Results ARE typical – Dukan Diet

Posted on June 28, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Dukan Diet – Consolidation Phase – Day 49

Today’s Weight: 148 lbs/67.27 kg
Goal Weight: 155 lbs/70.5 kg
Weight loss Total: Well… the starting weight was 255 lb/115 kg!

This morning, it’s Friday morning here in Hangzhou, China, I woke up to an email from the Dukan Diet web site. They had posted my success story on their web page. I am honored! Here’s the link Sandi B. Success Story.

I want people to know that with the Dukan Diet RESULTS ARE TYPICAL. They really are. If you follow the principles outlined by Dr. Dukan in his book you WILL lose weight, meet your goals AND keep it off. I bought my book in Abu Dhabi at the urging of my friend Lucy, thank you Lucy! You can buy the book here iTunes or here Amazon. If you are thinking of following the Dukan Diet I strongly recommend that you read the book from cover to cover. I met Dr. Dukan’s True Weight 3 days after he told me I would… In other words, 8 months after putting my data into the Dukan site, I hit my TW 3 days after he said I would. Dr. Dukan knows what he is talking about!

The other thing that made me successful on this diet were following the blogs of Charlotte and Moonday and Mel and many others who share their ups and downs and their over and outs… LOL. There are many, many other blogs that I follow now (which reminds me I need to update that blog roll!). Constance at Becoming She Hulk has also lost more than 100 pounds and is keeping it off… great advise at her blog about Dukan, body building and more. She has been a true inspiration to me!

So go on over and read my success story… I’m so excited about it! I’ll blog later about the meals I’ve been eating in Consolidation and I promise I’ll get back to daily blogging about Dukan and running. I woke up this morning FINALLY feeling non-jet lagged! 🙂

If this is your first visit to my blog… welcome. Take a seat and stay awhile. For those of you that have been on this ride with me for a while… thank you 🙂

And the proof is in the pictures….

BEFORE PICS:

With mom in Dubai. Jan 2011

August 2011… 2 weeks before I started Dukan.

August 2011

I think you get the picture!

AFTER PICS:

Hiking in April… almost there!

Teaching Emergency Birth skills class – June 2012

With Bernadette – June 2012

And finally… dinner out with great friends a few weeks ago…

Awesome friends 🙂

RESULTS.ARE.TYPICAL… they really can be!

Ciao!

My How Your Gardens Grow

Posted on June 26, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Dukan stuff first…

I GOT MY SCALE… errrr, luggage delivered yesterday! So it was true… woo hoo!!!

Daily Weight: 147
Goal Weigh: 155

And now on to gardens… My friend Krystn posted this picture on Facebook this morning…

And it got me thinking… there are multiple gardens on my short, 1 mile walk, to work. So… I left early this morning and took pictures of my neighborhood… and how the gardens grow in this urban city of 7 million people.

These two pictures are taken from my kitchen balcony. I live on the 9th floor and this is on the roof of the 2 story structure in the front of and attached to my building…

When this first appeared, I thought it was a sandbox for the kids to play in… it’s a planter with a growing garden 🙂

I then bought my tea eggs and headed down the sidewalk that is on the street in front of my building. About 2 months ago, or so, some people set up a tent along this part of the land between the wall and the sidewalk… I had no idea what they were doing, but they were there for 4 days and were using a tiller… this is the result…

This is about a block down from my neighborhood… I think it’s pumpkin… maybe my gardening friends will know.

This next garden is wedged between a wall guarding a construction site and an alley. They’ve been growing stuff here all year long…

Corn and lots of greens

And finally these are 3 pictures from inside the walls that guard the construction site… there used to be a little village in here and the government buys them out, tears down the homes, sells the land to developers and the community is dispersed… it actually makes me really sad… BUT… the villagers continue gardening on the land until the construction takes over. They are building a mall on this property, but every night on my walk home I see the villagers in there tending their gardens and it’s a huge garden… often they come out with their veggies for dinner… it’s pretty cool to see!

