pounds/0.50 kgs
Total Weight Loss: 90.7 lbs/41.21 kgs

Not worried. I ate everything right, so it wasn’t that. And I’ve gotten plenty of exercise, so it isn’t that… I think it’s just a fluctuation. I do have to say that these last 10 pounds are going to be the hardest to lose… oh wait… i’m getting the fat sucked out this week… YAY! 😀 Liposuction is scheduled for Thursday afternoon, I have to do a marketing event for the hospital in Wenzhou in the morning… gotta “pay” for that free plastic surgery.

So, after Thursday morning’s weigh in, I won’t weigh myself for 10 days. I don’t want to freak out. I know that with the natural inflammatory response of surgery, I will gain, that is the bottom line. Kitty (who will be with me throughout my surgery and recovery, bless her heart) has already said I want the fat that they take out of me WEIGHED… LOL. Kitty will also be taking pictures through the entire surgery and after AND she’ll write the post for Friday and possible Saturday… with pics. She’s such a good doobie!

The bad news 😦 Sadly, May 15th will be Kitty’s last day with me. As per Chinese tradition, she is “old” at the ripe age of 25 for not being married. Her mother is making her go back to her village and hook up with this guy she met over Chinese New Year. She promises me she won’t marry him if she doesn’t fall in love with him… and I believe her. She’s a smart girl and has learned a lot from her American momma (me)… LOL I am going to miss her like crazy. Vivi (not to be confused with Vivien aka ViviMokaLaka) is my new personal assistant. Nice girl, lots of experience, rolls her eyes at my sarcasm, because she gets it… she’ll fall in love with me… they all do 🙂

Saturday… INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE MIDWIFE. Since I was being a right shit about the fact that the Director of Nursing canceled our activities, I boycotted morning handover and rounds, did some PowerPoint work and left at noon to go hang out at the Vineyard with ViviMokaLaka and watch Aussie Football. I am a Geelong Cats fan, by association. And I really enjoy watching the game. I’ve stopped yelling things like “offsides” and “that was holding”… because those silly rules DO NOT APPLY!

Me on International Midwives Day:

I AM A MIDWIFE 🙂

I spent so much time at the Vineyard on Saturday that I ended up having lunch and dinner. Reuben, the chef, is from Boston and he reminds me of my son Nick. He also makes me whatever I want to stick to the Dukan Diet, which is awesome. I had an amazing grass-fed steak on a bed of gorgeous greens for lunch and then for dinner he made me a hamburger with sauteed mushrooms and onions and a wee bit of low-fat mozzarella… YUM!

**Added after post was completed, but before I published it… Ironically, while previewing my post, Reuben and his wife came in to my office! So we took a pic:

Notice the Chinese soda in his hand… he didn’t bring me anything 😦

Sharing lunch with the Vineyard cat:

She lives in the restaurant… I think it’s pretty cool… other people, not so much.

It’s all about the presentation… look how gorgeous this burger plate is!

Simple burger… plated perfectly 😉

Made it home around 830 and went out for a 35 minute run… in bed, sound asleep by 1030!

Sunday was my day off. I woke up bright and early at 535 a.m… WHAT THE HECK??? Tried to tell myself that this was a day off… we could sleep in until like 630, but nope, I was up. I hit the ground running. Made a cup of coffee and went nuts in the house cleaning. I finished up organizing Lucy’s boxes, which she is shipping back to Dubai, put my refrigerator magnets and pictures back on my fridge, LOL. Packed up two big suitcases full of stuff I don’t need here in China, to take back to the States in June when I’m home on vacation, cleaned out my closet… AGAIN… I barely have any clothes left, NOT COMPLAINING, did every piece of laundry in my house, including the sheets on both beds and remade with fresh “summer” linen (anyone want to come hang out? There’s clean sheets on the bed!!), packed up for my trip to Wenzhou this week (most underwear and PJ’s since I’m going to be down… and hey, PJ’s on the train ride back are appropriate in this country… lol). I also packed up my wok and the stupid hot plate I used for the first 4 months I was here, until I realized the gas stove worked… lol. I will use these to cook for myself in the hospital in Wenzhou… yes, I’m sticking to my damn diet! I swept, mopped and wiped everything down… and that was all BEFORE 9 A.M.! I slipped down and bought a few tea eggs from the tea egg lady and went back upstairs to check emails and FB. Phew! What a morning. In the afternoon my groceries were delivered from Shanghai and I separated out the meats, cut them into chunks for stir frying, and packaged up some for taking to Wenzhou. And at 430 Kira and Dan came over for a visit with the kids and Velina and Robin popped in with their baby, too. Kira and Dan are headed back to the States in a few days and I’m trying to get my fill of them before they go! Soren totally wrecked my immaculate house, lol, but he’s so stinkin’ adorable, I don’t care… here he is after drinking down his 2nd yogurt of the evening…

