1st quarter update on Bucket List/Goals for 2012

Posted on March 30, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Sitting on the plane, thought I’d do a quarterly update 🙂

Bucket List 2012

1. Reach Dukan “True Weight” of 165 – Getting SO close!
2. Reach “My True Weight” of 155
3. Nurture relationships – DOING
4. Fix my tummy 🙂 – consult April 6
5. Run 5k without stopping – I’ve done this twice in the past week! Signed up for my first 5K for June 9th in Ocala
6. Enjoy my job more – DOING
7. Accomplish teaching the 6 IPSG’s to the staff – DONE
8. Accomplish 100% compliance on at least 4 of the IPSG’s! – This one is a toughie!
9. Accomplish teaching the 13 JCI Standards to the staff – First class in 2 weeks
10. Visit the Philippines
11. Visit Singapore
12. Visit Thailand… Again
13. Continue my daily random acts of kindness, blog it – trying… Sometimes it’s just a smile or a nod
14. Blog everyday, can be challenging if VPN goes out – I’ve posted more blogs than days of the year, so far!
15. Get rid of all the “stuff” I don’t need… In my storage unit AND in my flat! – Gave away more than 10 bags of stuff from my storage unit when I was home in January AND threw out 6 bags of stuff. Reduced my stuff in my China flat from 9 boxes to 3 boxes!
16. Live as green as possible – Hard to do in China, but I walk EVERYWHERE! The only exception is if I am going to train station or airport. I even walk to and from my friend K’s house a couple times a week (3.57 miles each way!)
17. Start an indoor herb garden
18. Run 10k without stopping!
19. Read 100 books – I’ve read 6, on my 7th, most have been on iBooks.
20. Start yoga classes by March 1st – difficult in Hangzhou, doing wii yoga, took class that kicked my ass, but was fun, in Hong Kong. Will go back to studio in a month on my next visa run.
21. Take yoga at least once per week – Doing it on wii, 30 mins/3 times a week
22. Run at least 3 times a week – I’m running 2 days on and 1 day off, so definitely meeting this goal
23.save 25% of my annual income… This will be challenging given my propensity for travel 🙂 I accomplished this with my February pay and my March pay
24. Travel coach 🙂 – Yup! I’m actually sitting on my 9th flight of the year, in coach… Although I did get a free upgrade on 2 flight segments going home in January… And I used my British Air miles to fly back to China from Miami in February… Only had to pay taxes 🙂
25. Plan a 50th birthday cruise for my mates and aim to get at least 100 people to go! – Cruise planned… Not sure of the numbers
26. Get another tattoo.
27. Attend a rock concert
28. Paint 2 big canvases and complete my little canvas series
29. Surprise someone I love by giving her the series (I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read my blog… But she’d totally guess it was her, if she did)
30. Start my own blog site with help from Charlotte, one of my Dukan buddies.
31. Try not to send emails or make phones calls on the nights I take sleep medicine 😀 – So far, so good
32. Celebrate a holiday that I don’t usually celebrate!
33. Figure out how to set up my wii again… I love the yoga and the boxing – DONE
34. Take 2 backpacking trips 1 down, one to go
35. See more of China since I live here! – been to Taizhou, Wuzhen and I’m going to Guangzhou next week!
36. Take an overnight train in China… – DONE – IT WAS HELL!
37. Open up my heart and take some chances – Yeah, not in China, this one will have to wait, unless someone amazing pops up.
38. At least 80% of my quotes of the day will be by women I respect – most of my quotes have been by women 🙂
39. Send in my absentee ballot for the Presidential election
40. Drink 1.5 liters of water per day – DOING
41. Weigh myself every day – DOING
42. Get a minimum of a 30 minute walk in per day – DOING
43. Take my bran every single day – DOING
44. Pray and meditate for good health each day, purposefully – DOING
45. Pray for the health of those I love, purposefully – DOING
46. Continue reading john shore.com and Pastor Bob every time thy post a blog… Their wisdom fills me up. – DOING
47. Don’t make excuses – I haven’t allowed myself… I’m really proud of thus far meeting this goal
48. Work on being less angry – Um, I AM working on this
49. Just for today, I will refrain from improving anybody but myself. – DOING