You can see the cranes in the background… they are building the underground parking garage at this point. My guess is that the villagers will have 18 months to 2 years more with their gardens.

Lots of greens, garlic, onions and more.

Finally… I took two pics here at work this morning. One is my requisite monthly picture of me and Vivien, since it’s the 26th of the month and my 9 month anniversary of working here…

Vivien has on ridiculously high heels today!!!

And the second is the meal I ate this morning. It’s called Dragon Zongzi… it’s a special meal celebrating the Dragon festival from this past weekend. One of the doctors brought it in, and since I’m doing so well with my weight I decided to try it… O.M.G. was IT GOOD!

Dragon Zongzi… pork, sticky rice, peanuts and chinese dates… oh my!!!

Ooops and one more picture. My boss gave me this HUGE box of apples to celebrate the Dragon Festival. I had one this morning… good thing I ran this morning 😀

Locally grown apples…

How does your garden grow? Are the neighbors planting next to the sidewalk where you live?!?! I think it’s pretty darn cool!

Ciao!

Travel – Not Quite Back in the Groove

Posted on June 25, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Exhausted. Knackered. Achy.

Weight? Who knows, but the pants still fit… scale is missing in my “delayed” luggage. I did stick to my diet while on my vacation and since I’ve been back in China.
Exercise? Worry? Does that count? I can’t run, since my running shoes are also in my “delayed” luggage… along with clothes and underwear! I did walk all over Shanghai yesterday and to and from work on Saturday morning and to work, home for lunch and back to work so far today racked up 3+ miles.

That about explains the 3 ways I’m feeling right now. Even after having an 8 hour sleep
last night. Jet lag sucks… BIG TIME. So, I’m not quite back in my groove, but feel that an update is overdue, for sure!

I left Florida on Thursday morning at 1145 a.m. for a flight to New York’s JFK. As I blogged before, they actually have Wifi on flights in the States now… how cool is that? Nice 1.5 hour layover there then off to Beijing, except the flight is delayed and they are talking about me not making my flight to Hangzhou, blah, blah, blah… I actually said to the lady at the counter, “seriously, please don’t tell me that… I have travel anxiety related to timeliness!!!” I decided I was going to try not to fret over it… what will be, will be. They made up some of the time, but the transfer time was close in Beijing and I had to go through immigration, collect my bags and then recheck my bags and get on the flight. I had 47 minutes!

I sailed through immigration and went to the baggage carousel… one of my bags was the first one on the carousel!!! What luck! LOL… until after 25 minutes, the bags stopped coming and I realized that A. I had 15 minutes to haul my butt to my connecting flight and B. my 2nd bag was missing… PANIC set in. I ran to the missing baggage office and they put my baggage number in and found that my bag was still in New York… tears were shed, I’m a cry baby when I’m tired, and I ran to check my bag for the Hangzhou flight and actually made it on the plane… because it too was delayed.

I get to Hangzhou at midnight, collect my one bag and head to the lost baggage office to file a claim. It is now officially Saturday morning (I’ve missed all of Friday being in the air) and I have to be at work at 8 a.m. Through more tears I realize that the bag I have is NOT the bag with my clothes and my Brooks Addiction running shoes and MOST importantly MY SCALE… can anyone say MELTDOWN!?! She files the claim with the Air China office in New York and says, as she hands me the paper… it’s just “delayed” baggage, not “lost”… with the sweetest little smile. It’s hard to be angry with her 😦

I get a taxi home and fall into bed after loving all over Tits the Cat, who has apparently missed me immensely. He insisted I carry him around like a baby for half an hour! I got into bed at 3 a.m. and woke up at 558 a.m…. ugh! Made coffee, checked email and got ready for work… at work by 730 a.m. On my way to work I picked up tea eggs… I was so happy to see my favorite tea egg lady…

Those are the tea eggs in that ginormous crockpot!