So cute I could eat him!

Soren… Momma Sandi’s gonna send you the Ayi bill for this week, buddy 🙂

After they left, I checked emails once again before bed… I had 2 emails from people who follow my blog (I AM SO AMAZINGLY HUMBLED THAT YOU ALL FOLLOW THIS BLOG). One of them was asking advise and the other one thanking me privately for a “put on your big girl panties and stop making excuses” comment I put on one of their blog posts. And this, is what I went to bed thinking about… excuses. And a long-time friend talked about starting her hcg injections AGAIN and I told her to start eating and stop using injections. And then this morning, a fellow blogger MJ, from emjayandthem, wrote this quote on a post from a couple of days ago: “if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always had.” And then one of my favorite momma’s I delivered a million moons ago had this to say on Facebook:

Edited…. Sue sent me this link to the article that this quote comes from:

“Fat looks on the surface as though it is about a failure of restraint. It isn’t actually any more an issue of restraint than it is for many thin or medium-sized people. Most eating problems don’t show. Fat, which may or may not mean an eating problem, does. That doesn’t make it immoral or contemptible. It doesn’t mean the fat individual has faulty judgment or inferior leadership skills. It certainly doesn’t sanction discrimination. What it does demonstrate is that cruelty and stupidity arises when we are pressed to make our bodies into uniform shapes. This creates widespread body anxiety, and makes us search for a scapegoat to feel secure. We know from other forms of discrimination what a fruitless and lousy deal that is.”

And my reply was this:

“I have to disagree with this, Sue. Having lost more than 90 pounds over the past 8 months from learning restraint, I have to say that fat is just that… FAT. It comes from improper eating and from improper movement. When I started my journey to get rid of the fat I walked just 20 minutes a day. I hear people use the excuse all the time, that they don’t have time… my answer… shut off the computer for 20 minutes and take a walk. That was MY answer. My friend John is a life coach, we had a serious talking in August, before I started my quest to lose the fat and the one thing that I took away from his teachings is that we just use excuse after excuse for the way we look… how unhealthy we are. Fat is Fat… Fat is not healthy. A certain amount of fat is healthy, but not obesity. We get fat from poor choices. And once we stop making excuses and recognize obesity for what it is, instead of coddling each other to make us feel better, our nation will get healthier. Love you and hope you’re feeling better soon ♥”

And collectively that should be an epiphany to all us… FAT IS NOT HEALTHY. OBESITY IS NOT HEALTHY… STOP MAKING FRIGGIN’ EXCUSES AND DO JUST TWO SIMPLE THINGS… EAT BETTER AND MOVE! It really is quite simple! The first person who really, really pointed this out to me was John Geraghty, in August, during my life coaching session with him. And at the time it made sense… but now… 90+ pounds later… IT MAKES SENSE! REAL SENSE!

The bottom line is you have to realize that being fat and obese is not healthy and stop making excuses… NOPE, it’s not your thyroid, NOPE, it’s not your diabetes, NOPE it’s not PCOS or any other malady you have… it’s your life style. It’s the crap you eat and the fact that you aren’t MOVING. And if you simply… SIMPLY change those two things, it will make all the difference in your world. Stop saying you DON’T HAVE ENOUGH TIME to cook… I cook every single meal in UNDER 15 MINUTES… stop making excuses you DON’T HAVE TIME TO EXERCISE… get off your butt and walk out the door and get in 20 minutes… that’s ALL you need. 20 minutes… Turn off your computer and go do it… that is after you’ve finished reading my post… LOL.