Dukan in Hong Kong

Posted on March 30, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Thursday was a PP Day 🙂
I’m up 200 grams today and I have NO BLOODY IDEA how that can be!
I did the following:
Walked all over the city at a brisk pace = 5.21 miles
I pooped 🙂
I RAN UPHILL and the down = 2.58 miles
I did KYA Ashtanga yoga (KYA is Kick Your Ass, name of the class, and it did!) = 90 minutes

I ate:
Breakfast- 4 slices oven roasted turkey and a small chunk of low fat (6%) cheese
Lunch – same as above
Dinner – street pork, two pieces of he crispy skin (could not resist) and NOTHING ELSE
Snack – pot of fat free Greek yogurt with 2 T bran and a Splenda
Drank- 1 coffee and 3.5 liters of water

I’m a bit disappointed…. Which is out of character for me 😦 That’s a net gain of 300 grams for 2 days.

I had a really good day though and a massage in the middle of all the exercise, and the best news is that I’m still able to move this morning! I was a bit worried after the yoga.

Here’s some pics if my day!

Ciao!

My running route uphill!!!

Travel – Update on Sex Trade & Other Curious Happenings on Wednesday

Posted on March 29, 2012 by flamidwyfe

First up… Wednesday was a travel day and thus a PV day. I brought my scale with me, but not my spreadsheet, I’m up 100 grams from yesterday morning’s weigh in.

So I had a very interesting day after reaching the airport. A shout out to KaKa, my driver, for getting me there with lots of time to spare! And yes, that’s his name… It’s China.

I want to start by saying that I’ve read the Celestine Prophecy 3 times over the years. It is one of those books that makes you think. The first insight in the book is: 1 We are discovering again that we live in a deeply mysterious world, full of sudden coincidences and synchronistic encounters that seem destined.
Destined being the key word here. The book goes on to say that there really aren’t coincidences… We are destined to interact… Sometimes it’s a smile and wink or a nod, sometimes it’s the passing of a note with encouragement, sometimes it’s a look of understanding and sometimes it can be negative and we must look within ourselves to change our behaviors.

I had ALL of this happen to me in the Hangzhou Airport, on the plane and on the transfer bus at the Hong Kong Airport.

The Sex Trade:
As I spoke of in yesterday’s blog, it is apparently alive, well and open if you just take the time to see and hear. I was sitting on the seats behind the 2 men in yesterday’s picture. I overheard the old white guy speaking roughly and disrespectfully to the young Asian man, almost like reprimanding a child. The sentence “you’ll speak to them when and if I say so” sent chills up my spine 😦 The body language spoke volumes and you could tell these 2 men were not partners in a mutually satisfying relationship. There have been 3 articles, in the news that I read, in the past week. I encourage you to read the stories and be more aware of this frightening issue!
Jessie Foster
change.org
WHAT I DID: The old man told the young Asian man he was using the toilet. I turned slightly and gave the young man a paper with the info for Free the Slaves on it. I then told him he could call or text anyone he wanted on my iPhone and I would keep an eye out for the bastard he was with. He made a 34 second call, I think he was speaking Thai. I PRAY this young man finds a way out. I PRAY the bastard doesn’t find the paper with the web address on it. I DID NOT say a word to the old bastard (sorry… That’s the nicest word I can come up with for my blog). I didn’t say anything because I didn’t want any abuse to befall the young man. Our flights boarded at the same time and I gave him a look of what I pray was HOPE… And then burst into tears when they were out of sight.