I think the exhaustion hit me around noon. I felt like someone was sitting on my head! But I made it through most of the day. At 3 I decided to leave and called my friend Alice, a midwife from Florida who is visiting her son here in Hangzhou. They just happened to be at my favorite restaurant in town, The Vineyard, and I took a taxi there to meet them. It was so wonderful to see her. I think it’s been 15 years or so since I’ve seen her in person, but she is the one who inspired me to walk the Camino 2 years ago.

In bed Saturday night before 10 and up at 458… UGH! No problem, got up, made a breakfast of steak and onions and showered and dressed and headed out the door to get the train to Shanghai! A fellow blogger, Mona, was in China for a summer assignment and we were going to meet in person! How awesome is that? I love her photography on her blog and even though I was knackered as all get out, it was worth the trip to meet her!

Mona on the Bund… The Pearl in the background.

Walking to the Bund.

We met at her hotel and walked to the subway. We took that down to the Bund, which is the waterfront walk on the Pearl River. It was an overcast day, but we still had a good time! After walking the Bund we google mapped my favorite restaurant in Shanghai the Blue Frog. Unfortunately the address was incorrect and we ended up walking a heck of a lot more than we intended… no worries… the lunch and company was worth it!

On the walk we saw lots of cool things and some random things like the fresh piece of asparagus on the stairs of a walk over and this beautiful cherry in the gutter…

Cherry in the gutter… streets of Shanghai

After the trip back to Mona’s hotel, I taxied up to the subway and then took Line 2 to the Family Mart… the grocery store that I can get my Fat Free yogurt. Bought 8 containers and a few other items and then took the subway back to the Shanghai train station… it was a wonderful day!

Bye-bye Shanghai

Back to my flat… call to Air China “delayed” baggage office… “good news Ms. Blankenship, your bag is on the flight to Beijing! You should have bag tomorrow noon”… well, my assistant has just called and been told it’s still in New York… I’m trying not to panic. I’d like to have my clothes, my shoes and MY SCALE… my Vivien tells me it will come, “this is China, it’ll happen”… I take a deep breath, come back to my office and pray… yes… this is China… things do happen.

As I finish this post I am listening to the soundtrack of Rock of Ages… the music makes me HAPPY 😀 I HIGHLY RECOMMEND this movie. I know that it got crappy reviews, but they were wrong. It’s a funny, happy inducing movie and thinking of Tom Cruise (lovingly referred to as TC) singing and dancing “Pour Some Sugar on Me” gives this 48 year old giggles and smiles… If I was in the States… I’d probably have seen it 3 times already!

And now… Vivien has just walked into my office and said MY BAGS ARE GOING TO BE HERE, IN OUR OFFICE IN 2 HOURS!!!!!!!!!! OK, trying not to hold my breath, trying not to be too optimistic, but they asked her for directions to the hospital. Dear Lord, I pray it’s MY bag… lol.

With that… I’m outta here… if anyone has a secret to getting rid of jet lag quicker, I’d be ever so grateful!!!

Ciao!

“I’m hot sticky sweet, from my head, my head to my feet”… Pour Some Sugar On Me by Def Leppard… redone by the yummy TC 😀

Travel – Weekly Round-up!

Posted on June 11, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Well, what a week! Going to do a breakdown with pictures.

Current Weight: 149
Goal Weight: 155

Sunday, June 3 – flew Guangzhou to Hangzhou. Flew between the clouds…

Went straight to hospital and saw 3 patients, rushed home, had reunion with Tits the Cat…

threw clothes in washer, started to unpack, knock on door… It’s….
KITTY!!!

I also got to hang out with Velina, Robin and their gorgeous baby and show off the beautiful necklace that Sheila, Greg and Lily gave me…

Finished repacking, went to bed…

Monday, June 4
got picked up by driver to head airport. Hangzhou to Beijing, Beijing to JFK… Here’s a shot from over Siberia… It really is frozen tundra!