SIMPLY…. STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND GET HEALTHY!

Ciao!

I’ll leave you with this quote from Mel at wwangel… she inspires me to get off my ass and run… Thank you, Mel for pushing me harder than you probably know you do 🙂 I am proud to know someone who is running the NYC marathon this year… You Go my Kiwi Friend!

S.T.A.R.T.!!!

Tagged: Most Touching Moment in Asia

Posted on May 1, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I was tagged earlier this week by a running blogger at Inspiring and Healthy Running to answer the question: Flamidwyfe is a midwife currently living and working in Asia. My question to you: What has been your most touching moment in Asia so far?

And here’s my answer. There are A LOT of them, given that I’ve been in a lot of Asia. But the most touching has to be last year, almost exactly a year ago, on May 5, 2011.

May 5th is International Midwives Day. Midwives all over the world celebrate the day with picnics, rallies and community/consumer awareness activities. I celebrated mine in Hangzhou, China. I work here now, but last year I came to do a water birth training conference. Last year’s theme was “Midwives Walking to Durban”. The International Confederation of Midwives, an organization that represents more than 250,000 members all over the world, holds a conference every 3 years. Last years conference was in Durban, South Africa and as a symbol of solidarity, they asked that we “walk to Durban” on Midwives Day.

I gave a lovely speech, if I do say so myself. I focused on the UN Millennium Goal #5, Improving Maternal Health. I am passionate about improving maternal health. By doing so, we improve the outcome of newborns. My speech was an impassioned plea to improve the prenatal care that we give women, including diet and nutrition education, and at the end I said, “Let’s all stand and hold hands and take a walk to Durban”… everyone in the room stood up, applauded and then took hands (after the translator said it in Mandarin.. lol) and the first one up was the CEO, Suzong. We took a 1 km walk in solidarity of midwives all over the world. Here’s 2 pics that I took, the CEO is the man just behind me… yes, that is ME in the teal top… LOL

International Midwives Day 2011 - Walking in solidarity with midwives around the world! Hangzhou, China

International Midwives Day 2011. Hangzhou, China

I can’t begin to tell you how touched I was when everyone stood up and grabbed hands. An American guy that use to work here told me that they wouldn’t “get” it and no one would stand up, much less take a 1 km walk outside… Well they did GET IT 😀 I fought back tears and felt so supported in my passion for midwifery.

International Midwives Day is this Saturday. I work in Hangzhou now. We are planning a big event on Saturday, with a speech, slide show presentation and consumer awareness. The midwives I work with here are gaining more respect each day. I am hoping that with continued international awareness midwives everywhere will be valued and respected for the work they do and the passion in which they do it.

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 253

Posted on April 28, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Friday was a PP day 🙂

Daily weight gain: 0.7 lb/0.30 kg
Total weight loss: 90.0 lb/40.91 kg
Current weight: 165 lb/75 kg

Friday was suppose to be my day off, but marketing asked if I could do a class in a village outside of Hangzhou, so I agreed and got picked up at 730 a.m. Turned out to have 90 pregnant women there to hear my class on water birth!

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: 2 slices ham and a baby bell cheddar (2 oz, low fat)
Dinner: 3 skinny pork chops with sautéed chunks of onion
Snack: pot of fat free yogurt with bran and Splenda

I also gave baby Lyla her first bath and massage and played the stick your tongue out game with her… She did 🙂

Her dad took a couple other cool pics, as well…

I walked the 1 mile home from work and cooked a yummy dinner. About an hour later I tied up my running shoes and headed out the door for a run. I started the Bridge to 10K program. The first 10 minutes I tried to talk myself out of it, LOL… But the other me kicked negative Nellie to the curb and kept going! Here’s the results of the run…

Yeah, I rocked it 😀

Came home, showered and went to bed with my iPad to read… Never read the first word! Out like a light, woke up 10 minutes before alarm feeling GREAT!