The Not-So-Stupid Guy:
So, interesting flight. Sat next to a young Chinese couple who held hands and were easy 2 hour flight mates. UNTIL WE LANDED… And by that I mean the male half of the couple took his seat belt off the nanosecond the wheels hit the ground and stood up and opened the overhead. While we’re still going a couple of hundred MPH! WTF!?!? So I yelled at him. LOUDLY! I said, “Are you fucking stupid? Sit down… NOW!” and he did. He then apologized. And I softened. The flight attendant, who was enroute to tell him (I’m sure much nicer than me) to sit down, thanked me warmly.
Then the young man proceeds to tell me sorry again, and that this was the first time they ever flew, they just got married, and he wanted to call the parents to tell them they were safe. Now I feel like an ass. Kind of. I apologize for calling him stupid and explain that it is unsafe to take off the seat belt until the plane has stopped at the gate. I tell him unsafe for him and for me, if he were to fall he could hurt me (I was making a point, not being egotistical). He agreed with my reasoning. I apologized AGAIN and so did he and then he gave me a hug. Like a “I need my mommy” hug, which made me feel like an even bigger loser for calling him stupid. And just so you know, most people in China won’t hug you unless they’ve known you long time. So that was kind of cool.
LESSON LEARNED: Words can be forgiven, but not forgotten… Once they come out of your big mouth, you can’t take them back! I’m going to work on that.

The Man Sitting in Front of Me:
So on the flight there was a man in the seat in front of me who I had more compassion for than you could know. He was a very big guy, very obese, and I was him just 7 months ago. He got up to go to the back of the plane and I noticed he was using the seatbelt extender… I rode back to Abu Dhabi in August so amazingly uncomfortable because I refused to ask for an extender. I was there (it’s hard getting through writing this post without crying), sir, I know the feeling, the looks, the shittiness of it all. I hope you know that my smile was genuine and there was no judgement or pity there… Because I was there… Just a mere 7 months ago. I sat there trying to figure out how to reach out to you without embarrassing you or me (I’m sure you heard me yell at the kid who stood up… I don’t always say the right things). As we were standing and waiting to disembark the plane I decided to simply give you this blog address (I pray you are reading this). As we got on the transfer bus I reached out… Which is difficult, even for me and gave him a paper with my blog address and simply said, “this is my blog address, visit my blog, it could change your life”. I think at first he wanted to hand it back, but stuck it in his shirt pocket. I smiled and that was that.
NOTE TO GENTLEMAN FROM 38C:
If you have any questions, you can email me privately at sandiblankenshiprm@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you! Or feel free to respond here on the blog. I hope you know that I gave you that paper with a pure heart.
LESSON LEARNED: Put on your big girl panties and make a difference in someone’s life… Paying it forward is the best feeling in the world.

So that all happened inside 3.5 hours 😀 I then took the shuttle bus to the Best Western Causeway Bay where I’m in a tiny hotel room on the top floor (37th!) and have a stunning view. Now I’m off to the Immigration Office to renew my visa.

Ciao!

Edited February 24, 2014: Interesting and thought provoking blog post on the sex trade industry: The Scourge of Child Trafficking.

Travel – Flying’ to Hong Kong & Sex Trade

Posted on March 28, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Sitting at the airport in Hangzhou thinking about a few things.
First, how fortunate I am to be able to freely travel wherever I want FREELY (you’ll see why I emphasize that shortly)
This is my 8th flight since January 1. and I’ve literally been around the world.
Hong Kong to Hangzhou- Jan 2
Hangzhou to Osaka – Jan 16
Osaka to Seattle
Seattle to NYC
NYC to Ft Lauderdale
Then
Miami to London Feb 7
London to Shanghai
And now
Hangzhou to Hong Kong
Crazy 🙂

Now about the sex trade… There have been 3 stories in the last couple of days. News stories bring awareness. I was sitting behind the old white guy and the Asian guy in pink shirt just now, waiting for my flight. The old white guy was speaking in English very disrespectfully to the young Asian guy. I suspect the young guy is more than likely a victim of the sex trade. What would you do if you saw this? BE HONEST and put yourself in my place. I’ll tell you what I did after I get some responses.

Ciao!