Get into JFK pretty much on time, only to wait 1 hour and 40 minutes for my bags. Major panic, get through customs, race to airport train to go to AA building, still need to check in, recheck bags, get through security and they are already boarding… Major panic… People get me through quick, I’m trying to breathe, and I get on 2nd to last… Phew! Then we sat on the Tarmac for one and a half hours! Argh! Finally up, up and away and this gorgeous sunset off the coast of NC…

Finally got to Miami and Miri’s smiling face there to pick me up!

Tuesday, June 5
Up before the crack of dawn and out for a run… I love my hometown!

Then I had a haircut and color…

And sushi with my niece, Amanda 🙂 Then off to visit the kids and grandkids, then a run/walk with Michele and Michael and dinner.

Wednesday, June 6
Up early, breakfast with Tiffany and then out to Okeechobee to visit my friend Julia, who is not only a super awesome friend, but is hands down the best massage therapist in the world! Two hours of myofascial therapy, craniosacral therapy and some lymph work. Lunch with her son at Golden Corral and then back to her office for another hour or so of traditional massage. It was all amazing. Then back to Port St Lucie to pick up Sydnie for the night.

Thursday, June 7
Breakfast with Sydnie…

And dropped her off to school. Then back to motel and Jenni, Sadie, Tiffany and Joey came over to spend time in pool with me. Wore a bikini, LOL… That seems weird to me.

I then headed 90 miles south to check out a 1973 Airstream Land Yacht… I bought it!

Then raced back up to home to pick up Sadie from camp so we could go to Jammin’ Jensen with my friends… Just writing this makes me feel like I haven’t had a holiday, lol! Here’s some pics from the awesome time I had with my friends…

Then over to our friend Denise’s house, since she had neck surgery and couldn’t come out to play, we took the party to her…

Then off to bed with Sadie, so I can get up early to head 5 hours north in the morning!

Friday, June 8
Up early, drop Sadie to her mommy and hit the road. First stop, 2 hour drive to Daytona to see Shauna, Mouna and Fiona. Lovely visit. Then another 1.5 hours to Ocala to register for the 5K and get my BIB… How exciting! My first BIB!!

Then another hour drive up to get my mom and an hour back to Ocala to meet my friend Teri, who came down to support me 🙂 Dinner Outback, visit with my nephew and his wife and kids and then to bed!

Saturday, June 9 – RACE DAY!

What a rush! My friend Gail told me I’d start out to quick and she was right… My first kilometer was in 7:12… I slowed my pace, walked some, ran, met a lovely lady named Trisha, picked up discarded cups (I know, I know) and finished. It was awesome.

Then breakfast and back to hotel to pack and hit the road… 9 hour drive to North Carolina with my mom to her best friend Sandy’s house. This is the lady I was named after 🙂

Sunday, June 10

Beautiful , cool, rainy morning in North Carolina. Mom, Sandy and I met Eric for breakfast and then Eric and I went for a hike up Mt. Pisgah.
Hike Statistics
Difficulty: Moderate
Total Length: 3 mi
Trail Tread Condition: Moderately Rough
Climb: Climbs Moderately
Lowest Elevation: 4980 ft
Highest Elevation: 5730 ft
Total Elevation Gain: 750 ft
Trails/Roads Used: Mount Pisghah
Hike Configuration: Out-and-back
Starting point: Mount Pisgah Parking Area, Blue Ridge Parkway milepost 407.6
How to Get There: From Asheville, take the Blue Ridge Parkway south to the Mount Pisgah Parking Area, on the left, at milepost 407.6. Park at the second parking area; the first is for the Buck Springs trail.
Great hike!

Then back to Sandy’s and I grilled steaks and leeks for dinner…

So, that’s the wrap up! I’ll try to be a better blogger and update again tomorrow 🙂

Ciao!

Travel – In the States

Posted on June 5, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Short update… After 28 hours of travel, my friend Miri has deposited me at my motel in Stuart. I’m exhausted and shattered.