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 252 – Recipe: stir fry leftovers

Posted on April 27, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Thursday was a PV day 🙂

Daily weight GAIN: .3 kgs… As I predicted would happen!

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: 3 slices of boiled ham and 1 tea egg
Dinner: Chicken breast and left over veggies in the fridge
Snack: pot of FF Greek yogurt with bran and Splenda

Exercise:
1 mile walk to work
1 mile walk home from work
That’s it. Exhausted!

I finished reading SweetHeart by Chelsea Cain… Riveting!

Chicken and Veggie Stir Fry
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 12 minutes
Serves: 1

Ingredients:
1 skinless, boneless chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 large onion, cut chunky
1/3 red pepper, diced
4 asparagus spears, cut into bite sized pieces
Handful mushroom, chopped
6-8 green olives
2 Tbs hot saucy kind of stuff… Mine is in Chinese… Its like a hot pepper salsa, it’s yummy!

Coat pan/wok with non-stick spray OR 1 Tbs coconut oil. Turn stove on med-high heat.
Place chicken on hot oil carefully. Place lid and let sizzle for 3 minutes.
Turn chicken over, replace lid for 1 minute.
Toss in red pepper and onion. Replace lid. Cook for 3 minutes.
Reduce heat to medium.
Place asparagus and mushrooms in, stir. Replace lid for 2 minutes.
Place 2 Tbs of salsa in pan and stir in well.
Replace lid, turn heat down to med-low. Simmer 2 minutes.
Serve and Enjoy!

Ciao!

Dukan – Days 249 & 251

Posted on April 26, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Monday was a PP day 🙂
Wednesday was a starvation day 😦 Poor planning!

Monday stats: +0.4 lb/+0.2 kg – Total: 89.8 lbs/40.81 kgs
Tuesday’s weight didn’t get recorded because I got roused out of bed for a birth.
Wednesday stats: -0.9 lb/0.44 kg – Total: 90.7 lbs/41.21 kgs

I’m so exhausted from the 16 hour birth marathon I ran yesterday that I can’t for the life of me remember what I ate on Monday… oh… let me go look at my journal… lol

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: 1 tea egg, tin of tuna with dijon mustard
Dinner: Chicken breast with onions and garlic stems
Snack: pot of FF yogurt with splenda and bran

Monday Exercise: 3 games of wii Bowling (high score of 212!!) and a 1 mile walk to work, from work and then around the block for a total of 3 miles.

Tuesday Exercise: 3 mile run

Wednesday food:
Breakfast: none
Lunch: 2 tea eggs
Snack: 2 tea eggs
Dinner: yeah… i’m sure you know where this is going… the last tea egg
I was at a birth all day… I didn’t plan well. There were no protein sources. At 1130 the Ayi (maid) that cleans my house and my office lovingly went to the tea egg shop and brought me 5 eggs… YOU ROCK AYI!!!!!! But that was all I ate, all day… which is very, very, very bad!
Snack… after I dragged my butt home after midnight: a baby bell round. I estimate I had less than 500 calories yesterday and I suspect it will show with a weight INCREASE tomorrow, as crazy as that sounds. On this diet you HAVE TO EAT!

Wednesday Exercise: I labored a lady all day… that is like running a marathon! 🙂 LOL, I did hip squeezes, back rubs and other things to help her… my pecs are feeling the workout from the hip squeezes! I walked home (although it was more like a run on the timing) after midnight… 1 mile.

Nice birth, baby girl… happy mom and dad, and that’s what counts.

Birth… it does a midwife good 🙂

Ciao!

Grandma to a teenager

Posted on April 25, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I am 48. Thirteen years ago, on April 25, 1999 my daughter Jenni gave birth to the most perfect little bundle of joy. Celeste Alena. Jenni was 15. I was 35.

I remember walking around with the silliest grin on my face for days. I smiled so much my face muscles ached 😀 My daughter was an amazing birther, short fast labor, just like me.