Dukan – Days 219 & 220 – Dukan Recipe Cuban Flank Steak

Posted on March 27, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Monday was a PP day 🙂
Tuesday was a PV day 🙂

Monday:
Daily Weight Loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg
Total Weight Loss: 81.2 lb/36.91 kg
Tuesday: No change – same, same

Tuesday food (since I have no recollection of yesterday… LOL, I DO know it was PP)
Breakfast: 2 Tea Eggs
Lunch: Green leafy salad and tin of tuna
Dinner: Cuban Flank Steak… recipe below.

I have to say, this is YUMMY!!! And if you leave out the mushrooms and only add onions, it’s a PP meal.

I got the recipe idea from although I didn’t use flank steak and mine come cut in chunks already, which is how I have to eat them, given I don’t have an oven or a grill.

Serves 1

8 oz. of Top Round, flank steak or in my case Chinese Beef Top – Cubed
Marinade:
Juice of 1 large Lime
1/8 cup of Olive Oil
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
**To make this Whole30 compliant use Coconut Aminos**
1/2 tsp favorite hot sauce or chili powder… I used Daddy Mac’s Awesome Sauce (my son-in-law makes this with his home grown habanero peppers!)

With dinner:
1/2 Large onion chopped in chunks
And if a PV day, handful of mushrooms

Prep time: 2 minutes
Put meat in bowl or zip top baggie.
Put the rest of the marinade ingredients in there.

I thought about this marinating in my fridge ALL.DAY.LONG!

Shake, shake, shake and put in the fridge for 8 or more hours.

Cook time 11 minutes
Remove marinated meat from fridge.

When I took the lid off… yum… the smell was incredible!

Put 1 Tbsp Olive Oil in skillet or wok.
Heat to Medium-High.
Put the meat in and cook for 5 minutes.

Turn meat over.
Put the onions in and cook for 3 minutes.

Notice that lime is still in there 🙂

Toss the mushrooms in, if you’re making it a PV dinner, and cook for 3 minutes. I used Enoki mushrooms which are kind of like al dente pasta when cooked… sorta. And they basically have NO CARBS!!!

Plate and Enjoy!

My pics may not be stunning or artistic, but you can tell this food is GOOD!

I’m off to Hong Kong for 3 days tomorrow (Weds – Friday) to renew my visa and get a little R & R. I’ll try to keep you updated from there!

p.s. C25K is moving right along… I am running 2 nights on, 1 night off and not having any problems with it… I’m enjoying it! 😀

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 219 – Off to Marketing We Go!

Posted on March 25, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Sunday was a PV (protein/veggie) day 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg (this is actually 2 days)
Total Weight Loss: 81.2 lb/36.91 kg

I’m nearly recovered from my birthin’ babies week. Oh how we get used to 8 – 5, going to bed at 10, waking up at 6… SLEEP 😀 It almost feels a bit like jet lag. I can’t imagine what it must be like for the woman going through labor!

It’s been a glorious weekend here in regard to the sun. Shining, warm, bathing this lovely, polluted town in light. I even saw the moon last night! It was the first time since my last night in Florida back on February 8th! It was what I call a cradle moon… pretty in the sky!

I had to speak at a marketing event yesterday afternoon. Our branding and marketing department actually have MORE STAFF than we have NURSES… I’m not joking. But they do a great job putting on big events, at least once monthly! I spoke about “The Enchantment of Water Birth”… same PowerPoint I’ve been using for months now… we just change the title and sub-titles… the last event was “The Magic of Water Birth”… LOL… my Personal Assistant, Kitty, doesn’t even ask anymore… she just changes it.