First two flights were flawless, on time, interesting people to chat with, crap food! LOL

Then when I landed at JFK, it took 1 hour and 40 minutes to get my luggage, go through customs and then found out that the AA domestic building was a 10 minute walk plus a 5 minute train… Panicked, I ran (in heels!) and arrived in check in 42 minutes before my connecting flight! They rushed me through security and to the gate… Second to the last person to board! Talk about an anxiety ridden 2.5 hours! Then, we sat on the Tarmac for 1.5 hours because the computer system wasn’t working! LOL

Arrived an hour late into Miami and Miri swooped me up and the 1.5 hour ride north to home… HOME,,, glad to be here! Off to bed I go!

Ciao!

Sunset on the flight, somewhere off the coast of NC…

A Quick Bedtime Poem

Posted on June 3, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I left my flat 26 days ago on a journey for lipo, then travel and marketing and more marketing. I arrived back this afternoon… A poem inspired by my return… Although brief stay at my flat, since I fly in 10 hours to Florida…

I missed my cat…

I missed my flat…

But I really don’t miss,
That extra fat!

Nice flight from Guangzhou to Hangzhou this morning… Love sailing between the clouds…

Sheila and Greg stopped in with Lily for a post natal check and gifted me this gorgeous necklace!

And the end of my day was complete by Vivien bringing Kitty over. She stayed an extra day just to see her American Mother… We cuddled and had a less drama filled goodbye than the one at the airport 3 weeks ago when I was an absolute mess from surgery…

Thats it, off to bed… Flight in 10 hours! Sunny Florida… Here I come!

An Apology

Posted on June 3, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Quickie because I’m boarded. I’m sitting on a plane full of stinking Chinese men. They stink because they all smoke. It’s a friggin’ national sport here!

I apologize to my family, friends, colleagues and patients for ever smelling like this. Ugh!!!

Dukan – Consolidation – Day 20/500

Posted on June 1, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Thursday was Consolidation Day 20 of 500 🙂

Daily Weight: 149 (please don’t yell at me, Mom!)
Goal Weight: 155

Early start for me because I’m going to Dongguan to one of our hospitals there to do a comprehensive health and safety audit and to give 2 lectures on International Patient Safety goals. I love visiting the hospitals in our group (my company owns 20 maternity hospitals in Southern China) and I always feel warmly received… This was at the main entrance when I arrived…

A big shout out and thanks to my Guangzhou PA Rose, who sent out this picture to the branding department at Dongguan so a more up-to-date me is on the posters 🙂

These hospitals have amazing branding and marketing departments and the are FINALLY using new pictures on the posters. Here’s a poster from April 2011. The pic is one that they were still using a month ago!!

That’s my Vivien in the picture above. She’s the Director of the Hangzhou International Medical Care Center… My home base hospital. Pic was taken April 2011. I’ve changed a lot, Vivi still looks awesome!

So, after getting a nice tour of all 7 floors of the hospital and enough tray brewed Chinese tea to have a good buzz going, I was off on my own to do the audit. These are some of the challenges that I came across. What I love about finding these things is that they are wonderful for educational purposes and a way for me to be a change agent. Having the support of the administration of the hospitals is key.

Can you guess what’s behind this picture frame?

You’re correct if you guessed fire fighting equipment!

Sure looks pretty, unless there is an emergency! At least they don’t have any hiding behind couches like this one…

One thing I really loved was that these posters were everywhere in the hospital…

And they take it seriously with a zero tolerance policy. This is the first Chinese hospital I’ve been in that I could not smell cigarettes! All of our hospitals have a no smoking policy, but the nurses are too polite to say anything. This hospital has empowered the nurses to say no! So exciting!

A big issue I have with H&S here is Sharps containers. I either find yellow bags in cardboard boxes or like this…

They put yellow bags inside the Sharps container and when it’s full, they take it out and put it with the medical waste. I can’t imagine the needle stick injuries that occur 😦 There is a very high Hepatitis B rate here and I shutter to think how high it must be in the healthcare practitioner field. I am currently trying to get our company to convert to snap on top Sharps containers. They are very good at complying with my suggestions!