We were surrounded by people who were important to us. Carolyn, my partner in birth, Lisa Wick, my midwife friend from school, there to take over if I needed to be Jenni’s mom instead of midwife, Ray, Celeste’s father, Dodi, who gave birth to a 10 lb 12 oz boy the October before and Candy, a family friend who videotaped the birth.

We reveled in Celeste’s perfectness. Her sweetness, how wonderful she breastfed, how well she slept.

Around 5 weeks old, I started feeling something was “off” about Celeste. She looked through you, not at you and she wasn’t tracking us with her eyes. Our family pediatrician told me to be the grandma, not a midwife… that everything was normal. I wasn’t happy with that. At 9 weeks old, I secured a consult with a pediatric opthomologist. he diagnosed Celeste with a retinal issue and said she was legally blind. Devastating, but doable. I was actually relieved.

At our 13 week visit to the pediatrician, we brought her the info from the eye doctor. She was humbled by it, and murmured an apology. She had been our family ped since 1981, I understood. Then as she was examining Celeste she uttered the one word that threw our lives upside down… MICROCEPHALY… I burst into tears, knowing the gravity of such a diagnosis. Dr. Rojas was also very emotional… Poor Jenni and Ray had no idea why we were upset. Microcephaly means small head/brain. Back in 1999 if you searched (there was no google) the term, it came up “profound retardation, short life span, approximately 10 years”. We were devastated.

A neuro consult 2 weeks later would give us the diagnosis of Agenesis of the Corpus Collosum, essentially Celeste is missing the middle part of her brain, the part that separates the left and right hemispheres. She is severely disabled. She does not stand, walk, sit or talk (a few words every once in a while)
She DOES bring happiness to those around her, have the most brilliant smile, loves stealing toys from babies if she’s propped close enough, has a clever streak, understands EVERY WORD YOU SAY!!!

She is 13 today… A teenager. I’m a grandma to a teenager… WOW!

Here she is, the center of our universe!

HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY, CELESTE ALENA BLANKENSHIP!!!
I love you,
You know it’s true…
Celeste Alena Blankenship,
I LOVE YOU… Momma xoxoxo

Dukan – Day 247

Posted on April 22, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Saturday was a PP day 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 0.4 lbs/0.20 kgs
Total Weight Loss: 89.3 lbs/40.61 kgs Just 300 grams from my Dukan True weight and just 10 pounds until I reach my goal weight of 155.

Breakfast: 2 Tea Eggs
Lunch: 1 Tea Egg, tin of tuna with dijon mustard
Dinner: Pork Chop with onion and garlic stems (so glad I was able to go into town and get some, I’ve missed the garlic stems so much!)
Snack: Pot of FF Greek yogurt with Splenda and bran

Exercise:
1 mile/1.5 km walk to work
1 mile/1.5 km walk home from work
3.11 mile/5.1 km run in the evening

I taught two Childbirth Education classes today. My morning class was for expats and the afternoon class was for our Chinese clients. I love that I get to do so much education!

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend! The weather here has been perfect!

Ciao!

Travel – Stuck at the Airport… Writin’ A Blog

Posted on April 15, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Well, I’m sitting at the Guangzhou, China airport waiting on a delayed flight with a migraine, yippee! So I thought, what the heck… Write your blog 🙂

Weight, up 200 grams from the other day. Did 2 pure protein days in a row, hoping for the best tomorrow.

Taught classes to moms & dads to be on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Also taught staff development classes those 3 days.

Then an early morning train to Hong Kong on Friday morning. Busy day, I specifically went to see Troy the travel guy, to book tickets for my mom to go to North Carolina and me to go home for 2 weeks in June. I got my tickets, didn’t get my mom’s (mom I’ll Skype ya tomorrow!).

I also got some shopping in on Friday and Saturday. I also did the 90 minute KYA Ashtanga yoga class with Miranda at Yoga Mālā. I did a few modified poses due to the inability to bend the left knee more than 90 degrees without pain, but only a few… It was an awesome class.

Saturday morning up at the crack of dawn and lounged in bed. Then went out for a run…. A LONG RUN!