And speaking of Kitty… here she is…

Seconds before I snapped this shot, Kitty was SLEEPING on my shoulder... she's too cute, popped her head up, smiled for the camera, laid her head down and went back to sleep 🙂

Random funny thing that happened yesterday afternoon. We were stuck in traffic coming back from the marketing event and stopped in front of the Chlitina shop (the one next to Slavery.. I’m not makin’ this stuff up!) and the staff were all outside doing line dancing. I tried to snap a picture, but the video was on instead… you can view it here: Chlitina Dancers it’s only a few seconds long, but you’ll get the point… I was listening to music on my iPhone at the time and in my ear was David Cook’s “Life On the Moon”… totally describes my life in China to a tee 🙂

Day ended with a visit to the hospital to check on K and Baby H and then home for dinner, which was Pork, mushrooms and asparagus and then a nice run around the neighborhood, where I even got a shot of yet another neighbor out strollin’ in his pajamas (call me a PJ stalker, but it humors me and keeps me sane in this crazy place, LOL)…

Out for a stroll in his jammies... Tough to get clear shots in the dark and while running, but you get the idea 🙂

Running is getting easier and easier for me… I’m totally loving it now. Running 2 nights in a row, then take a night off… on that night I go to the gym for 30 mins and have the muscle head help me work on my arms, abs and thighs.

So that’s the weekend update. I’ve added some other pics from along the way this weekend… Enjoy 😀

Ciao!

Street food from Saturday night... new meaning to the words Fish Sticks 🙂 YUMMY!!!

Our yoga instructor did prenatal yoga with audience participants.

The Emcee wore a gold suit and was quite the comedian! The orchestra was lovely!

Chiara and Alessaundro (aka NuNu) were there. Chiara gave a speech about her wonderful water birth... She was the first water birth in Hangzhou, and I was lucky enough to be her midwife! NuNu will be 1 on May 6th!

The Strength of Women

Posted on March 25, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Some weeks I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse to be a midwife. 😀 Providing women with the best, evidenced based care is and always has been my goal. Providing it in such a backward obstetrical world (and that includes the U.S.) can be so trying.

As most of you know, I live in China right now. I’m not really working here as a midwife… just a Consulting Midwife and as the Quality Manager for the hospital I am working for. I have, however, taken on a few lovely expat women who have brought me great joy caring for and I am in awe of the strength of both of these women.

I learned, through both of them this week, how powerful it is for WOMEN to give PERMISSION for the care they receive. To RECEIVE the care that they want and to provide them with the best birth possible, regardless of the situation. And most importantly to watch birth… the exact opposite of the desired outcome, become the ultimate outcome and a charged, amazing, empowering experience did my tired midwife heart a lot of good.

Welcome Earthside Baby M and Baby H… and thank you V and K for giving me the best week I’ve had here in China, you both have amazingly gorgeous girls who I look forward to watching grow up… much love to both of you xoxoxo

Ciao!

This is the easy part of my job 🙂

Dukan – Day 216 – Eating on the Run

Posted on March 23, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Thursday was a PP day 🙂

Daily Weight Loss: 0.9 lb/0.40 kg
Total Weight Loss: 80.8 lb/36.71 kg

And MY BMI IS NOW NOT IN THE OBESE CATAGORY!!! WOO HOO! 😀 Cart wheels… well, not really, I’d probably hurt myself! My BMI is now 30… DOWN FROM 45. Nevermind the fact that I’ve lost over 80 pounds in 7 months, I’m not OBESE anymore… OK, a couple more cart wheels!

Yesterday was a true midwife day and thus the loss on the scale… I will write about it in a different post… but lets just say that I’m knackered, sad, happy, ecstatic and exhausted all wound in to one midwife!

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Late lunch: Grilled chicken chunks
Later dinner: left over grilled chicken chunks

3 coffees, 1.5 liters of water

Exercise: Well a funny thing about that… I went out for my run (in the cold rain… again) and did the whole C25K segment and I hadn’t moved it to the NEXT DAY!!! So it just showed that I had finished what I did 2 days before 😦 I went back inside and thought about it and went back out and ran it again… getting credit for it. And I shaved more than 2 minutes off the run from just before 🙂 That made me very happy. What I really love about C25K is that even though I thought moving forward would be insurmountable, it’s not! It was at first, and I was stuck on Week 4 FOREVER (my own screwed up head), but now I’m running and I’m not out of breath… winded a bit, yes, but not GASPING FOR AIR, like I was before. And, in fact, my legs start getting tired way before my lungs do, how cool is that???