This is another really cool thing I found today. One of the elevator doors…

After the inspection I did 2 health and safety presentations. The first was on patient identification and the other on the “time out” procedure. And then, as a bonus I showed them my Water Birth in Pictures presentation which is my daughter Tiffany’s 4th birth. A huge hit. Lots of questions, everyone loves that presentation 🙂 Heck I love it. I’ve presented it probably 20 times and I still beam with pride at Tiff’s beauty in labor and the moment she and Joey bring the baby up out of the womb.

This is right before I left to go back to Guangzhou. Me and the Admin from Maria Maternity…

Crazy drive back to GZ and I hurriedly changed clothes and ran to the subway because I had a 7 pm appt with Joey, ~~the torturer~~, errr my personal trainer. It hurts my triceps to type this post! Lol. We focused on arms and abs for an hour. I then went out to run. It was 84 degrees and 96% humidity… I didn’t get too far…

Note that the stadium I’m running around is to the southeast of where the GPS has me running in circles, lol? Anyway, I pooped out. I couldn’t get any kind of rhythm going, so I jog/walked/limped to the subway and went back to my room.

Food:
Breakfast: Low fat Greek yogurt with flaxseed and Splenda
Lunch: broiled fish, garlic stems, broccoli raub with big chunks of ginger
Dinner: 2 chicken sausages, low fat cottage cheese
Snack after workout: 20 almonds and 2 oz low fat sharp cheddar

Ciao!

Dukan – Consolidation Day???

Posted on May 29, 2012 by flamidwyfe

I’ve lost count of the days since I’m in Hong Kong, but all’s well in the Consolidation Phase.

Daily Weight: 152 lb/69 kg
Goal weight: 155 lb/70.5 kg

Monday:
Early morning train into Hong Kong for shopping and rest 😀

Shopped until I dropped! I bought a pair of Nike running compression pants in Tight Fit. They feel SO much better than the freaking garment I’ve been wearing.

I had a 1 hour foot massage at Joy Foot Club…

And a 25 minute head, neck and shoulder massage. I then went and did more shopping 🙂 I also went for a 3 mile walk.

I finished my Monday with a Skype chat with Kira, Dan, Søren and Helena which made me very happy! 🙂 I love Skype! A few days ago I got to chat with both daughters, sons-in-law and all 6 GRANDKIDS!

Breakfast: Almonds and Edam cheese
Lunch: Street pork… Mmmmmmmm
Dinner: Rocket salad with artichokes
Snack: FF Greek yogurt

It’s Tuesday afternoon now. This is what I’m doing this very minute…

Typing 2 blogs while getting a pedi… Cheeky, I know 😀 I just finished a one hour full body massage… A light massage, cuz I’m still tender in spots!

This morning I got up at 545 am and went out and did this…

Those are from the entire trek… This is the run portion…

Great morning, followed by some shopping and now pampering… After my toes are dried I’m walking to the subway and getting back to mainland China… 6 days and I fly HOME!!!

Ciao!

DAY 4 – Daily Photo Challenge

Posted on May 26, 2012 by flamidwyfe

Day 04 – A picture of your night.

First, let me say I’m sorry that I forgot to name my favorite TV series in yesterday’s photo challenge… I can’t believe I did that… It’s NYPD Blues 😀

Now on to this pic… I’ve been trying to get this shot since I was first here in Guangzhou in April. I’m always in a taxi zooming down the highway, as I was when I took this last night. How to explain in Mandarin that I want to stop on the highway to get a good shot… LOL.

We tend to forget that we have various words in our different languages (even from English speaking country to English speaking country) that have different meanings… That said, I present to you the T.I.T. building, at night, in Guangzhou, China. The letters stand for Trading In Technology. I have to admit that the juvenile side of me finds it funny.