Did you know that 6.54 miles is over 10.5 kms? I ran 75% of this… I ran the first 5.42 kms without stopping, then I speed walked and then I did a 5 minute stretch and meditation and then ran a bit more, then when I got into traffic I just speed walked… Too hard to run on the crowded sidewalks.
According to RunKeeper the elevation I climbed was 2300+ feet!

Here are pics from some of my run… The first 2+ kms were UPHILL on the street…

I even recorded some of it… You can see that here: Sandi street running in Hong Kong

Then I found Bowen Road which is a 4 km path specifically for pedestrians!

And this is what bliss looks like after figuring out you’ve done gone more than 10kms!

I also treated myself to a foot massage both days… I deserve it 🙂

So, that’s my update… THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO VOTED FOR CELESTE IN THE LAST COUPLE DAYS AND A HUMONGOUS THANKS TO THOSE BLOGGERS WHO REPOSTED IT. My family thanks you with our WHOLE heart! You can vote daily until May 13. I will be putting a little box on the right side of my blog, once I’m back home and have my lap top 🙂

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 236 Epic Fail day

Posted on April 12, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Wednesday started out as a PP day.

Daily weight GAIN: 0.7 lb/0.3 kg
Total weight loss: 85.8 lb/39.91 kg

Oh, where to start… I’m probably being WAY harder on myself than I should!

Breakfast in my room: 2 boiled eggs
Lunch: A beautiful bowl of chicken and veggies, lovely presentation, but maybe 1 ounce of thinly sliced chicken, which being a PP day meant all I could have…

Those slivery, garlic looking things are from the lotus plant. I only ate the chicken.

I then taught a 90 minute child birth Ed class and a 60 minute staff development class. This pic is from the staff development class. The little old bitty with the word ‘LOVE’ over her head ~~wouldn’t shut her pie hole~~ , errr, wouldn’t let me get a word in edge wise when talking about water birth… I asked her, “exactly how many water births have YOU conducted” she said, “none and I will never”. I said, “that’s, OK because the patients prefer midwives to do their deliveries”… She didn’t speak another word 😀
I can always tell by body language who is there to learn… The midwives took pics of every slide and 2 of them recorded it. They asked questions for nearly 40 minutes afterwards!

I want to give a shout out to my amazing daughter, Tiffany LeAnn and her hubby, Joey. I use their very intimate pictures from Jose’s birth (with their permission) in my presentations. The 2nd PowerPoint I use is just pics from their birth with the song “I Can Only Imagine” playing. They may not know the words, but the music does its wonder and brings tears to most people’s eyes. Joey and Tiffany… You are contributing tremendously in educating the women and midwives of China in normal birth and water birth… Thank you SO much for allowing me to teach through your experience!

And then my epic fail… OK, epic is an exaggeration… LOL, but it felt epic! We went for Arabic food. Just being in the restaurant made me miss Abu Dhabi… I swear sometimes I miss Abu Dhabi more than home in the States! I’m actually tearing up as I write this… Anyway, the place is run by 2 Arabs a Lebanese guy and a Syrian guy and it was DAMN GOOD ARABIC FOOD!!! My intent was to only eat the Mixed Grill and extra Chicken Shish Taouk, but also had the Lamb Kofta smothered in a sesame sauce and fattoush and hummus. Too much food, but no wheat or sugar… BUT, the Tabbouleh was to DIE FOR… Seems innocuous, but their is bulgur in Tabbouleh. And Bulgur is a wheat product and wheat is like friggin’ HEROIN to me. Not to mention it makes my tummy bloat and hurt and causes lower GI stuff!
Here’s a pic of the dinner… It was glorious, alhamdilallah! Notice the star of the show is the ~~heroin~~ Tabbouleh.

So, I’m feeling groovy, happy, speaking Arabic with Mohammed our waiter, getting winks from the Syrian co-owner who sends over a heavenly tea pot of yummy mint tea, when it happens… He sends over THE DESSERT PLATE… Nope, not gonna do it, not gonna rmrmrmmaamrm… Sigh, sorry, had chocolate in my mouth… What was I saying?!? EPIC FAIL… And MOONDAY Continue reading →