I’m not sure how it will be when the real spring finally arrives here in Hangzhou, China and the pavement isn’t wet… LOL. I’m so used to running in the rain. I would say it has rained 8 out of every 10 times I’ve run. I’m still running past the gym every night… three times and each time I go past, all the people are on the treadmills and I just think out loud… treadmills are for wussies 🙂 Cheeky little bint I am 🙂

Ciao!

Oh… and a before and after shot today… I am wearing the same shirt in both pics… The first couple were taken in 2008 when my precious granddaughter Sofia was born… I bought the shirt at a MANA conference and they didn’t have my size 2XL or even a 1XL… only a large and I wanted support the organization represented on the shirt, so I bought a large, and forced it on… LOL.
The second pic was today. Midwives, do indeed, help people out, and nothing could be truer in regard the birth I was blessed to attend last night/early this morning. I think the shirt is a little big now… but I’ll keep wearing it!!

OMG, I can't believe I'm actually sharing this pic!

The white pants were outrageous!

I think the shirt fits a lot better now!

Dukan – Reflections of Spring

Posted on March 22, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Wednesday was a PV day 🙂

Daily weight loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg
Total weight loss: 79.8 lb/36.31 kg

Wednesday started out at 39 degrees and rose to 57! And this afternoon(Thursday) it is a glorious 72!!! I’m sitting on the balcony basking in the sun 😀

Breakfast: 2 tea eggs
Lunch: grilled chicken breast
Dinner: Citrus Pork and a yummy mixed green organic salad.
Snack: FF Greek yogurt with Splenda and bran.

Spring is a time to clean things up and reflect… I have thought a lot about reflecting lately and today on the way back from getting coffee I caught my reflection in a storefront window and I’m starting to like what I see!

Eating right, exercising, running and a good attitude (most of the time) have brought me to this place.

Life is good.

Ciao!

Dukan – Day 214 – Cruisin’ Towards the End

Posted on March 21, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Tuesday was a PV day 🙂

Daily weight loss: 0.4 lb/0.2 kg
Total weight loss: 79.4 lb/36.11 kg

Tuesday was cold and dark, definitely ushered out winter in a harsh way! Started my day out by a nice 1 mile walk to work. I also did something I don’t do very often…
Breakfast… wait for it… Yogurt! 🙂 with Splenda and bran
Morning Snack: Tea egg
Lunch: 1/2 can tuna and 2 tea eggs

I then took a public bus (I know, shocking!) towards town and walked the remaining 2 miles to The Vineyard, which is run by a guy named Reuben from Boston. He cooks me Dukan friendly meals 🙂 How cool is that? I had naked chicken wings with hot sauce and a Philly cheese steak w/o the bread, with extra onions and low fat mozzarella, just a tiny bit.

I then walked 1.4 miles to a friend’s flat for a 2 hour visit and then I started walking home. I had my jeans on, my back pack and in my back pack I had stuffed a yoga ball… after 5 or 6 minutes of walking, I decided to run… I did a warm up of a 3 min run/90 sec walk/4 min run/90 sec walk… then I ran for 36 minutes… I really focused on pacing myself and breathing. Just when I thought I wouldn’t be able to keep going I’d get a burst of energy and just keep going… I ended my run by going up and over a bridge (just a little one, lol, but an incline none the less). I then walked the remaining way home, about 5 minutes. The total trip is 3.6 miles, I have no idea how far I ran in that 36 minutes… what I do know is that oddly, I wasn’t out of breath… my legs were definitely fatigued after all was said and done, but not too bad. I woke up this morning expecting to be sore, nada… I definitely felt some twinges, but really no pain… tonight is a “night off” from C25K… I’m going to make myself rest my legs 🙂

Ciao!